Michael Hardin Key Takeaways
- AF, E3, F03 and E1 all circle one condition — heat that is not leaving with the air — so clear the vent before buying parts.
- The lint screen protects airflow through the drum; the duct is where restriction and fire risk actually build up.
- A drum that free-wheels by hand points at the belt; a grinding drag points at a roller or the rear bearing.
- PF is a report about the power supply, not a dryer fault — a repeat on one outlet is a circuit to look at.
- HE on an electric dryer and FE on a gas dryer are both service calls, and a gas ignition fault is never one to keep resetting.
The Bottom Line
Write the code down before cancelling, then clear the lint screen, housing and full duct before anything else. A heat code that survives a genuinely clear vent is a sensor or heating circuit fault and needs a technician.
A dryer that stops early, runs long or refuses to heat is usually trying to tell you something before it fails outright, and the vocabulary it uses is short. The Maytag dryer diagnostic codes listed on this site cover seventeen faults, and a striking number of them describe the same underlying condition from different angles: air is not moving through the machine the way it should. Reading them as a group is what turns a code into a maintenance task instead of a parts order.
| Code | What the control measured | What it usually asks for |
|---|---|---|
| AF | Restricted airflow | Lint screen, duct, outside flap |
| E3 | Exhaust over-temperature | The same airflow path, now hot |
| F03 | Cavity thermistor open or short | Temperature sensor or harness |
| E1 | Thermistor shorted | Temperature sensor |
| HE | Heating element fault — electric | Heat circuit, service visit |
| FE | Flame error — gas dryers | Gas supply and ignition, service visit |
| F27 | Moisture sensor fault | Sensor bars inside the drum |
| F30 | Drum or motor jam | Something binding the drum |
| F31 | Motor tachometer fault | Drive motor feedback |
| bE | Drive belt broken | Belt, idler and pulley |
| F26 | Door switch fault | Switch and its plunger |
| PF | Power failure during cycle | Supply, not the dryer |
Four Codes, One Blocked Duct
AF is restricted airflow and E3 is exhaust over-temperature. Those are two measurements of one situation: heat that should be leaving with the air is staying in the machine. F03 and E1 concern the thermistor that takes those readings, which is why a genuine airflow restriction and a failing sensor can look alike from the laundry room.
That is the practical reason to clear the vent before spending anything. A dryer with a half-blocked duct will keep posting heat codes whatever parts are fitted, and a technician who replaces a thermistor into a packed duct has fixed nothing.
The Maintenance That Prevents Most of This List
- Clear the lint screen every load. Not most loads. A screen with a film of fabric softener residue restricts air even when it looks clean — wash it in warm water a few times a year.
- Vacuum the screen housing. Fine lint passes the screen and settles in the cavity beneath it.
- Clear the full duct once a year. Every elbow in the run collects what the air drops, and the outside flap collects the rest.
- Check the transition hose behind the machine. Pushing the dryer back against the wall crushes it, and a crushed hose throttles everything downstream.
- Wipe the moisture sensor bars. The metal strips just inside the drum opening pick up softener residue, and a coated sensor ends cycles early — which owners read as a heating problem.
Our guide to Maytag dryer vent cleaning covers the duct end to end, and lint fire prevention explains why this is more than an efficiency question.
The Mechanical Group
F30, a drum or motor jam, F31, a motor tachometer fault, and bE, a broken drive belt, all describe a drum that is not turning as commanded. There is one symptom worth knowing: a dryer whose motor hums while the drum stays still, or which tumbles with almost no resistance when you turn it by hand, is usually the belt.
- Unplug the dryer, or shut the gas valve and the breaker on a gas model.
- Open the door and turn the drum by hand. Free-wheeling with no resistance points at the belt; a grinding drag points at a roller or the rear bearing.
- Look for an obstruction. A coin or an underwire that has slipped past the drum seal will jam and score the drum.
- Do not force a jammed drum. Rotating it against a mechanical obstruction is how a repair becomes a drum replacement.
Heat, Gas and the Ones Not to Experiment With
HE is a heating element fault on an electric dryer, and FE is a flame error on a gas one. Both sit past the line where owner checks stop. On a gas model in particular, an ignition fault is not something to reset repeatedly to see whether it catches, and nothing in this guide should be read as an invitation to open a gas train.
Two more are worth reading correctly. PF is a power failure during the cycle — that is a report about the supply, and a PF appearing regularly on one outlet says more about the circuit than about the dryer. F26, a door switch fault, stops cycles unpredictably and gets blamed on everything else in the machine.
Service Mode and When to Call
Entering the service diagnostic mode differs by console generation, and the sequence for your model belongs to its manual rather than to a general guide — what this page can tell you is what the codes mean once you have one. Write the code down before cancelling, because most clear on power-down.
Call when a heat code survives a properly cleared vent, when a gas dryer posts a flame error, or when the drum is jammed or noisy. Our Maytag dryer repair service covers the heat, drive and sensing circuits, and preventive maintenance takes care of the airflow path that causes most of these codes in the first place. Diagnostic work starts from $89, with the final price confirmed after the on-site diagnosis and a written estimate before any work begins. Book a visit or send us the details, and if the cabinet is running hot or you smell burning, leave the dryer off until then.