Just so others can find this post: the broken washing machine was a Siemens xlp1400 (or maybe xlp 1400), and the symptom was a flashing key symbol.

Turns out it wasn’t broken – the flashing key symbol meant that the child lock had been accidentally engaged. The fix, given by the friendly folks on the Siemens help-line: simply hold down the start button for two seconds.

Bingo, the laundry cycle can crank up again. They also offered to send us a new manual for the machine. Which was nice.

(update: other people have added the solutions for their machines below)

Couldn’t find any information on the interweb of how to solve this – hence this post. After-sales service on the web becomes increasingly impossible through the spew of affiliate and review sites that vie daily to dominate the search results – to everyone’s disadvantage it seems. (Although, it would have been helpful if Siemens published their manuals online in a way that google could search them. Just saying).

This might be the most boring post I’ve ever written. And the most useful.

Mark says: to release the childlock on the Siemens WM14S740BY: set mode to rinse & then hold option down arrow for 5 seconds (toggles on/off).

Declan says:to release the childlock on the Siemens WM14S76
-Set the mode to cottons, (dial clockwise once)
-Press and hold the option down touch button for 5 seconds or until you see the magic message ‘Child lock released’.