When it’s time to get your laundry out and you find that your washer door is locked, what do you do? It isn’t as uncommon as you think. When running a cycle in a front load machine the machine locks the latch to prevent water from escaping.
But what if you have an emergency situation? There’s actualy a way to override the sensor without any damage whatsoever. Just remove the bottom front cover on your appliance and you’ll see how simple this problem is to solve.
How to manually unlock the door
Normally, you will only see this access panel when needed. Inside are maintenance ports and filter of the drain pump. Find the bottom part of your machine and you will see it. It’s a cover that comes off easy for regular cleaning needs.
There aren’t any special tools necessary to remove the first flap. Either unscrew it (if your model has one), or just pop it loose with gentle prying.
Opening up that panel, you’re able to get a good look at all inner workings. Inside there’s a special strap. This one is called the door lock release in some service manuals. Right next to where water drains from are the strap.
At a quick glance, it could be confused with being attached to the wiring harness. However, it has an important use for manual access. On opening the cover, look quickly for the emergency unlock strap.
You need to give it some leverage in order to release the lock. There’s no way your fingers can generates enough pressure against this little piece. I’ve found a screwdriver is perfect to add the amount of tension needed. If you’re more comfortabley with pliers, those will work as well.
You just want to pull on the strap and pull pretty good. But don’t jerk it; you could break something doing that. It should of been a controlled pull.
Pulling it open requires a slight bit of instruction, but man does it work.
“Twice you have to pull on the release strap,” they say. This unhooks latch within the door seal.
Be careful when inserting the screwdriver underneath the hook of the strap. Once in place, apply consistent pressure and pull outwards.
You might think nothing happened after initial pull, but the second one makes all the difference.
It’s a tactile thing. Not a visual thing. When you apply pressure to it, you’ll feel the internal latch yield. It won’t make any big sound like a “click.” You’ll just notice that it feels different now then it did before.
That’s your cue. It’s supposed to do that. If it doesn’t on the first pull don’t get bent out of shape; try it again.
So once you feel both pulls on the strap, the door will unlock instantly. That’s what the emergency release function is all about. Whether there is no power or some sort of electronic issue, it totally bypasses that. No matter the status of control board, the latch simply retracts itself.
Now instead of having to wait for your washer to complete a cycle, you can manually open the door. Or you won’t have to deal with an error code that refuses to clear.
Turns out, yes. This is how it’s supposed to be done. It all makes sense after reading the instructions for emergency door openings on page 37 of the user manual. There’s a warning about hot water and electrical safety, along with other general things. However, the mechanics of it are pretty self-explanatory. The illustration is exactly what you’ll see in your own unit. So it feels like we were doing it right when you open the door.
You can see some of the drawings inside for reference in the manual. The manual also shows diagrams that help locate the strap if it is obscured by hoses.
This is something most folks don’t know about until they need it. That’s the beauty of it. Peace of mind when you are out and don’t expect to be locked out of your washer.
Having an idea where that strap is at makes all the difference in the world. Calling a tech over just to get a latch to work isn’t necessary.
Once it unlocks, the door opens easy. And there you have it, the drum is now exposed and you can take a peek inside. Your clothes aren’t dry yet, but at least they’re not soaking wet either.
Electrolux also added this handy manual override feature to their machine. This allows users to bypass any slight malfunction in the system and get back to their laundry. So fast.
