This is another one of those things. A burnt valve is a fire extinguisher. I wouldn’t go as far as putting one on my house, but I think it is one of the most important things to keep in mind and to keep you safe.
A few years ago, when I was in high school, a fire broke out in a class room in our school. The worst part was that it was the last class of the semester. I was there, but I didn’t realize it until a classmate said something. So the teacher came over and said, “Dude, the fire department found a burnt valve in the classroom. I’m going to have to replace your class” (I was like, “What are you talking about?!”).
Burns have been a part of home repair since the very beginning. The first time a valve was drilled, people would put it back together so that it could be put back in the same place. The valves themselves were not safe to be left in a fire because the metal could melt and cause a fire.
A valve’s burnt out, or cracked, is a bit different than a cut or a burn in that it doesn’t necessarily release steam. This is because the metal will have to be heated to the point where it will melt, and that’s why it’s also called a “fused” valve. It’s still in a perfect condition and should be good for another five years.
I’ve been trying to get a valve to burn out since around 2006. I’m still trying to figure out why it never burned out that long ago but I know what you’re thinking. I guess it might be because it was sitting too long.
A valve is designed to keep air flowing through a cylinder, so when you burn it, the metal inside is not hot enough to melt and cause the valve to burst. A valve is also usually a sealed unit so there is no heat transfer between the valve and the cylinder, and the valve itself doesn’t actually burn itself out.
Well, that’s what I thought. A valve is made to keep an air chamber sealed, so I guess it’s not too hard to imagine why it wouldn’t burn out after a long period of time. I’m sure there are a lot of other reasons that valve doesnt burn out, including a few I have mentioned above. But I guess that’s one reason why valve burns out.
I guess a valve doesnt burn out because the heat is still being transferred to the container, but rather because the container is basically burning itself out. The process I mentioned above is pretty well known and documented. It’s called “oxidation.” This is a pretty well documented process, and there’s a lot of scientific literature covering it too.
As I said above, valve burns out because the heat is not being transferred.
Yeah, it burns because the heat is being transferred. And as we all know the more a container is heated, the hotter its contents are going to get. So, if the valve is not getting any heat its going to burn. But we can’t really predict when a valve will burn, so if you’re making a valve for a large tank, you should probably be pretty careful as to how you make it burn out.