Charlieatthedisco

Recipes 

I am making a 2 burner propane manifold for my "wallace" brew stand and I am at the plumbing portion...I have the burners, hoses and black piping all together but I see a lot of guys with needle valves to each burner to control flame...my question is is that necessary? Or can i just us ball valves at each burner for shut off purposes only?
thanks

l3asturd

Recipes 

To my knowledge, needle valves are only used when more precise flow control is needed. Ball valves are typically used in on/off situations, and offer mediocre flow control.

Charlieatthedisco

Recipes 

Awesome thanks for the reply! Do you also know if flared ball valves are needed? Or just the regular straight ball valves?

evandena

Recipes 

I had this same question. Thanks for the info.

paparker21

Recipes 

ball valves can give you some coarse adjustment while a needle will give you fine tuning. Keep in mind you want that flow control if you're going to try and hit any sort of precise temps without having to open and close the valves constantly to try and adjust.

Charlieatthedisco

Recipes 

That is a good point, I was thinking of just getting one for my hlt burner. Does it have to have flared fittings? The burners are the bg-12 that work best with only 10 psi

Soulrebel

Recipes 

Spend the money on the needle valves as well. Even small things like the wind will mess with your flame and it is nice to have the needle valves to adjust. I believe that all of the ball valves rated for gas (check the water heater section of your hardware store) are flare fittings. Flares are easy to use and make. Harbor Freight has a cheap and easy flare tool.

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OneHoppyGuy

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Recipes 

We have switched from using ball valves for burners to needle valves. The cost is about the same but the difference in control quite measurable.

Here are ball valve hook up photos:



and needle valve:

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