The Two-Letter Codes on an LG-Built Kenmore Washer

Kenmore washer OE code: what LG actually calls it

If the plate under your door starts 796, the machine is an LG. That single fact turns an unfamiliar two-character code into something with a documented meaning, because LG names each of these in plain language in its own material.

OE is LG's water outlet error. Not a pump code, not a hose code — an outlet code, meaning the water did not leave in the time the machine expected. That distinction matters, because it tells you the machine has observed a result rather than diagnosed a component.

The pattern the whole set follows

Once you see it, the rest of the letters stop being arbitrary. Each one names a stage of the cycle that did not complete, not a part that has failed.

IE — inlet error. The tub did not fill to an adequate level. Supply valves, hoses, screens, pressure.

OE — outlet error. The water did not leave. Filter, hose, suds, pump.

UE — unbalance error. The laundry piled up on one side of the drum, so the machine stopped rather than spinning a load it could not control. Almost always a bedsheet or a single heavy item, and almost always fixed by redistributing the load.

LE — motor locked error. The tub did not turn. LG's own help material describes overloading as a common cause, which is worth knowing before anybody prices a motor.

dE — a door problem on a front-loader. Laundry caught in the boot is the everyday version.

That last one carries the trap on this badge, and it is worth its own paragraph.

The one code that means two things

On a front-loader, dE is a door error. On a top-loader, the same two characters are LG's lid error — a different machine, a different mechanism, and a different check.

Both machines wear the same badge. Both may say 796 on the plate. Somebody reading a code list that does not distinguish them ends up looking for a door latch on a machine that does not have a door.

This is the whole argument of this site in two characters: the code is only half the information, and the machine is the other half.

The ones that are not problems at all

tcL is a tub clean reminder. LG notes that on a narrow display the tc appears first and the L after it, which is why people search for it as two separate things. Nothing has gone wrong; the machine is asking for its cleaning cycle.

CL is a control lock. Also not a problem.

A power-failure indicator tells you the supply was interrupted. Also not a problem.

Filing these with genuine errors is how a working washer gets a service call, so this site keeps them in a separate group and says on each page which it is.

Where to start with an OE

In this order, and the first two are free.

The drain pump filter, behind the small door at the bottom front of the cabinet. It is designed to open by hand. Put a tray and a towel down first — it holds more water than you expect.

The drain hose behind the machine. Kinked against the wall, or pushed so far into the standpipe that the machine siphons.

Detergent. A machine cannot pump foam. An HE drum given ordinary detergent produces exactly this ending.

Then the pump, which is the part most often blamed and least often responsible. A pump receiving no signal is a control problem wearing a pump's clothes, and telling those apart takes a meter rather than an opinion.