There is provided a multi-way selector valve capable of suppressing any excessive rise in the pressure of a high-pressure
refrigerant during a
transitional phase of flow
path switching and of preventing malfunctioning of a flow
path switching operation, while also being capable of preventing situations in which erroneous judgments of anomaly / failure occurrences in the device are made by a fail-safe mechanism to cause the device to stop unduly. A high-pressure passage portion 55 to which a high-pressure fluid is introduced is formed in a valve member 50. A
valve seat portion 65 provided with a first inlet / outlet 13 and a second inlet / outlet 14 that are selectively communicated with an outlet-side end portion 55a of the high-pressure passage portion 55, and a valve chest 61 into which a low-pressure fluid is selectively introduced via the first inlet / outlet 13 and the second inlet / outlet 14 are provided in a valve body 60. During the
transitional phase of flow
path switching, the outlet-side end portion 55a of the high-pressure passage portion 55 of the valve member 50 is made to slide while being pressed against a portion between the first inlet / outlet 13 and the second inlet / outlet 14 in the
valve seat portion 65. There is formed between the first inlet / outlet 13 and the second inlet / outlet 14 of the
valve seat portion 65 an escape passage portion 69 comprising a groove, notch, through-hole or the like for allowing the high-pressure
refrigerant of the high-pressure passage portion 55 to escape to the side of the valve chest 61 during the
transitional phase of flow path switching.