Flame adjustment help

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Nightbrew

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Ok guys I have got this brutus type rig pretty much put together but I am very dissapointed in the flame. I am running two burner set up w/ the following parts--200,000 btu low pressure 2 stage propane regulator set 11" wc,honeywell 8200's, ball valve, flex line, and finally blichmann burners. I drilled out one the orifices w/a 5/64 bit and the flame on it is a weak yellow flame dancing in the wind, the other burner orifice I left unchanged from its original high pressure set up and have small blue flame maybe a 1/2inch high. It looks good but doesnt seem like it has any ass behind it whatsoever. I am new to the low pressure game and maybe the blue flame is good, but I dont think I can get anything to boil within a day with it, much less the burner that I drilled the orifice out with. I am used to high pressure through these blichmanns and I am starting to think I have made an expensive mistake. What can I start looking at/adjusting to make these burners hum.
Thanks guys trying to get this bad boy going for big brew day on 5/5
 
Low pressure propane or NG? Are you using the appropriate regulator spring in the honeywell valves (most come set up for NG)? Have you tried adjusting the regulator setting on the honeywells (they come pre-set at 3.5"WC IIRC)? What size line do you have feeding the valves and the burners?
 
With the valves should have been a small bag with a red colored spring and a couple plastic parts, this is the conversion parts for raising the valve outlet pressure up to 13" for propane use. After conversion adjust the internal regulator spring to get the maximum fire level you want, then it will be easier to fine tune with a valve between the honeywell valve and the burner.
 
I just made the adjustment on the honeywell, screwed the regulator as far down as it would go and still not getting much fire at all. Any other suggestions, should I mess with the orifices some more? Kladue, I did change out the springs before, thanks
 
The low blue flame sounds right for a small orifice size on low pressure. The other sounds like a gas leak. Check the pilot tube, they are notorious for leaks.
 
A real dumb question is did you use the "Black" tank adapter instead of the higher flow "Green" version, and did the excess flow valve trip when firing up the propane side. Everything else sounds correct for the low pressure setup, the excess flow valve could be a hidden problem that would cause the symptoms. On the gas valve there are 1/8" NPT socket head plugs on the incoming and out going sides for pressure measurements, you can make a "U" tube manometer with 1/4" plastic tubing and measure the pressures. A quick and dirty method is to use a yard stick and tape the tubing to the yard stick and add colored water until the U bend has at least 9" of liquid on each side, more does not matter, less and it might blow all the liquid out of the tube. To measure the pressure you add the amount that the level drops and amount it rises to get the total pressure applied, hopefully 11"-13".
 
Kladue, I dont know what you are referring to in the black and green tank adapter. By saying tank I can only assume you referencing the propane tank, thus meaning an colored adapter going to it? Need a touch more info on this. thanks again--also I did get one burner to fire correctly the other needs to have the orifice drilled out. On a side note I did not change a thing from before but just fired it to test more things out and it worked great
 
Kladue, I dont know what you are referring to in the black and green tank adapter. By saying tank I can only assume you referencing the propane tank, thus meaning an colored adapter going to it? Need a touch more info on this. thanks again--also I did get one burner to fire correctly the other needs to have the orifice drilled out. On a side note I did not change a thing from before but just fired it to test more things out and it worked great

Glad to hear it's working now. I think kladue may have been on to something with the excess flow valve getting tripped. If you have the issue again, try opening the valves slowly. Sometimes even a moderate flow level will trip it if there's a sudden increase in flow. And the tank adapter is the part that connects your supply hose to the tank.

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Thanks is the excess flow valve in the honeywell or built in to another piece?

It's built into the tank adapter. I think the older style tanks had them built into the tank valve. It's designed to slow the gas flow down to a trickle in the case of a supply hose breaking or other similar event. It doesn't shut the flow off completely in order to allow you to find the leak. To prevent the valve from tripping there has to be some back pressure against it, so if you have all of your high flow burner valves wide open and then turn the tank valve on suddenly, it could activate. If you partially close some valves downstream, it should build up some back pressure, and re-open.
 
ok good to know,so how does it get reset after it has tripped? do you close the valve and reopen with some pressure against it?
 
You may not even need to close the tank valve, just close some/all things downstream of it to create some backpressure. If you listen close you should hear a click when it activates, and then another click when it re-opens.
 
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