gas BBQ burner

[watermelon]

i often see cheap second hand gas BBQs in my local ads.

is there any reason why disassembling it and removing a burner, for the use of heating a 50l keg is a bad idea?

how about controlling the flame?

[Truckinbutch]

Nothing wrong with it as long as you get a viable regulator with it . Gas fired requires that you are comfortable with open flame and can work with fire . You got a working burner you can figure out how to make it acommodate your needs .

[Richard7]

Like TB said make sure you get the right regulator, and you may want to consider length of the burner, any hanging over the edge of the boiler is just wasted propane. You can get turkey fryer burners cheap and they tend to be round and just the right size for the job at hand.

[Mr.Brown]

not sure what the btu output is of a bbq burner vs a turkey fryer burner, but i dint think they even compare. i use a turkey fryer & it seems as though it does way better than a grill burner ever could. just a hotter more intense flame on high for the initial heat up. seems like a grill would take forever to bring a keg up to temp.

[RumRunR]

turkey fryer is really the best choice. but the side burner from a gas grill would be better than the actual grill burner.

[F6Hawk]

A BBQ burner/regulator combo will be low pressure, or about 0.25~0.5 psi. (For reference, low pressure devices are normally measure in terms of inches of water column [WC], and 10" WC = 0.361 psi. 1 psi = 27.7" WC). The standard for low pressure regulators seems to be 11" WC. Regulators are typically green or bare aluminum color.


A turkey fryer or banjo style burner will usually come somewhere between 1~60 psi. Those regulators are usually preset to operate between 0-20/0-30/0-60 psi. The extra gas is needed to up the BTUs and compensate for the air blowing the heat away from the heated object. A 10 psi regulator can put out up to 277" WC, so you can produce more heat, but suck down propane a LOT faster. High pressure regulators are typically red, and you have to really look to find out what their pressure is (typically expressed in 1,000s of BTUs).

Buying a setup that produces more BTUs than you need is just wasted money. It takes 8.33 BTUs to raise one gallon of water 1° F. (A tad less if your wash is under 1.000 FG) So if you have 10 gallons of wash at 70° F, and wish to raise it to 173°, you need 8.33 X 10 X 103 = 8,579 BTUs. Of course, this assumes 100% heat transfer, which ain't gonna happen, so let's assume 85%, and now you will use about 10,100 BTUs. If your burner is 10K, it will take just over an hour to get to your 173°. 20K should take about half that time, but probably a little more, as more heat will be wasted unless you really have the burner-to-boiler set up to transfer heat efficiently. My burner will do 100K BTUs, but I still try to hit the boiling point with a low enough flame to take 45 mins to prevent wasting to much. Someone smarter than me may be able to show that not much efficiency is lost in reality, but I am playing it safe. Plus, it gives me time to get everything set up once the fire is lit.

HTH

*edit - I have seen cooktops with two size burners, one being 8,000 BTUs, and the larger one being 10,000. Also, this is a 10K: http://www.amazon.com/Stansport-Single- ... B000XADLN0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[watermelon]

i live in the UK so dont have turkey fryers widely available.