Center port glowing?

[jaylee78]

How do you get the center port to stop glowing? My minor has always done this.

[kbinkster]

Take a look at your tubes, with the torch off. Does the center tube look a little bit shorter than the ones surrounding it, or do they look even?

Now, while your torch is running, look at the candles. Does the center candle look pretty even with the others, or is it longer or shorter?

Have you tried running your cleaning wires down it? Does it go in the center tube as far as it does for the other tubes?

[kbinkster]

Usually, when the center tube starts to glow, it is because the torch is being run lower than it is designed to be run. What happens is that when you try to run too small a flame, the flame gets pushed to the center and all that heat attacks the center tube. It gets overheated. It starts to glow. Then, if you ignore the symptoms, the center tube will start to deteriorate (erode). It will start eroding faster and faster. Once it erodes back enough so that the center tube is shorter than the surrounding tubes, it will start melting the surrounding tubes.

[Rebekah]

And if your center flame is longer?



God help us all. I'm asking a technical question....

[kbinkster]

If it's just a little longer than the rest, that's normal. If it is almost twice as long or so, then there is a problem.

If the port is glowing and the candle is getting shorter than what it used to be, that could be a sign that the tube is eroding. This is not a set rule. I asked about candle length earlier just to get a better picture of the situation as a whole. Candle lengths in and of themselves don't really tell too much of a story, since it is normal for them to be a little uneven. If you notice them changing from what you remember them being, that can tell me something.