Error code
Whirlpool-built Kenmore washer signal CL
CL is an indicator rather than an error. Whirlpool publishes it for the washer this badge covers, and it means: A reminder that the Clean Washer cycle is due — it appears after about thirty cycles. Where it shows as rL, the
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What we can confirm
Signal CL, from the manufacturer's own documentation
This code has no number, because this equipment has no display to put one on. The appliance signals it instead — an alarm, a symbol or a pattern of lights — and what it means is recorded in the documentation that ships with it.
The signal
CL
A reminder that the Clean Washer cycle is due — it appears after about thirty cycles. Where it shows as rL, the machine has detected laundry in the drum during that cycle.
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What it narrows down to
A reminder that the Clean Washer cycle is due
Diagnostic
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On the same appliance
What else belongs to the washers
On this make a code belongs to the appliance rather than to a product line. These are the other conditions this machine can display, and the models that can show this one — a display often has more than one thing to say, and the model number decides what any of it costs to put right.
Other codes this appliance can display
Too many suds in the drum
The load is too large for the machine to handle
The load is out of balance and the machine
The washer is taking too long to fill, or
The washer is taking too long to drain —
The lid lock will not lock
The lid cannot unlock — the machine has detected
The cycle was interrupted by a power failure
The hot and cold inlet hoses have been connected
The lid was left open
The cycle was paused or canceled
The control lock is on, so the buttons do nothing
The same digits mean different things on different equipment. Search the full code list
In more detail
About Whirlpool-built Kenmore washer signal CL
Whose code this actually is
Kenmore did not write CL, because Kenmore has never built an appliance. This one is Whirlpool's, and it appears on the washer that Whirlpool built and Sears sold under the Kenmore badge. Whirlpool-built and LG-built washers wear one badge and share almost none of their code scheme, so the wrong table here sends you to a pump when the machine is reporting a lid.
What the appliance is telling you
A reminder that the Clean Washer cycle is due — it appears after about thirty cycles. Where it shows as rL, the machine has detected laundry in the drum during that cycle.
This one is an indicator rather than an error. It is published in the same table as genuine problems, and treating it as one is how a working appliance gets a service call.
Which Kenmore models can raise it
The Kenmore washer whose model number begins 110 — the three digits before the period on the rating plate. Those digits are Whirlpool's, which is why Whirlpool's table is the one that applies to CL and no other manufacturer's does.
The other ways it may be written
The same condition is published under more than one label, because it has been carried across generations of the appliance and because a segment display draws some characters oddly: rL, F34. They are the same finding and they lead to the same place.
Worth trying yourself, in this order
- Run the Clean Washer cycle with the drum empty.
- In this climate it is worth running more often than the reminder asks, and leaving the door ajar between loads.
Where this usually goes
The job this most often becomes is diagnostic visit, and that page carries a starting figure and the reasons that move it. A Kenmore washer in this county works in hard water and a warm laundry room, so a code that arrives with slow draining or long cycles is very often the supply or the drain rather than the machine. Photograph the display before you cut the power: a reset clears CL, and on a Kenmore the characters plus three digits off the plate are most of the diagnosis.
Where this meaning came from
Whirlpool's own documentation: Top Load HE Washer error codes — Whirlpool Product Help. Kenmore publishes none of its own, which is why every entry on this site names the manufacturer's document instead.
This article is based on:
- Official manufacturer documentation
- Internal repair procedures
- Technician repair history
- Company quality standards