hothead troubleshooting

[GlassicArt]

I'm sure this question has been asked and answered many times but I could not find anything. I have a hothead torch. It was working fine, but them suddenly shut off. I figured I would just start again on a different day. Well not I can't get it to work at all. It makes noise like if it is working but does not pick up the flame. Any suggestions?

[wendbill]

What are running it on? Mapp containers or a propane bottle?

Could it be that you're out of gas?

(May as well start off with the obvious).

[GlassicArt]

Propane with a hose

[wendbill]

I would first check to see if your propane bottle is empty.

[CelesteK]

If you had an abrupt colder temperature change your torch won't work. This winter when the temperatures dropped down below 20 F, I couldn't torch at all. The torch would hiss, but the fuel wouldn't ignite.

Celeste

[GlassicArt]

Well, we did just get snow, but the temperature was pretty comfortable. I'll try again and see. There is propane but it's below half. Could that have anything to do with it? Thanks for your responses.

[lunamoonshadow]

Try blowing out the hose, or draining the hose--you may have "goo" built up in there--disconnect it & let it hang (put something under it!) & see if anything icky runs out overnight (or use an air compressor to blow it out if you're lucky & have one--that's a trick a few people use--just don't stand at the other end or you could be wearing the ickystuff!)

If it's build up in the torch itself, you might be able to blow/burn it out by opening the torch to "full flame" when you light it & just burning it off--that's worked several times for me--I usually take the torch outside to do that though, because it's a pretty good sized dragon flame & I don't like a huge flame in the house--don't want to set the wall on fire! I run the torch for 5 or 6 minutes until the flame stops fluctuating & I stop seeing sputtering & then turn it back to a small "usual for torching" size & that usually solves whatever had built up inside there.

There's also a great tutorial on Melinda's website on how to take apart & clean the old-style Hotheads--not sure if you have the old or the new version though (the newer one doesn't come apart I don't think? Or doesn't come apart the same? I'm not sure--I've got the older one!)
Anyway, here's the link:
http://www.cauldroncreations.com/hotheadinfo.html

(Incidentally, Melinda has an AMAZING batch of tutorials linked off her site--I just noticed that--I may not get any laundry done today....she's even got Ali Turner's "ghost in a jar" o there!!)
~luna