I absolutely love this machine. Not only is the entire cycle filled with splashy drama, it just has a such of feeling of antiquity in everything it does. It is extremely solid and stable and has never ever walked one iota unlike some of my other machines. With a proper restoration it is also one of the quietest machines in my collection.
In order to rate the cleaning performance of this washer you have to look at it from a 1953 perspective as well as a 2012 perspective. In 1953 its cleaning ability was fair to poor. Fast forward 60 years to today and with the marked improvement of modern HE detergents the cleaning ability of this machine in 2012 is much better. The machine is a perfect candidate to use HE detergents as the water level is barely 1/2 up the wash basket. After the wash fill, the water level continues to drop as 2/3rd of it gets bounced out of the wash basket by the energetic action.
This machine clearly is the very first HE top loader ever produced. It is like a front loader in the fact that there doesn't need to be any water in the tub to safely agitate the clothes. As a matter of fact when you start the washer it immediately goes into a fill & agitate, no part of fill cycle has the tub stationary, just like a front loader! Another positive feature of this machine is the fiberglass wash basket. Because the basket is not metal it does not absorb much of the heat of the hot water so the water temperature stays much hotter during the 12 minute wash. It stays so hot in fact that the cabinet gets very hot during the wash cycle. The wash basket has six large pockets molded onto the outside of the basket. During spin the water is thrown over the top of the tub and enters these pockets and is held inside these pockets via centrifugal force. The pockets are designed to catch more water on the opposite side of the unbalanced side of the tub so this tends to balance out the wash tub during spin even with quite out of balance loads. Since quite a bit of water is bounced out of the tub during wash there is a 30 second fill before the first spin to replenish some water for balancing. When the spin stops you can hear the water rush out of the pockets and into the outer cabinet where it is then drained.
As for the capacity, it holds just as much as any 8lb 1950's automatic washer such as a Unimatic or Speed Queen. Because of the bouncing action it has excellent turnover but at the same and does not seem to tangle clothes and no special loading technique is needed.
I wish everyone here could experience an Apex for a while in their laundry room. I suspect many would be impressed with its performance.
Here are the threads from when I first found my Apex....
#1
CALLING A CLUB MEETING AT 10PM CENTRAL TIME
#2
AFTER 13 LONG YEARS THE SEARCH IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!
#3
My Basket is Bouncing once again
