The Scrubby Chronicles Part 1: Replacing an inlet valve in a Kenmore HE2 Plus Washing Machine

Well, the one thing you quickly realize when you move into a new place is that laundry piles up and piles up quickly! Facing this very dilemma, I set out find a reasonably priced used laundry pair online and locally. When I ultimately found this set I though I scored quite a deal! Sure they were about ten years old, but they were front loading and "in working order" all for $300! So I packed up some snacks, picked up my girls from school and daycare and met up with Justin (can't say enough about this guy) at the seller's place to pick up Scrubby and Mickey (Maddie named them) to lug it all back to my new place across town. The plan was to wait the extra two days for when the girls were back to their mother's house to get going on doing some much needed laundry. So I went about getting two new hoses from the local "Orange Store" (Maddie's name for Home Depot) and hooked everything up to the right (unmarked) spouts. I plugged Scrubby in and gave the go-ahead to do a Clean Washer cycle. To my surprise, water started gushing from the back and bottom of the machine (insert look of disgust on my face here)... A quick search online pointed to a faulty inlet valve being the culprit. So out came the tools and straight to work I went!

Tools required for this repair:

• Cordless Drill

• 1/4" Hex Nut Driver

• T20 Torx Bit

• Channel Lock Pliers

• Replacement Inlet Valve

Step One:

Unplug the machine from the power outlet and unhook the hoses from the two inlets.

Step Two:

Using your cordless drill and the 1/4" hex nut driver, remove the three machine screws at the top edge of the back of the machine. Once the screws are removed, place them somewhere safe (I got into the habit of using a jar) and lift the top cover from the machine to expose the insides and receive confirmation of the faulty inlet valve.

Step Three:

Using some masking tape, mark either one of the wires connecting the control board to the valve, just to avoid problems later. I decided to mark the yellow connector. Once that is complete, gently disconnect the wires from the solenoids.

Step Four:

Using your cordless drill and the T20 Torx bit, remove the small screw that secures the inlet valve to the chassis of the machine. Once that is done, pull the inlet valve assembly in then out of the top of the machine.

Step Five:

Using your channel lock pliers, release the hose clamp and slide it down the hose to release the faulty inlet valve. Once that hose is released, your inlet valve will be completely free from the machine.

Step Six:

Unfortunately, my replacement valve had to be ordered in and also cost around $100. Special thanks to General Appliance Repairs for handling that! Once your replacement part has arrived, simply do the works in reverse order and voila!

I hooked the hoses back up, plugged Scrubby back in and fired it up! I left the top cover off for the first test run just to ensure that the hose was properly secured and there were no leaks. With pride, I watched as it went about filling and sloshing about for around 30 minutes!

Turns out, Scrubby had another surprise for me...

Oh, Scrubby! Stay tuned for The Scrubby Chronicles: Part Deux!