Banjo Burner Natural Gas Conversion

I started by converting my standard burner I got from Menards to natural gas. It didn't work out too well. The flame was too small and I could barely keep 6 gallons boiling.

I bit the bullet and bought a banjo burner and converted it to NG this weekend. I bored the orifice out to 1/8" and hooked it up. The results were very nice. Here's a short clip for anyone interested in doing the same:

[ame]http://youtu.be/fHaK7brjvao[/ame]

How did the burner do after it was converted? It looks great in the video, but how do you feel it performs in comparison to propane?

bhizzy1 said:

How did the burner do after it was converted? It looks great in the video, but how do you feel it performs in comparison to propane?

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I'm curious to know too cause I am going to drill mine out in the morning!

Anything you would have changed?

Transforming a high pressure cast iron burner to 11" WC natural gas will dramatically lower its maximum output - but no sane person ever runs a BG-14 WOT on 30 psi propane anyway

From various videos I've seen, with a high volume regulator and properly sized pipe runs you should have more than enough peak output to manage at least a half barrel system...

Cheers!

Would it be as simple as swapping out the drilled orifice with a new one to switch back to propane?

If the only thing you've changed is the orifice size, yes. You could keep the one that came with the burner & buy the NG fitting, no drilling.

logdrum said:

If the only thing you've changed is the orifice size, yes. You could keep the one that came with the burner & buy the NG fitting, no drilling.

Click to expand...

Are there other modifications recommended for getting the banjo burners converted?

adamant said:

Are there other modifications recommended for getting the banjo burners converted?

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I'm not the OP & that awesome video is not mine, however, I AM in the process of converting a couple of Banjo Burners to NG. Since the burner is already optimized for low pressure, switching between NG & propane shouldn't require anything more than swapping to the correct sized orifice. I'm not planning (nor have I read anything about) further modifying the burner itself. I have read several posts that advise using a drill press or similar to bore out the orifice.

For those who don't want to drill, you can buy the NG orifice at Williams Brewing. It says it's for the Hurricane Burner, but it fits the Bayou Classic Banjo Burner just fine.

Here's my old burner.

Dcbc Williams Brewery says you need a 11" WC regulator any idea what this means? Can't I just get the conversion valve and plug straight into my supply line with a NG hose?

This is most probably not the right way to do it, but this is what I did at the time, not knowing any better. I screwed in the orifices from Williams Brewing and connected it to my gas plumbing on the stand (3/8" pipe). I connected the gas plumbing on the stand to the hose and high pressure regulator that came with my Banjo burner. Thinking about it now, that was not the way to do it, but it got me the nice blue flame in the picture above.

I'd say listen to them. That 11" WC regulator looks like just the ticket for a low pressure setup. On my current setup, I'm using the 20 tip wok burners and running 3/4" all the way from the gas meter straight to the stand. It reduces down to 1/2" and even further where the ASCO valves for the Blichmann TOP are in the line. But it works fine.

DCBC Thanks, the local gas provider is indicating that the gas delivered to the house is at 6" or 7" WC. I am not sure about the piping from the meter to my hard outlet for the gas grill - hoping to just snap into this on the back patio for brew day. So under this scenario I should be providing pressure lower than the recommendation, right? Or do I need the regulator to ensure the proper pressure? Just want to make sure I can get a good - safe - boil before plunking down big $$ on a burner. Right now I am doing this on my stove top, which is gas, but it takes 45 to 50 minutes to boil my 6.5 to 7.0 gallon wort for a 5 gallon batch. Hoping to reduce the time!!!

I edited the post above. I did not use the banjo burner high pressure regulator. Sorry. Brain fart. I went 3/4" pipe about 20' from the meter and another 15' of 3/4" hose to the stand. At the stand, I had 3/8" pipe to the burners (about 1--3 feet depending on the burner. Worked fine.

The difference is about 0.4 to 0.25 psi with versus without the pressure regulator. I have no idea what difference that will make. When I added the line for the garage, I went pretty big on the pipe to deliver as much volume of gas as I could. If you have time, try it without the regulator and see if it gets you a nice blue flame. Your pressure is pretty typical for household. I'm guessing it will work fine and put out enough power for at least a 15 gallon boil without the regulator, but if it does not, you can try the regulator to see if it helps.

With my current wok burners, there is no question but that it works fine going straight into the burner. Even the burners that are restricted by the ASCO valves put out a pretty good bit of flame. The unrestricted burner never gets run flat out.

All, I have now brewed twice on my converted hurricane banjo burner. I purchased the conversion valve from Williams Brewing. It is running straight off my supply line for the gas grill. I got 5 gallons to a boil in 25 minutes without further adjustment. I have knocked off about 1 hour and 15 minutes from my brew day making the transition from the kitchen. Thanks to everyone for your help.

Anyone know if the Blichmann NG conversion kit will work with a Banjo burner?