220,000 btu worth the upgrade?

I do 5 gallon batches. Ive been debating if upgrading from my 62,000 btu burner to a bayou 220,000btu would be of much help. It would get me to boil faster i guess. But would that save me gas? Im filling my tank every 3-4 brews with my 62,000.

You'll cut some time off the boil but you'll use more propane. Your 62k BTU burner is fine for up to 10 gallon batches. With you doing 5gal batches I see no reason to jump up now. A kettle can only absorb so much heat, the rest just heats the atmosphere.

Spike is correct. I upgraded to the Banjo burner (which I'll bet is the one you're looking at), and it burns through almost a whole tank in a single brew session.

It was a necessary evil though since my brew buddies and I had also upgraded our kettles to use cut-top kegs. The heavy steel on those things were just too much for the original turkey fryer burner to heat in a reasonable amount of time.

The best thing you can do for yourself is make a wind guard that goes high enough around your boil kettle to keep the hot gasses encased around it. I made a simple/crappy-yet-effective one out of aluminum flashing and rivets. I hit boil in about half the time and use about have the gas.

As mentioned, they use a lot of propane. They also tend to freeze up the tanks when they get around half full. Putting the tank in a tub of water will help with this. I eventually converted my banjo burners to natural gas. When I built the new stand, I went with the wok burners. I miss the banjo burners sometimes. Nice even heating, and I suspect they would work better with my spark ignitors versus the wok burners (more metal surface).

RadicalEd said:

The best thing you can do for yourself is make a wind guard that goes high enough around your boil kettle to keep the hot gasses encased around it. I made a simple/crappy-yet-effective one out of aluminum flashing and rivets. I hit boil in about half the time and use about have the gas.

Click to expand...

This is a genius idea. I've heard of wind guards protecting the flame but not this. Keeping the hot gases flowing up next to the side wall effectively increases your heating surface area by 6.

RadicalEd said:

The best thing you can do for yourself is make a wind guard that goes high enough around your boil kettle to keep the hot gasses encased around it. I made a simple/crappy-yet-effective one out of aluminum flashing and rivets. I hit boil in about half the time and use about have the gas.

Click to expand...

A wind guard absolutely will improve your burner efficiency. Ideally you want to shield the burner and as much of the kettle as your liquid-line reaches.

I used a cut-down 30 gallon steel drum with the end cut out of it.

It rests on some brackets that I welded onto my burner stand. I also cut a small opening in it for drain valve access.

thanks guys for the info. its kinda what i was thinking. I will make up a guard for my current burner and leave it at that.