thelastknight

I think I do have a torch tip cleaner out there somewhere, I could try cleaning it. I do have flow coming out the end though. My torches did sit out in the shed all winter, I had two of them freeze up and had to heat them up to get the check valves unstuck a while back. I wonder if the freezing has damaged the check and I am getting too much propane or not enough. I might be below or above the LEL (lower explosive limits) or UEL (upper explosive limits)?

Ok Propane works off of pressure that is formed by evaporating Propane, this is why they dont fill up propane tanks all the way. There must be room for vapor pressure to build up. If you tip the tank upside down then liquid propane spurts out the end, the liquid is not what burns but it is the gases created from evaporation that burn. Propane has a boiling point of about -40 degrees F. If it is below -40F there will be no pressure for propane and it will remain a liquid with no evaporation, thus no vapors to burn. Having said this, I have a peculiar problem today and think I may be stuck in a dream right now. I have Four torches, two handheld tanks of propane, and two handheld tanks of mapp gas. I can not get any of my four torches to light in any combination with my four fuel containers. I am using a lighter to light them so I have an open flame. I tried them on low and on high. I tried them right side up, even tried them upside down and sideways. I actually had flames burning out the sides where the air is suppose to be drawn from but there is no torch that ignites. There is only flames pushing away from the torch. You know how a torch has a torch tip when it is lit and the torch sound? There is none of that. The torch tips are newer. The bottles are less than a year old. I can only get this weak flame that keeps going out or it just blows air at my lighter and pushes the lighter flame away but no ignite. I gave up trying to start a fire tonight. This is unreal. I can only imagine that the oxygen in the air has disappeared, or I am on some alien planet right now. I have not taken any drugs for a long time. Am I going crazy? I don't think there is a shelf life on propane or mapp gas but could there be some contaminant in it. Did the company start putting something in it so it expires? What is going on in this crazy world?