In this paper, the joint impact of the interior heating and chemical reaction on the double diffusive convective flow in porous membrane enclosures soaked by a non-Newtonian Maxwell fluid is investigated applying linear and nonlinear stability techniques. The porous enclosures are square, slender and rectangular. Using the linear stability analysis, the expression for the critical thermal Rayleigh–Darcy number, above which the convective movement occurs, is derived analytically in terms of associated physical parameters. A nonlinear stability examination reliant on the Fourier double series is executed to calculate the convective heat and mass transports of the arrangement. It is observed that the pattern of convective activity is oscillatory only in the occurrence of a relaxation parameter and the threshold value of the relaxation parameter for the occurrence of the oscillatory pattern depends on the other physical parameters. The onset of convective instability accelerates with the increasing chemical reacting parameter, the interior heating parameter, the solute Rayleigh–Darcy number, the Lewis number, the Vadasz number, and the relaxation parameter, while it delays with the heat capacity ratio. The convective heat and mass transfers increase with the solute Rayleigh–Darcy number, the Vadasz number, the relaxation parameter, and the aspect ratio (for rectangular enclosure), while it decreases with the heat capacity ratio and the aspect ratio (for slender enclosure). Additionally, the convective heat transfer enhances with the interior heating parameter, while the convective mass transfer enhances with the chemical reacting parameter and the Lewis number. The effects of Vadasz number, heat capacity ratio, and relaxation parameter are witnessed only on the oscillatory pattern of convection and unsteady convective heat and mass transfers. Further, some existing literature results are compared with the current findings.