sight glass heat shield

**bendavanza** · 09-20-2009, 04:30 PM

I am tired of the sight glass boiling and shooting wort out of the top, so I have done 2 things:
made a shield out of stainless, somewhat crude but it's a DIY
upgraded the burner to a kab4 banjo

The standard turkey burner I have seems to project the heat with big flames that do not lick up the sides of the kettle but do seem to lose a lot of BTU's because of the velocity of the flames. I am hoping the banjo burner will give more btu's with less turbulence, saving me gas and reducing some of the heat it puts on the valve, thermo, sight glass, and me.
By attaching the shield to the skirt I was able to use screws rather than having to weld. The toughest part was matching the curve of the skirt, I used a contour gauge to match it up.
I hope this works, if I don't brew this week I will for sure next weekend. If it's a winner I will do the same for my HLT.
pics:

**BargainFittings** · 09-20-2009, 04:48 PM

Looks like it will work fine. I've hung a piece of aluminum fold off the fitting and it worked out ok.

**Yuri_Rage** · 09-20-2009, 05:10 PM

While that will work fine, why don't you use a piece of sheet metal to extend the skirt of the keg down over the burner? That will solve both the heat loss issue and the sight glass issue.

**bendavanza** · 09-20-2009, 07:00 PM

Yuri-
I'm concerned about air getting trapped under the skirt, which I have read about, I think Bobby M had discussed in another thread. One day I will go all electric and skip the wasted BTU's and propane fills.
Bargain-
a wad of foil is what I've been using, and it does help.

-Ben