Beer Forum

I've built my brew stand and went on the cheap for burners. I've used it a few times and found it takes forever to boil and the flame is very dirty... soot all over the bottom of the kettle.

Here's what I'm using:
http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/outdoor ... =578846088

It comes with a adjustable 10 PSI regulator. Would a higher PSI regulator give me a better flame or should I just scrap these and buy a Banjo Burner?

jasonclick wrote::shock: I've built my brew stand and went on the cheap for burners. I've used it a few times and found it takes forever to boil and the flame is very dirty... soot all over the bottom of the kettle.

Here's what I'm using:
http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/outdoor ... =578846088

It comes with a adjustable 10 PSI regulator. Would a higher PSI regulator give me a better flame or should I just scrap these and buy a Banjo Burner?

Did you set the air damper correctly? A larger gas regulator will give you better boil times, to an extent. Some smaller burners just can't handle a large regulator. It's usually not a problem to step it up 5 or 10 PSI, but I wouldn't put a 30 PSI regulator on a burner that came with a 5 PSI regulator on it. That won't help your soot issue, it may even make it worse. You have to balance the fuel & air with the damper for the quality of the flame, the regulator affects the quantity of flame.

I used to use that burner and had good luck with it doing 10 gallon batches, it was supper efficient as well. Something is definitely wrong if you are getting a dirty flame and soot. I would recommend trying to adjust the air control vent as well, it sounds like your mix is off.

I tried adjusting the damper from fully closed to fully open. Fully open gets better but still not a nice flame. Looks like it needs more O2. Maybe I'll rig a computer fan up to the air intake and force some air into it and see if that improves the flame.

What does the flame look like? Is it just yellow & weak, or is there a 'grumbling' sound with yellow flames jumping off the nozzles?

It's blue on the bottom. Yellow on top. Maybe it's the best this burner can do.

Blue all around is the goal..........

Some burners have a really narrow sweet spot & you can pass it really easy, not knowing if you're running rich or lean. Hard to say, but my first thought would be to play with the damper a bit more. Of course this is overlooking the other issue you stated, taking a long time to come to boil. This burner will work, but it'll take a lot of tweaking & I highly doubt you'll see seriously significant improvement... noticeable, sure, but nothing drastic. I also don't think putting a bigger regulator on them is going to help either. You can either spend money trying different setups, maybe get lucky & shave 10 minutes off, or live with what you've got & see if you can get it dialed in a bit more, or spend that money on a new burner that's a little more suited for what you're trying to accomplish. Obviously you're the only one who can answer that question. I will say that the amount of money you spend, in the long run, is probably better invested in upgrading to a new burner instead of trial & error or frankensteining the one you have now. That being said, I wouldn't give up on it right away, I'm guessing there's a sweet spot you just don't have quite dialed in yet... and finding that only takes time & not money.