Int on a Maytag washer means the cycle was paused or canceled and the machine is unwinding it: it drains the tub, then resets and waits. PF means a power failure interrupted the cycle while it was running. Both leave you standing in front of a stopped washer full of wet laundry, and both clear by starting again. The difference is who stopped it. Int is a record of a button press. PF is a record of the electricity going away, and a PF that keeps coming back is the only one of the two that is telling you something is wrong.
What does the INT code mean on a Maytag washer?
It means interrupted. Someone pressed Pause or Cancel, or held the power pad long enough for the control to treat the cycle as abandoned. The maytag washer int code is the machine acknowledging that instruction rather than complaining about it.
What follows is a safety routine. A tub holding water is heavy and, on a top-load machine, a lid that opens over a full drum is a hazard, so the control pumps the water out before it lets go of the cycle. That takes a minute or two, during which the washer looks busy for no reason anyone asked for. Wait for it to finish; pulling the plug in the middle simply means it starts the same routine when you power it back on.
Int is also the code you get from a cancel you did not mean to make. A long press on the power pad, a child leaning on the console, or a pad pressed twice in quick succession all read the same to the board.
Why is the tub empty after an INT code?
Because draining is part of canceling, not a symptom of anything. This surprises people who canceled a cycle expecting to open the lid and rescue one item, and found the water gone and the load sitting soaked at the bottom of the drum.
It also means an Int on a wash step costs you the detergent and the water in the tub. If you meant to pause rather than cancel, use Pause and leave the cycle alone: a paused Maytag washer holds its water and picks up where it left off. Cancel is the one that empties the machine.
If the tub does not empty when Int appears, you have two problems layered on top of each other, and the second one is a drain fault. That is where the F9E1 and drn drain codes take over.
How is PF different from INT?
PF is not about a button. The control lost its supply mid-cycle and noticed when it came back. Because the board keeps a small record of where the cycle was, it can tell you on the next power-up that the load was never finished, which is more useful than waking up pretending nothing happened.
The PF code clears the moment you restart the cycle. It does not need a reset, a service call or a part. A single PF after a storm, a tripped breaker or a bumped plug is exactly what the code is for, and there is nothing further to do about it.
Maytag uses PF on dryers as well, with the same meaning, so a matching pair of machines on one circuit will often show it together. That is a useful clue in itself: two appliances reporting PF at the same moment means the circuit, not the appliances.
What makes a Maytag washer pause on its own?
Several ordinary things, and none of them are the codes being wrong. A washer that stops mid-load and posts Int without anyone touching it usually has a console problem: a pad held down by dried detergent reads as a continuous press, and a continuous press on Pause or Cancel is a cancel. Our guide to Maytag washer control panel problems covers that membrane.
A washer that stops and posts PF without a storm has a supply problem. The suspects, in the order worth checking, are the plug sitting loose in the outlet, an extension cord or power strip that was never meant to carry a washer, a worn outlet whose contacts no longer grip, and a breaker on the edge of tripping. A washer draws hard when the motor starts a spin, and a marginal connection fails under exactly that load.
There is also the case where neither code is the story. A machine that halts and sits still with laundry on one side of the drum is usually out of balance, and it may simply be waiting to redistribute rather than reporting anything at all.
What if PF comes back every cycle?
Then treat it as a wiring question rather than a washer question. Feel the plug after a cycle: a warm plug or a warm outlet face is a bad connection heating up, and that is a call to an electrician, not to us. Try the washer on a different circuit if one is reachable. If PF follows the machine, the inlet wiring or the control board is losing contact internally; if PF stays with the outlet, the house is the problem.
Do not open the console or the rear panel to chase it. Those connections are line voltage, and the point of the test above is that you can narrow the fault down without touching any of them.
When does an interrupted cycle mean service?
Book a visit when Int appears without anyone pressing anything, when pads respond to touches you did not make, or when PF returns on a circuit that has been checked and is carrying nothing else. Book it sooner if the washer stops mid-cycle and the display shows neither code but the drum is full, because then the machine is not reporting the interruption at all.
Worth ruling out first: a display showing LOC is a locked control panel and not an interrupted cycle, which our guide to the Maytag washer LOC code explains in full.
We are an independent repair company, not a factory service arm, and a console that cancels cycles on its own is a small repair that gets worse when it is lived with. Pricing starts from a diagnostic visit and we confirm the estimate before any work begins. Book Maytag washer repair or schedule a visit, and note which code appeared and what the washer was doing at the time.
