Water balancing apparatus for horizontal axis and vertical axis laundry appliances

A balancing apparatus for counterbalancing an unbalanced load in a rotating or spinning drum such as a clothes basket in a washing machine. The balancing apparatus includes a drive plate fixed to the drive shaft of the spinning drum. Balancing tanks disposed at spaced intervals around the drum are connected to a fluid supply, such, as a self contained fluid tank, through passages controlled by valves mounted to the drum or supply tank. When the rotating drum tilts relative to the drive shaft as a result of unsymmetrical centrifugal forces produced by the unbalanced load, the valve or valves controlling flow into the balance tanks opposite the unbalanced load are moved into engagement with valve selector slides mounted on the drive plate to open the passages and allow water from the fluid tank into the balance tanks to balance the drum. The valves and valve selector slides are preferably complementarily designed to permit fluid flow into the balance tanks opposite the unbalanced load at drum rotating speeds below and above the critical speed of the rotating drum.