Error code
Whirlpool-built Kenmore washer error code F21
Whirlpool wrote this code, not Kenmore. On a washer wearing this badge, F21 means: A drain problem. Which model prefixes can raise it, and what to do next.
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What we can confirm
Code F21, from the manufacturer's own documentation
A code is only meaningful together with the machine showing it — the same digits mean different things on different equipment.
What it narrows down to
A drain problem
What you are probably seeing
Diagnostic
From $95, credited to the repair
What it looks like from the kitchen
The symptom this code usually arrives with
A code names the subsystem; the symptom is what sent you to look at the display in the first place. That page says what it usually turns out to be, cheapest cause first.
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The cycle ended and the drum is still full Washer will not drain
This is the symptom where the decode earns its keep most visibly. A 110 is a Whirlpool and a 796 is an LG, and on this exact problem one of them will usually name it on the display while the other simply stops. The repair is similar; the phone call is completely different.
- 110 stops quietly, 796 usually says why
- The filter or coin trap comes before the pump
- The pump is blamed far more often than it fails
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
A reminder that the Clean Washer cycle is due
The lid was left open
The cycle was paused or canceled
The same digits mean different things on different equipment. Search the full code list
In more detail
About Whirlpool-built Kenmore washer error code F21
Whose code this actually is
Kenmore did not write F21, 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 it means
A drain problem.
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 F21 and no other manufacturer's does.
What happens next
- Filter, hose and standpipe, in that order.
- The numbered equivalent of the long-drain condition.
Where this usually goes
The job this most often becomes is washer drain pump replacement, 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 F21, 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: Front Load 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