Whirlpool, Maytag & Kenmore Washer RL Error Code: Meaning, Causes & Fix

rL (remove load) — items were detected in the drum during the Clean Washer with affresh cycle. The manuals print it lowercase 'rL' and gloss it in brackets as (remove load); on some models the same condition is written F34.

rL is documented in Whirlpool and Maytag front-load owner manuals, in two places: the troubleshooting table ('"rL" (remove load) appears in display — load detected in drum during Clean Washer with affresh cycle') and the Clean Washer cycle description itself. That cycle begins by determining whether clothing or other items are in the washer; if any items are detected, rL is displayed, the door unlocks, and the cycle will not proceed until the drum is emptied. It is a cycle-entry check, not a wash-cycle fault: rL does not appear mid-wash in the manuals, and it names no failed part. [CORRECTED 2026-10-28, Batch 4: an earlier version of this entry placed RL on VMW top-loaders and tied it to calibration and shifter/splutch load sensing — no Whirlpool or Maytag manual supports that; the documented platform is the front-load family, and the documented trigger is the Clean Washer empty-drum check.] rL rewards being read as a sentence rather than a fault code: it is the washer saying 'remove load' in the only two characters it has spare, at the one moment it is allowed to insist — the start of a cycle that exists to clean the machine itself. Everything documented about it follows from that. It lives in the Clean Washer chapter of the manuals, not the fault tables proper; it unlocks the door for you instead of locking you out; its remedy is an action (empty the drum, touch POWER, hold START/PAUSE) rather than a part; and its F-code twin, F34, and its top-load cousin — the same empty-drum Clean Washer check written F0E1 on top-load charts — exist because each display generation spells the same refusal differently. Read that way, rL is the rare display that is never bad news: the worst it can mean is a sock in the seal, and the most it ever asks is that a cleaning cycle be allowed to clean.

What causes the RL code on a Whirlpool washer?

Items left in the drum when Clean Washer starts

The documented cause — clothing or any items detected by the cycle's opening check.

A single small item missed in the drum or door seal folds

The check responds to whatever is in the drum, including one sock or washcloth left behind.

A forgotten load left sitting in the drum

The ordinary story behind rL: laundry placed in the machine earlier — or a finished load never unloaded — is still in the drum when someone starts the monthly Clean Washer cycle. The cycle's first act is to determine whether clothing or other items are in the washer, and a drum doing storage duty fails that check instantly. Nothing has malfunctioned; the machine has simply refused to run a cleaning cycle full of clothes, which would defeat the cycle's purpose and bake detergent residue and bleach onto fabric.

One small item the owner cannot see from the doorway

The detection does not need a full load to trip. A single washcloth, a child's sock, or an item pressed into the folds of the door seal is still 'items detected in the washer' as far as the opening check is concerned — and from standing height, looking through the door glass at an angle, one dark sock in a dark seal fold is effectively invisible. An rL that 'cannot be right, the drum is empty' deserves a hand swept slowly around the full seal circumference and a look from drum level before it is disbelieved.

The detection reporting a load that is genuinely not there

The manuals give rL exactly one cause — items detected — and exactly one remedy, so honesty requires separating this branch clearly: owners do meet rL on a drum that is verifiably empty, drum turning smoothly by hand, and in that case the documented cause has been excluded and what remains is the detection itself misreading, including an item trapped out of sight between drum and tub. That branch is not a user fix and no manual procedure covers it; it is recorded here so an empty-drum rL is believed rather than argued with, and routed to service instead of to repeated restarts.

Checks to run before you replace anything

1. Confirm a Clean Washer cycle was starting — rL belongs to that cycle's first moments, before filling and tumbling begin.
2. Open the door (it unlocks when rL displays) and empty the drum completely, checking the door seal folds for a trapped small item.
3. Confirm which cycle was starting before treating rL as a fault at all: the manuals place this display at the beginning of the Clean Washer with affresh cycle and nowhere else, so an rL seen at Clean Washer start is the system working as documented — note it, empty the drum, and move on.
4. Sweep the drum like you mean it: rotate it slowly by hand through a full turn, run a hand around the entire door-seal fold, and look once from low down with a light. The item behind most 'empty drum' rL reports is small, dark, and exactly where a doorway glance does not reach.
5. Use the manual's own clear as the test of a genuine detection: remove the items, touch POWER to clear the rL code, then touch and hold START/PAUSE to restart the cycle. A genuine detection clears at that point and the Clean Washer cycle proceeds; an rL that returns immediately on a drum you have just physically emptied and swept has failed the manual's test and changed category. (Note the spelling variants while you watch: 'rL' in the current manuals, 'RL' as some panels render it, and F34 on F-code models — one condition, one remedy.)
6. Hand-turn the drum before escalating an empty-drum rL: it should rotate smoothly and quietly through full turns. A drum that drags, catches, or rumbles is giving the detection something real to report — an item trapped between drum and tub, or bearing trouble — and that finding, not the code, is what a technician needs to hear.

