BG14 NG troubleshooting

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Conan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2008
Messages
744
Reaction score
42
Location
Cheektowaga, NY
Hi all,
I recently upgraded my SP10 burner to a BG14, both on natural gas. I was unhappy with my propane tank emptying on the SP10 so I converted it, expecting a BTU drop- I got one. That burner couldn't heat 6.3 gallons from mash/ sparge temps to 170 degrees over a half hour so I moved inside and did a stove-top boil. That day I bought the BG14 (same burner that's in a KAB4, but without the stand). It's now mounted to this stand using 1x3/16" cold-rolled steel:
050904022127lg.jpg


These photos are wide-open both on the ball valve and the air control disc. They are also in the garage with the door mostly closed (it was only running for 2 minutes, no worries) to keep it fairly dark.
8377207584_f444a482a7_z.jpg


The second shot is looking up with a 5 gallon SS pot. The flames are less than an inch high, nowhere near touching the pot.
8376130907_c7eb1f570e_z.jpg


From the top of the burner to the bottom of the pot is 3.75", and the burner top is about equal with the 'skirt' around the stand. Currently the orifice is drilled to 7/64". I'm hesitant to go larger because I'm not experienced in how the flame should look. We're at 680' elevation and my meter doesn't have a gas pressure listed. I assume it's the standard 5-7" w.c.
Does anyone have a recommendation on getting more NG output, or is that the flame I should be seeing? If this is proper that's okay- I just don't want to be missing out on more power. I heated 4.5 gallons from 63 to 163 in 31 minutes yesterday as a test. It was 61 degrees outside at the time, little wind.

Thanks! Kyle
 
I have 3 of the BG14s converted to NG and they heat things up very quickly. I have about 5" from the burner to the bottom of the keggle so I don't think yours being that close is a bad thing. I did drill my orifice out to 1/8" but I highly doubt 1/64" will make any difference.

One big thing you must keep in mind is the pressure drop due to your NG hose. What size is it? If you bought a small (less than 3/8") long hose then you'll get significant pressure drop across the hose.

The last thing is to make sure you keep the air vent wide open. I'm pretty close to sea level and I still have to keep it all the way open otherwise the flame gets yellow/red.

From your picture it looks like the flame is fine. The flame will look different from propane due to the different way it burns.
 
I got the 10'x5/8" from Lowe's. It's connected to what looks like 1/2" hard line via a quick-connect. On the burner end it has a 3/8" MFL into a 3/8" ballvalve, directly into the orifice and into the burner.

It's easier to light if I keep the air vent about half closed and then open it fully for use.
I am losing a lot of heat up the sides of the kettle. My thermometer was sitting on top of the kettle and read 140. I'm not yet sure how I'm going to fix it, but some searching here will probably help. Incidentally my actual BK is 14.5" wide- about the width of the stand's ring. It may hold heat better. Kyle
 
I modified the mount tonight by moving the burner up so it's a little more than an inch below the top of the stand. While test-heating the same volume (~4.5 gallons) in the same 5 gallon SS pot, it went from 47 to 170 degrees in 19 minutes. It was about 45 degrees out, and the burner was at about half-throttle half the time. Problem solved, I believe. Kyle
 
Had my first brewday on this burner today. I'm at a complete loss as to what's going on. I heated my strike and then sparge waters (3.75 and 4.5 gallons, respectively) from 65 to 185 in 20 minutes. This was in a thin-wall SS 5 gallon pot with the lid on. Now I went to start my boil in a thick-wall, but less than .25", aluminum 40qt pot. The diameter of that pot is 14.5". I had 6.3 gallons to heat from 140 to boil, and started at 1:22. It hit boil, finally, at 2:42 and upon adding hops killed the boil. I'm quite frustrated as I don't know what's going on. I'm better off using the stovetop at this point. Any ideas, from anybody? Oh, my line from the house to the burner is 3/8", not 5/8" as I previously stated. Kyle
 
Obviously you're getting some heat out of your burner if the one pot is heating alright. Unless you live in a freezer, it must have to do with the fluid flow of the heat with your aluminum pot. What's the diameter of your SS pot?

Also why can't you use your SS pot as a boil kettle?
 
When I looked up what code was for black pipe it said 210,000 btu's, is no or smaller or longer, than 3/4" for 15feet. I think your line is to mall. Did you change/drill the orface out for NG?
 
I think I figured it out, but haven't yet fixed it. My SS kettle is something like 12" O.D., while the inside of the burner stand is 13.x". The aluminum pot is 15" O.D. and doesn't allow any venting of the gas and heat. In the dark I can see the flames building up below and engulfing the bottom of the burner itself. I need to raise the aluminum kettle I think a half inch. My SS pot is only 5 gallons so I can't use it for anything more than strike heating.

mikescooling,
I did drill the orifice to 1/8" and the flames are acceptable...without the larger aluminum pot. Unfortunately we rent out house so I can't change the supply line, and I agree it may be too small. It's tee'd in the house from a 3/4", and has what looks like a 3/8" compression fitting to thinwall tubing. I think that's a small bottleneck, but again the setup will heat my smaller kettle fine. There's just not enough flow going on post-burn. Kyle
 

Latest posts

Back
Top