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My parents have a Maytag 3000 front load washer. A few months ago (just after it was 1 year old) it started giving an "LF" error which as far as I understand means low flow (as in inlet flow).
The screens on the back of the washer have no obstructions whatsoever. I imagine this won't affect anything but I also checked the screen on the bottom before the drain pump and pulled some coins and lint out of there.
My mom sat and watched an entire cycle that happened to go through without a failure. Since that time when it has failed she has noticed that the water level is much higher than it should be.
With my very limited knowledge of washers, I wonder if there is a float that is supposed to sense the water level and I wonder if the sensor has failed. I also wonder if there is a solenoid that controls the water coming in to the washer that ends up sticking in the open position?
What do I need to do to diagnose this? Thanks.
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LF code is because your water supply isn't fast enough so you have low water pressure is what the machine is saying if the filters are clean. disconnect the hoses and run them in a bucket and see if you're water supply is fast. It can be a sticking solenoid in the water intake valve...Check the tech sheet and follow the circuit. Make sure you have 120v going to the solenoids.......usually this is a problem with hot water heaters supplying the shower or something else at the same time or see if your parents have an "instahot" water heater its a small box instead of a round large water heater and new washers with all the sensors do not like the instahots it messes them up and throws codes.
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Originally Posted by: HumboldtRepairMan  LF code is because your water supply isn't fast enough so you have low water pressure is what the machine is saying if the filters are clean. disconnect the hoses and run them in a bucket and see if you're water supply is fast. It can be a sticking solenoid in the water intake valve...Check the tech sheet and follow the circuit. Make sure you have 120v going to the solenoids.......usually this is a problem with hot water heaters supplying the shower or something else at the same time or see if your parents have an "instahot" water heater its a small box instead of a round large water heater and new washers with all the sensors do not like the instahots it messes them up and throws codes. Thanks. The confusing thing about pressure problems is that it worked for over a year in this location with no problems and the all of a sudden this problem happens almost every time. We suspected too much water use elsewhere so we have tried several times while being certain no other water was being used. The water heater is the big normal kind although it is electric rather than gas for the heating element. Anyway, this load happened to go through for some reason so I'm going to wait for it to finish and then I'll pull the hoses off and time it to see how long it takes to fill a 13 gal trash can half full of water. Where is the tech sheet? On the old Neptune I had it was taped behind the control panel. Is that similar on this one? Also, I find the error codes in the Use & Care Guide to be odd. It doesn't give any solutions for "LF". Instead it gives solutions for "F8E1". The display doesn't even have room for more than 2 digits. Why doesn't the manual show "LF" instead of "F8E1"?
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I don't know if a 13 gal trash can is truly 13 gal or not but it took about a minute to fill the 13 gal trash can 1/3 full. Felt like maybe 4 to 5 gal of water when I picked it up but I didn't try to measure any more accurately than that. Was shooting a very healthy stream out of the hose I thought. I did this test twice, once for hot and once for cold. The water was flowing through the hose and not directly out of the spigot both times.
I made sure the hot and cold water lines were connected to the correct ports, which they were.
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As I think about it more, surely the solenoid hasn't failed. If it had failed, it would keep filling with water even after the washer gives the LF error and shuts off right?
It doesn't appear to matter if it's on a cold cycle or a hot cycle. I haven't tried changing soil levels or other settings.
I'm wondering if it has to be a computer problem rather than a component problem?
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I read somewhere that someone fixed their LF problem by replacing the pressure sensor. How does it decide to give you a LF error? If it goes off pressure you would think it would decide after maybe 20 seconds rather than taking the time to fill the washer 1/3 of the way full first. So does it decide there is low flow based upon how long it takes to fill it to a certain level?
That makes the most sense to me based upon the symptoms I'm experiencing. I would think surely there must be some float that trips a sensor and that sensor must have failed. Is that possible? Is there such a thing?
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I called the guy who worked on it a month ago. He said the washer knows whether it has enough water or not based upon a pressure sensor. There is a pressurized air tube and as water flows in to the bottom of the tube, the pressure in the tube increases. When the air pressure gets high enough the pressure switch trips telling the washer that it's got enough water in it.
So we suspect the pressure switch has gone bad. He checked it while he was here and it appeared good bit since it's been an intermittent problem we're thinking it just happened to be working when he tested it. I guess we'll give it a shot anyway. Any thoughts?
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It's a possibility....also make sure you clean out the pressure hose and the base of that hose where it hooks to the drum soap is known to clog or crystalize in that area. Good luck
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Thanks for your help HumboltRepairMan. I replaced the switch and it still failed. I dug further and it ended up being that a hole had worn in the hose that goes to the switch. $3 worth of hose and we have spent over $350 on figuring it out so far. Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes.
Thanks again.
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As clarification, it was $350 because $300 of it was spent on a repair guy coming out and spending three hours checking everything out only to tell us nothing was wrong with the washer and that our problem really was low flow.
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