Use Child Lock on your Samsung washing machine and dryer

While washers and dryers are an important part of many households, they can also pose a safety concern if you have little ones in the house. You won't have to worry about that with your Samsung appliances. To prevent children from accidentally starting or playing around with your washer or dryer, the Child Lock feature disables the buttons on the control panel, with the exception of a few things like Power. On many models, it will also lock the door, which will remain locked even if the washer is restarted. If you want to add laundry later, just turn off Child Lock temporarily, add your laundry, and then turn it back on again.

A mom and daughter sorting laundry next to a Samsung washing machine

Use Child Lock on your Samsung washing machine and dryer

Turn Child Lock on or off

A control panel on a Samsung washing machine and dryer

Turn on Child Lock

Child Lock is activated using a two-button combination that's labeled on the control panel. Sometimes you'll see the words "Child Lock" with lines pointing to the appropriate buttons. Other times, there may be a Child Lock icon that identifies which buttons to press. If you still aren't sure what buttons to press, you can find the exact combination in your user manual.

Once you know the combination, press and hold both buttons simultaneously until a chime sounds.
The Child Lock icon will glow once it's activated; it'll look like a smiling lock or a baby, depending on your model.

Turn off Child Lock

To deactivate Child Lock on models with the Temporary off setting, press and hold both buttons once to cause the icon to flash, and then press and hold both buttons again to make the icon turn off.
These buttons should be clearly marked on your panel, but you can always refer to your user manual for more information.

Note

On front load washers, Child Lock will also lock the door. If you are having trouble opening the door after turning off Child Lock, it may be because the current load has not yet finished running.

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More information about Child Lock

Note

When Child Lock is enabled, you may see CL flash on the machine's display while trying to operate it. If you're seeing a different code, you can review our error code guide to help determine the cause.

A mother and daughter touching the control panel of a Samsung washing machine

You may want to know even more about Child Lock, especially if you haven't used the function yet, or if your machine happens to lose power while Child Lock is activated.

The buttons used to disable Child Lock and the buttons that will still function while Child Lock is activated may vary between models. It also depends on whether or not a cycle is currently running.
On some top load washers, Child Lock will not lock the door. For these models, if an unsafe amount of water is in the washer when the door is opened, the water will drain to a safe level if Child Lock is activated. To prevent water from draining when the door is opened, disable Child Lock.
Restarting the washer or dryer will not disable Child Lock.
FlexWash and FlexDry models have a separate Child Lock setting for each panel.
On many models, a Temporary off setting is included, which causes the Child Lock icon to flash and the door to unlock. After one minute, Child Lock will re-engage and lock the door again. If the door is open when the time is up, an alarm will sound for two minutes. If the door is closed within that time, Child Lock will stay activated; if not, it will deactivate.

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