So I was doing a load of wash early last week in my Apex and when the load was done I noticed there was a stream of water was running out the bottom of the machine. So I took off the machine's lower skirt panel to investigate and sure enough water is leaking out of the safety valve.
The Apex safety valve has three functions:
#1 to fill the water clutch with cold water to raise the spin clutch pad and shift machine from wash to spin.
#2 to drain the water clutch when spin is completed which lowers the wash clutch and tub brake down to stop the tub from spinning and shifts the tub back into wobble wash.
#3: There is an unbalanced load sensor activating pin on top of the safety valve that quickly drains the water clutch to momentarily shift the washer from spin to wash incase of an unbalance load. This causes the tub to stop and wobble for about 1 second to try to redistribute the wash load and then it automatically shifts back to spin to try again. It keeps doing this over and over until it automatically balances out the wash load.
There is a rubber diaphragm that seals the activating pin that has cracked open and gone bad, being over 72 years old it's amazing that it lasted this long. So I took the safety valve apart and found this diaphragm has split open and cracked. I had one in tact diaphragm in my parts stash but it's center hole has stretched open too wide to seal properly and it's hard as a rock. But thankfully it made a perfect model to make a mold out of, all I had to do was fill in it's too wide/stretched center hole with clay and mold it like that. After I have the new rubber part I used a simple hole punch to make a smaller/original size hole.
I'm happy to report the machine is back together and running perfectly again. After nearly a dozen loads there is not a single drip coming out of the safety valve, my new part works perfectly and I couldn't be more thrilled!!! I made several of them in pretty colors for backup but I sincerely doubt the new one I put in will ever need to be changed again during my lifetime.
The Apex safety valve has three functions:
#1 to fill the water clutch with cold water to raise the spin clutch pad and shift machine from wash to spin.
#2 to drain the water clutch when spin is completed which lowers the wash clutch and tub brake down to stop the tub from spinning and shifts the tub back into wobble wash.
#3: There is an unbalanced load sensor activating pin on top of the safety valve that quickly drains the water clutch to momentarily shift the washer from spin to wash incase of an unbalance load. This causes the tub to stop and wobble for about 1 second to try to redistribute the wash load and then it automatically shifts back to spin to try again. It keeps doing this over and over until it automatically balances out the wash load.
There is a rubber diaphragm that seals the activating pin that has cracked open and gone bad, being over 72 years old it's amazing that it lasted this long. So I took the safety valve apart and found this diaphragm has split open and cracked. I had one in tact diaphragm in my parts stash but it's center hole has stretched open too wide to seal properly and it's hard as a rock. But thankfully it made a perfect model to make a mold out of, all I had to do was fill in it's too wide/stretched center hole with clay and mold it like that. After I have the new rubber part I used a simple hole punch to make a smaller/original size hole.
I'm happy to report the machine is back together and running perfectly again. After nearly a dozen loads there is not a single drip coming out of the safety valve, my new part works perfectly and I couldn't be more thrilled!!! I made several of them in pretty colors for backup but I sincerely doubt the new one I put in will ever need to be changed again during my lifetime.
