New Fryer / Burner Problems

So my better half and her mom went in to get me a turkey fryer for Christmas (and to get me out of the kitchen). I'm prepping for my first brew day and also prepping an upgrade to all-grain so I'm stoked.

But the Burner will not stay lit, so I'm looking for advice (Perhaps even advice on disabling a faulty safety mechanism).

See Picture


The temp sensor is the little probe.. that is out of the way. The knob is not a control knob, but a timer knob. Inside the metal box is a windup 'egg timer'. Two wires leave the probe. One of these wires goes into the brass housing. the second wire enters the 'egg timer' and then leaves that and enters the brass housing.

On top of the brass fitting is a 'safety push' button. The instructions state for me to hold this button when lighting and to continue to hold for 10 seconds while the burner lights.

The burner operates just fine as long as I hold down on the brass button. The burner cuts off immediately when I release the brass push button, regardless of timer operating, or temperature probe being in position or not.

Suggestions?

I had always planned on ignoring the temp probe, and I had planned on eventually disabling the timer circuitry... but obviously needing to hold this safety button is wrong.

Yes it's under warranty.. and I can probably get a fixed one in a few weeks or months. But I would rather just fix this one now.

Any advice is welcome.

Thanks

Mine had something like that, it was a red plastic button that I had to push down and there was a box with a magnet, a battery, and time circuitry that kept that button down for 15 minutes at a time. I ended up duct taping the button.

Maybe that temp probe needs to be hot to keep the gas flowing? Just guessing here. Could be a thermocouple kind of thing that shuts the flow of gas down if the heat drops, say, in case the burner gets blown out by the wind? I really have absolutely no experience with this kind of burner.

My only other suggestion is a zip tie in place of duct tape to hold the button down.

My concern with zip tie or duct tape is one of heat. I'm not sure either of those solutions will be effective that close to the burner (But then again, I have no experience with a fryer/burner like this... so maybe I'm over thinking it)?

The tip of the probe has to be in the flame to generate current for the electromagnet in the valve. Look at the burner and see if what looks like a bracket on the burner is what the probe mounts through. If not then look for a hole to mount probe that keeps tip in flame.

A light dawns! The probe was sitting just outside the flame when I first tried it, and never considered putting it actually into the flame.

And I just confirmed that this was the solution. Put the temp probe INTO the flame

(Yes, I ran outside, hooked it up, and fired it up for 3 minutes of glow in the dark blue flame goodness!)

Thanks so much.