Whirlpool duet washer door locked and wont open –How to fix the issue

Is your whirlpool duet washer door locked and wont open?

If yes, below is what you should try..

Before we start, it is important to mention that one reason why the door to these types of washers will remain locked and ‘refuse’ to budge is excess water – if there’s still water in there, it is likely to cause the washer to remain locked.

But that’s is just one of the causes..

Here now are the fixes and tricks you should try if your Whirlpool washer door is locked and wont open…

 

Whirlpool duet washer door locked and wont open – How to fix the issue

Try the control lock button trick

Hold the washer’s Control Lock button -for three seconds- and see if that will do the trick.

For the most part, holding the above button (for 3 full seconds) unlocks the Whirlpool duet washer door.

 

Run a Drain and Spin cycle

In some instances, you should press the washer’s Drain and Spin button to make the machine unlock.

Keep in mind that doing that may make any excess water drain (as it actually starts a Drain and Spin cycle) and ultimately the door to the washer could unlock once it has completed the cycle.

Give it a shot and see how it goes.

 

Whirlpool washer door locked and wont open – Fix 2

If your front loading washer door is yet to unlock and has not budged, there is another method you can use to try and get it to drain.

Simply try to get it to empty the water manually…

You can just try to bail the remaining water out (of the tub) or perhaps you can see if the tub can be drained  using gravity- all you need to do is place the washer’s drain hose on floor (near the drain) and let gravity do the magic.

It might unlock after you have successfully emptied it.

Also, you can use an emergency drain hose to manually drain it if you have one.

 

Whirlpool duet washer door locked and wont open – How to unlock Whirlpool duet washer manually

If you have not already tried it, you can as well try to unlock your Whirlpool Duet washer manually (it is not a very hard thing to do)

To manually unlock the machine, follow these instructions:

1. Unplug the washer.
2. Then, with your machine unplugged, locate the toe panel(metal section at the base of the front -of the washer- just below the door)
3. Remove the screws on the toe panel’s bottom flange.
4. To remove the panel, proceed to lift the panel just slightly then pull it forward.

With the panel out of the way, you can now unlock the door as indicated below:

5. Reach up inside your washer’s front panel then look for the door latch (it should be on the right hand side of the door)
6. Now feel for the tear-drop shaped tab -it’s on the bottom (of the machine’s door latch assembly)- and pull down on the tab gently about 1/4 inch(or until there’s a click).

Pulling the small tab gently normally opens the door lock manually.

Just to emphasize, the manual door release should be up where your lock mechanism is so you’ll need to try and reach up to it (go all the way upward). And again it’s at the bottom (of lock mechanism) and is typically round and flat.

Quick Tip: If you have to manually unlock the door to your washer after each wash, you might be looking at a bad drain pump /pressure switch and either could need to be swapped out. Be sure to run the appropriate test (check your tech sheet) to verify it’s indeed these parts that might be causing the problem.

 

Reset the washer

Many times, resetting the washer helps get rid of small problems so it’s worth a try too if the door keeps jamming.

How to reset whirlpool duet washer

To reset the washer (and have it reboot), unplug it and let it sit for a couple of minutes (like 5 minutes).

You can as well turn the washer off at the breaker then let it sit for some minutes.

Try it and see if it will finally make a difference.

Quick Tip: If letting it sit for 5 minutes doesn’t really help, probably you should allow it to remain unplugged for more minutes (you can even leave it without power for half an hour) for it to stop acting up. Try.

 

Whirlpool duet washer door locked and pump running continuously

If your Whirlpool duet washer’s door is locked (and it won’t respond no matter what you attempt) and the pump additionally runs continuously, you can try the following:

Reset the washer

Follow the steps above and check how it goes.

 

Put it into diagnostic mode and see if you’ll get any error codes

To make it go into diagnostic mode, the trick is to poke any 3 keys you choose 3 times. For example, you can poke the keys “Spin”, “Soil”, plus “Extra Rinse” 3 times.

If it displays any error codes, check the tech manual/sheet for their meaning and troubleshooting ideas (doing what the tech manual says tends to resolve a lot of the problems behind the error codes)

ALSO READ: Whirlpool duet washer diagnostic mode (How to enter diagnostic mode)

 

Other things to check

You could be having a faulty pressure switch or even a water valve that’s bad.

I must say that there’s no need to go ahead and buy these parts outright- always put it into diagnostic mode and see what error codes you get (There are separate fault codes for each error) and check if the manual says you replace the part.

 

Whirlpool duet washer door locked and wont open – final thoughts

You cannot rule anything out, especially if the problem keeps occurring and it might even be a bad board.

But overall- and as mentioned above- you should rely on the results of the diagnostic test to be sure you’re doing the right thing.