Propane regulator with intentional restriction?

I've just bought a Sievert Pro 86 torch kit and it came supplied with an unexpected bonus item in the form of a "0.5-4 bar" regulator as pictured.

There is a dial that goes from 1-10, which I assume marks 0.4 bar increments. The only puzzle is that the adjustment knob cannot be turned beyond the 5 mark or thereabouts.

Is this because the manufacturer has limited the output to 2 bar on this regulator, do you think, and has done so because the standard nozzle/burner* that comes with the kit is designed to be run at 2 bar? Or is there a fault with the item?

I have two other 0-4 bar propane regulators and neither is restricted in this way.

*Much bigger Sievert nozzles/burners (that need 4 bar) can be fitted to this torch if required.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 18/09/2019 12:21:34

I think we had a thread about one of these regulators a while ago.

link

Edited By JasonB on 18/09/2019 12:36:37

Thanks for the link.

I take it, then, from Iain's reference in that thread to turning his regulator up to 7 that I should be able to turn my dial at least that far as well, and because I can't I have a faulty regulator.

Anyone that knows better, your insight would be welcome.

Just tried ours, it goes all the way to 10 but it is VERY stiff past 5, perhaps due to the spring pressure.

Brian

Will it go to 11?

Mike

As long as you don't mind risking a bizarre gardening accident...

Brian

It might do although the aforementioned gardening mishap could be like.........

Kind acknowledgements to Windy

DaveD

Hi, Bill.

I recently bought the same torch kit with identical regulator, which gets a bit 'tighter' around the 5 and the 9, but reaches 10 OK. Mine is not like Brian's, it is not 'very' stiff. Perhaps a bit of use will bed it in.

Bill

Many thanks to everyone for the further replies.

Taking my cue from Brian (eta: thanks, Bill - only just seen your post), I put the regulator in a vice so that I could get better hand leverage on the dial (I've got limited use in one of my hands). I'm pleased to say that it did turn further than 5 and after a few vigorous back and to turns it now opens all the way to 10, albeit with some difficulty (for me at any rate).

Brian and Meunier's talk of fires is prophetic; I was at my parents' house this evening and my wife was cooking on their twenty + year-old electric cooker when the cable connection at the rear caught fire shortly after the cooker had terminated with a loud bang. The flames were licking up the back of the cooker in quite a lively fashion by the time I opened up with the powder fire extinguisher.

Has anyone seen the mess it leaves when you've used a powder extinguisher in your kitchen? We were still cleaning up three hours later. I suppose, though, it wasn't as big a mess as it might have been if I'd not insisted on my parents keeping a fire extinguisher (two, in fact) in their house for just these sorts of eventualities.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 18/09/2019 23:10:57

Yes Bill,

wasn't in a kitchen though, so now I have a foam fire extinguisher, and CO2 fire extinguisher for fires in electric equipment.

Thor

The fire station at the refinery I worked at used to take all the extinguishers and BA sets that needed servicing and use them for staff training. Quite interesting to be faced with a large tray of burning oil and a dry powder extinguisher that has been outdoors for 3 years or so. It took me three tries to find one that wasn't clogged up.

I guess the way to look at the mess is that, like getting old, it beats the alternative.

Brian

I was working in the USA earlier this year. Hotel shuttle bus had a dry powder extinguisher behind the drivers seat. The pin was missing. Person sat next to me manged to kick the trigger getting out of the bus. That was a surprise!

As one who used to be involved in the safety side of car rallies, one of the first things we did on arriving at a stage start, was to upend the dry powder extinguisher and listen with your ear pressed against it.
After a long drive, the powder clumps together, and may not come out when you trigger it in an emergency.

I'd urge anyone with a dry powder extinguisher in the workshop to do the same occasionally. Normally just upend it on your shoulder with your ear pressed against the cylinder and you will hear and feel the powder running to the other end. If you're not physically capable just invert it on a bench, but make sure you have your ear against it, and have a rubber mallet handy in case the powder needs freeing off.

N.B. make sure the pin's in first.

Also, for those of us with very cold workshops in the winter, remember your foam (AFFF) or water extinguishers need a suitable anti-freeze in them.

Bill

Mind you don’t suffocate yourself with a CO2 extinguisher.

Mike