OP here. Unfortunately I did not see this post earlier and had a horrible experience last night brewing my AHS Oatmeal Stout. I was only doing a partial boil (4 gallons) and I NEVER got to a boil. I thought I had a bum regulator because I found if I turned the needle valve almost off (while the flame was lit) and then quickly spun the knob open I could get a much larger flame....for about 1 second and then it would go back to its piddlingly slow rate. My thermometer was showing >200F but I never hit the boil. I kept thinking my tank was near empty but when I sloshed it around I could still here a good bit of liquid propane so I knew it wasn't that.
I was doing a late extract addition (~1/2-3/4lb extract with the hops since the Stout has so many steeping grains), and so needed to kill the heat with about 15min left.
I turned off the heat, added my malt, turned the heat back on and was shocked to see it now putting out about 3-4X the heat. I looked down at the burner and it was huge. I had not changed anything just physically turned off both the needle and the tank valves and then back on, but something had changed. Now with the heat much stronger I had to constantly stir the mixture to prevent burning on the bottom, but I still never took the batch to a complete boil (I had started to hydrate my yeast and was worried it would be less effective if it sat too long before being pitched). I hope this doesn't hurt me in taste later on.
My other fear is that since I was always trying to conserve heat (lid was on unless stirring) that some off-flavors may have been trapped that normally boil off (sulfates or something). Every previous batch I did was done uncovered as recommended but with this one I could barely hit 190F if I didn't have it completely covered. I should have realized something was seriously wrong, but just kept hoping it would magically boil. Now I realize as you did BigKahuna that something was messed up with the regulator.
To top off my horrible ordeal, while everything else went great in terms of setting up the fermenter after adding all the wort to the 2 gallons of water I had pre-boiled and cooled, I had what looks to be 6 gallons (or possibly even a hair more)! Remember I had virtually no water loss from the boil since it was practically covered the entire time and so my well planned thought of having more than 6 gallons pre-boil came back to bite me in the arse. I was so ticked I carried the full carboy downstairs, popped in the airlock and had to leave the house for a bit or risk going Office Space on the burner.
I'll need to go back and actually read the instructions to see if there was something I did wrong when lighting (ie you HAVE to do it a specific way or the regulator acts wierd). I doubt it, and will chalk it up to dumb luck, but I would recommend for anyone that purchased this product to FIRST try it on just a couple gallons of water and make sure you can get it to a boil in under 30min. As others mentioned (and I should have remembered since my buddy brewed a batch before with one) these friers sound like whistling jet engines when you are really heating. Loud enough to be annoying if very close, and the flame will be practically touching the bottom of the pot.