What are the 3 vents / weights on this Chinese pressure canner

canningpressure-canner

I bought a pressure canner of Amazon, unfortunately the manual is entirely in Chinese.

It doesn't look like the two types of pressure canners I have learned about, which are "weighted gauge" and "dial gauge".

It has 3…things on the lid and I am not exactly sure how to operate it. Is this basically dial gauge pressure canner? What are the 3 things? Vents?

The product was fairly expensive and looks well build and judging by the temperature gauge it can reach very high pressures, so I assume, that it can be used for canning, but I am not sure how to find information on it.

It looks like this:

Top:
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Top from the side:
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From the top:
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From the bottom:
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Close Up of one of the holes:
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Part of the manual:

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Full manual: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Tw3X3beWptUEGTLG6

Edit:

After scanning part of the manual with an OCR scanner and using google translate I learned the following: The middle valve is a safety valve. The right one is for manual release. The left one with the pins sticking out is an automatic release, possibly adjustable.

Best Answer

  1. Which valve is which?

    See labels below:

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  1. When to use the auto valve?

    According to user manual Page 6, Section 5.7, you are supposed to move the handle on the auto valve at least twice a week to make sure it doesn't get stuck. Other than that, just leave it alone and let it do its thing. It will automatically maintain your pressure and temperature. I guess the auto valve is a calibrated device and they don't want you to touch it too often which would wear out the spring, so they give you the manual valve for routine pressure release.

    Additionally, if you see pressure rises to 0.175MPa but no steam comes out of the auto valve, then it's considered a malfunction and you should have the auto valve checked and repaired(5.6, Page 6).

  2. When to use the manual valve?

    Page 4, Section 4.3 and 4.4 says you are supposed to bend the tube down and slide it into the slot on the pot. And you should let the manual valve open until 1 minute after steam comes out of it, to purge the air. This is why you can not use the auto valve for this job: it doesn't have the tube so can not efficiently purge air from the bottom of the pot.

    Page 5, Section 4.7 recommends you don't open the manual valve until 2 minutes after pressure fully drops to avoid shooting hot water out of it. Also, rapid change in pressure and temperature can cause damage to the contents in the pot. However, if you don't want to wait, you can release the pressure immediately after cutting the power, just be careful(4.6, Page 5).

  3. When to use the safety valve?

    The manual didn't mention anything except you should have it checked every 6 months. So just leave it alone and hope you never have to activate it.

(This thing is actually a medical sterilizer. As is any electric medical devices the user manual actually includes a full EMC test standards(GB/T 17626) and results).

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