Burner maintenance

Standard turkey deep fryer burner was burning yellow and producing soot. I:
1) pulled it apart
2) brushed it with steel wool
3) coated it with motor oil
4) let it soak for ~1 hour
5) wiped off extra oil
6) reassembled and proudly observed epic blue flames.
Thought I would post as I was not able to find this solution online. It had gotten pretty rusty. I will oil it now as standard maintenance.

Why would you coat it with motor oil?

bja said:

Why would you coat it with motor oil?

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prevent it from rusting again. Not sure it will help once heat volatilizes the oil from the metal though. I could be wrong.

I know a common problem with these burners is a clogged inlet valve and that will cause yellow flame. Spiders like to build nests in that pipe...

broadbill said:

prevent it from rusting again. Not sure it will help once heat volatilizes the oil from the metal though. I could be wrong.

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It's going to burn off the first time it's used.

Unless the rust was caused by leaving the burner in standing water, surface rust is typically not a problem.

Foreign debris in the orifice, hose leaks or regulator malfunction are the typical issues with a burner.

Seasoning a burner?

Interesting...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

Seasoning a burner?

Interesting...

Cheers!

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Interesting it is. My cast burner is always rusted and anything I put on it would just burn right off. Poking a wire through the openings is all it gets maybe once or twice a year.

I though you guys were kidding about the spiders until last weekend. One of my burners was putting out an anemic yellow mini-flame. I unscrewed the gas hose in preparation to take the burner off my rig and noticed spider webs coming out with the threads.

Blow me if a quick flush with compressed air didn't clean out the little bugger!

Now...nice blue flames.

I've noticed my flame getting more & more yellow - looks like a cleaning is in order!

Cleaning alone did not help but yes that can definitely be a problem.

Pretty wet here - my covered patio apparently doesn't help when the rain comes in sideways. The rust got a little out of hand.

I thought about using some cooking oil - like what I do for my cast iron cook ware - but thought motor oil is probably fine. It helped with the clean up and it should provide protection from future rust.