The short answer
F1 E6 is how this oven reports a problem in the temperature sensor circuit. The code table records the documented meaning, and the causes below it are ordered by how often each one is the answer. Keep using it only while the results are acceptable.
The documented code and its meaning
Reference| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| F1 E6 | There may be a problem with the Microwave Thermistor or Sensor, or the associated wiring. |
What you actually observe
- Results are uneven from one use to the next — An intermittent reading gives an intermittent result.
- The code appears immediately on a cold start — A cold fault points at the wiring and the plug rather than at the sensor element.
- Pre-heat or warm-up takes far longer than it once did — A control that distrusts its reading waits rather than stops.
- NEAR MISS — no heat at all, ever — That is a heating-circuit or supply question and it belongs elsewhere.
Causes, most likely first on this oven
- The sensor element itself drifting out of range or going open — These elements wander rather than break, so results go off well before the control refuses the reading outright.
- Corrosion or slackness at the sensor plug — That plug lives in the hottest, dampest part of the run, which is why it — and not the element — is so often what has failed.
- Chafed sensor wiring where it passes through the cavity wall — The grommet at the wall is where the insulation wears, and a conductor touching metal reads as a short to the control.
- The board input that reads the sensor — Rare in practice: the reading circuit on the board sees out both the element and its wiring.
Check in this order, and why
- Note whether the fault appears cold or only once the unit is hot — Cold faults and hot faults come from different halves of this circuit, so the timing is the first thing to establish.
- Get the sensor resistance read at the plug — One measurement at the plug separates the sensor from the wiring and the board in a single step.
- Have the plug at the sensor examined for corrosion and heat damage — Heat damage or green on the pins is cheap to find and cheap to fix, and it is found often.
- Keep the board as the last suspect — Everything else in the chain is cheaper and more likely, so the board waits until last.
What an owner can safely check
- Drop the breaker for a minute and bring it back — A stored fault sometimes goes; one that reappears at once is live and worth the call.
About 3 min
- Note the temperature behaviour you have seen recently — What the appliance has been doing for the past few weeks is the history worth writing down.
Tools: pen and paperAbout 5 min
- Stop before the cavity wall or the rear cover is disturbed — The sensor run is not an owner-serviceable path, and this is where the checks end.
Before anything is opened
Safety
Before any panel comes off, unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker: a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Built-in ovens rarely have a plug; the breaker is what isolates them. Cavity and door glass hold heat long after the cycle has finished. The switches on the door are there to cut power at a particular moment. Leave their wiring as it was found.
When this stops being an owner job
This becomes a service call as soon as the code repeats after a power-down. From there on it is a meter on a de-energised circuit, and the oven generally has to come out of its housing before the connections behind it can be seen. A burning smell, scorching around the controls or a breaker tripping at start-up all change the answer to now, whatever else this page says.
Nearest error-code pages
What this page does not cover
This page reads F1 E6 the way the shared Maytag oven code set defines it, which is the reading that holds across the model lines using that control platform. It does not extend to earlier control generations that happen to display the same characters for a different condition. Wiring colours, pin assignments, torque values and part numbers are all left out on purpose: they are family-specific and belong on the page for that family. Where such a page exists, it is the more specific answer and takes precedence over this one; the linked index is where to find it.
Other Maytag oven codes
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