|
Some of these posts are very old and might contain outdated information. You may wish to search for newer posts instead.
|
FooMan



Registered: 02/02/05
Posts: 8,957
Loc: Earth
|
AA PC.... Not a good first experience! 1
#4906197 - 11/07/05 08:03 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
OK, so I have been using a 22qt Mirro PC for a while now and I think the rubber gasket went south (again!). I thought it was high time that I quit farting around with these kiddie PC's and their constantly needed replacemant parts and finally purchased an AA 925 online. It took a week for it to arrive and the place I ordered it from was only about 30 miles away, but it was my fault for ordering right before Hurricane Wilma came through (she was a real Bitch! ).
Anyway, it finally arrived and I prepared some WBS spawn bags for my first go around with it. I read the directions quickly and threw the rack, water and bags in. Then I lubed up the rim of the PC with some Vaseline as the directions stated. I tightened the lid down and I turned on the stove.
As it heated up, I noticed that some steam was leaking out through the small gap between the base and the lid. Was this normal? I thought the "metal-to-metal" seal that is a trademark feature of the AA would avoid this. So I went back to re-read the instructions and saw that "new cookers will sometimes leak slightly around the metal-to-metal seal". GREAT! No worries!
The cooker got up to pressure and I lowered the temp down. The pressure seemed to drop pretty rapidly afterwards, so I raised it again. And so the vicious cycle began of me raising the temp to get it up to pressure, then lowering the temp and watching the pressure drop. WTF was going on? I thought I knew what I was doing when it came to PC's, but this was boggling my mind.
This went on for an hour and rather than me guessing that something was wrong, I just kept raising and lowering the temps to achieve the proper pressure. Well, after the hour, I started noticing a funny smell and that there was no "fizzing" of the weight any longer..... panic setting in!!!! 
I turned off the stove and went to look at the directions again while the pressure dropped. What went wrong? Well, after CAREFULLY reading this time, I noticed what I did wrong. I didn't tighten the lid evenly as the directions said, therefore not creating a good seal. This caused all of the water to evaporate. The result? 4 spawn bags melted to the pot, WBS everywhere, a wife saying "WTF is that smell!?" and me feeling like a freakin idiot.
So what's the point of this long-winded post? To let anyone that is new to PC's or using a different PC for the first time know that they should take the time to read the instructions CAREFULLY. Aside from the fact that you can blow your head off with one of these things, WBS and polybags smell really nasty when they are burnt and scraping them out of your PC is no picnic either.
Sorry for boring the hell out of any poor bastard that took the time to read this, but I just felt I should share this experience with you guys. BTW, the second run went great and I now see why there is so much hype over AA's. They work FANTASTIC!
--------------------
Quick WBS Prep
|
musher_420
Stranger

Registered: 08/01/05
Posts: 2,691
|
Re: AA PC.... Not a good first experience! [Re: FooMan]
#4906214 - 11/07/05 08:07 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
That really sucks. But its a lesson learned.
|
afoaf
CEO DBK?


Registered: 11/08/02
Posts: 32,665
Loc: Ripple's Heart
|
Re: AA PC.... Not a good first experience! [Re: FooMan]
#4906225 - 11/07/05 08:09 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
I'd feel sorry for you, but you own an AA so it evens out.
-------------------- All I know is The Growery is a place where losers who get banned here go.
|
agar
old hand


Registered: 11/21/04
Posts: 9,056
Loc: Somewhere Else
|
Re: AA PC.... Not a good first experience! [Re: FooMan]
#4906241 - 11/07/05 08:12 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
Always always test run any PC empty (excepting water), the first go.
Rub a little parifin on the seal area next time. Tighten two opposing screw downs, then 2 others across from one another, to get the lid SEATED property, then do the rest.
I love AA PC's.
 50 year old AA 941 sterilizer. Works as good as the day it was NEW.
--------------------
|
FooMan



Registered: 02/02/05
Posts: 8,957
Loc: Earth
|
Re: AA PC.... Not a good first experience! [Re: agar]
#4906334 - 11/07/05 08:30 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
I was thinking about doing a "dry" test run, but I was making the newb mistake of not having any patience and I paid for it. I think the hurricane took some of my common sense with it. 8 days of cold showers will do that to you!
--------------------
Quick WBS Prep
|
Magash
Da Bud Guru


Registered: 07/25/02
Posts: 5,876
Loc: Near Hilo
|
Re: AA PC.... Not a good first experience! [Re: FooMan]
#4906986 - 11/07/05 10:03 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
Shit happens, but it's a lesson learned and I'm bumping it so others learn the same. Good of you to let people know
-------------------- All creatures tremble when faced with violence. All creatures fear death, all love life. If we can only see ourselves in others, then how could we possibly hurt another creature?
Join us at the Growery!
|
|
|
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Shroomism, george castanza, RogerRabbit, veggie, mushboy, fahtster, LogicaL Chaos, 13shrooms, Stipe-n Cap, Pastywhyte, bodhisatta, Tormato, Land Trout, A.k.a 1,232 topic views. 17 members, 125 guests and 45 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ] |
|