How to fix the RL error code

1. Remove all items from the drum, touch POWER to clear the rL code (per the manual's Clean Washer description), then touch and hold START/PAUSE to restart the Clean Washer cycle.
2. Perform the manual procedure exactly, because it is short enough that shortcuts only add steps: open the washer (the door unlocks when rL is displayed), remove any garments from the drum, touch POWER to clear the rL code, then touch and hold START/PAUSE to restart the Clean Washer cycle and let it run uninterrupted.
3. Restart the cleaning cycle properly once the drum is empty — with the affresh tablet or the manual's chlorine bleach procedure as your model directs, and no detergent added — rather than abandoning the clean; rL interrupted the maintenance the machine asked for, and the residue that prompted the reminder is still there.
4. If rL returns on a swept, verifiably empty drum, stop restarting: disconnect power once for a few minutes and retry a single time, and if the display still insists on a load that does not exist, book service for the detection/control and tell them the drum is empty, hand-turns smoothly, and rL survives both the POWER clear and a power disconnect — that sentence saves the technician their first half hour.

The part that usually fails: None

rL is an instruction, not a parts fault. Only an rL that returns with a verifiably empty, freely turning drum points beyond this page — to the load-detection sensing itself, which is technician diagnosis.

How to reset / clear the RL code

Touch POWER to clear rL after emptying the drum, then hold START/PAUSE to restart the Clean Washer cycle — no power-cycle ritual is documented or needed for a genuine load detection.

Whirlpool-built washers clear most codes with a power reset: unplug for 1 minute (top-load models with a cycle-status display sometimes need the lid opened and closed 6 times within 12 seconds after power is restored — the well-known lid-sequence calibration/clear procedure on VMW top-loaders). Codes stored in the control's fault history remain readable in diagnostic mode even after they stop showing on the display, which is why a code that 'went away' can still be found by a technician.

Why does the RL code keep coming back?

rL returning on an empty drum means the machine is detecting a load that is not there: check for an item trapped between drum and tub and that the drum turns smoothly by hand; beyond that, the sensing/control needs a technician — do not keep restarting the cycle against it. rL's patterns are domestic rather than mechanical. It clusters at the moment the Clean Washer reminder finally wins — the manuals note the reminder flashes after 30 wash cycles — because that is the one start in a month where the drum was required to be empty and, in a busy household, was not. It recurs in households that store the next load in the drum between washes, and it 'malfunctions' most often in the seal-fold case: the same small item, missed the same way, on consecutive attempts. The genuinely diagnostic pattern is the narrow one — rL on a swept drum, smooth hand-turn, surviving the POWER clear: detection, trapped item, or bearing, with the hand-turn separating them before a technician is called.

How to stop RL coming back

• Items left in the drum when Clean Washer starts: The documented cause — clothing or any items detected by the cycle's opening check.
• A single small item missed in the drum or door seal folds: The check responds to whatever is in the drum, including one sock or washcloth left behind.
• A forgotten load left sitting in the drum: The ordinary story behind rL: laundry placed in the machine earlier — or a finished load never unloaded — is still in the drum when someone starts the monthly Clean Washer cycle. The cycle's first act is to determine whether clothing or other items are in the washer, and a drum doing storage duty fails that check instantly. Nothing has malfunctioned; the machine has simply refused to run a cleaning cycle full of clothes, which would defeat the cycle's purpose and bake detergent residue and bleach onto fabric.

Retrieving stored fault codes on Whirlpool washers

Whirlpool platforms have a well-documented diagnostic mode. On front-load (Duet and later) models: with the machine in standby, press and hold any one button for 3 seconds, release for 3 seconds, repeat for a total of three holds — the display lights up and shows stored fault codes (F-codes with E-suffixes), which you step through with the same button. On top-load VMW models (most Maytag/Whirlpool/Kenmore top-loaders since ~2010): turn the cycle knob with a specific left/right sequence (commonly counterclockwise once, then clockwise three, counterclockwise one, clockwise one) until all status LEDs light, then use the knob to read fault codes as LED blink patterns. The tech sheet inside the cabinet lists the exact sequence and code chart for your model — use it rather than a generic chart, because code meanings shifted between Duet, Cabrio/Bravos and VMW generations.

Other Whirlpool washer error codes

See the full list on the Whirlpool Washer error codes hub.

Codes RL gets confused with

PF — Power failure — power was interrupted during operation (a customer notification code, not a breakdown and not a stored service fault). PF tells you the control lost power during a cycle: an outage, a tripped breaker, a plug knocked loose — or, when no house event explains it, control voltage too low or lost at the machine itself (the direct-drive service manual's F7E0 wording for the stored version of the same event).

OL — Overload — the load size exceeds the washer's capacity (displayed oL on Cabrio/Bravos/Oasis top-loaders, stored as F70 on that platform and as F0E3 on newer F/E platforms). OL (oL) means the control judged the load too heavy to proceed.

F3E1 — Pressure system fault — the main control detects an out-of-range pressure (water level) signal (written F03 E01 on zero-padded displays). F3E1 indicts the level-sensing system: the pressure signal reaching the control is out of range or implausible.

F21 — Long drain — the washer is taking too long to drain (Whirlpool's drain fault; F9E1 is its sibling rendering on Duet platforms). F21 means the control ran the drain pump and the water level didn't fall fast enough.

Working from a symptom instead? Read our troubleshooting guide for this problem.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

Facts on this page were checked against manufacturer documentation: manualowl.com · manualowl.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · producthelp.whirlpool.com · nelihome.com · nelihome.com