When you dump a pot, air and dust leave through the exhaust muffler. Pack that element with slag dust and the vessel takes minutes to go soft. Crews then hammer the valve or, worse, blank the relief to kill the hiss. A blanked relief is how a vessel over-pressures. Treat chatter or a stuck relief as stop-work.
Function-test the relief at the start of a shift: it must lift and reseat. If it screams and will not sit, replace the seal or the whole valve. Do not wrap it in rag. BLAST APEX pots are industrial vessels; the relief is not decoration. Clean the muffler housing when dump time doubles versus a new pot.
Exhaust circuit
| Symptom | Cause | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Slow depressurise | Muffler packed with dust | Clean housing, replace element |
| High-pitch noise | Relief not seating | Test, replace seal |
| Delayed vessel dump | Exhaust restriction | Purge dump lines |
| Vessel over-pressure | Relief blocked or seized | Replace valve before next fill |
BLAST APEX pots are built for industrial duty. Do not blank a relief to “stop the hiss”. That is how vessels fail.