Low flame on banjo burner

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cubbies

Tastes like butterdirt
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For Xmas I got a Bayou Classic Banjo Burner, like this one. I started my brewday today and it worked fine. Had to mess with the air intake a little bit, but no biggie. Now, I am about 30 minutes into my "boil" and the flame has just gone way south. I am barely even sustaining a boil and certainly not getting a rolling boil. So, is there something I should be doing, something I am missing? I mean, this is a brand new tank...assuming I didnt get ripped off at Lowe's I shouldnt be burning through a tank in half a brewday should I? I turned it all off, and lit it all back up, same story, I have messed with the air intake, same story. Any ideas?
 
For Xmas I got a Bayou Classic Banjo Burner, like this one. I started my brewday today and it worked fine. Had to mess with the air intake a little bit, but no biggie. Now, I am about 30 minutes into my "boil" and the flame has just gone way south. I am barely even sustaining a boil and certainly not getting a rolling boil. So, is there something I should be doing, something I am missing? I mean, this is a brand new tank...assuming I didnt get ripped off at Lowe's I shouldnt be burning through a tank in half a brewday should I? I turned it all off, and lit it all back up, same story, I have messed with the air intake, same story. Any ideas?

Sounds like you are covering your bases. But I did check your location. Although you are not anywhere near the great ice/snow belt like I am, could it be your ambient temperature? Is it cold where you are? Is the wind a factor?
 
Yeah, it is basically freezing here...12 degrees give or take. Is that my problem? I didnt know a cold tank did that. I have brewed in the cold before. Not sure if I ever brewed in this cold, but who knows for sure. So a cold/freezing tank, loses pressure?
 
Yeah, it is basically freezing here...12 degrees give or take. Is that my problem? I didnt know a cold tank did that. I have brewed in the cold before. Not sure if I ever brewed in this cold, but who knows for sure. So a cold/freezing tank, loses pressure?

Yep. Pretty much. As the gas 'boils' off it gets colder.
 
Heating pad won't add much heat, but you can try it. Hose long enough to set the tank indoors?

lol...maybe...but not sure if the wife would be cool with me leaving the door open when it is 12 degrees outside. Maybe I will move to the garage and see what happens.
 
Did you follow the instruction that were attached to the hose to a Tee? A lot of folks open her up big time and then the bottom of the tank starts to freez and they get low pressure. On my KAB6, with 13galloons, I dont have to open it past a 1/2 turn. I believe that the suggested range.

Also, close all valves. Wait 15 min. Open tank valve slowly, all the way. Then open reg valve slowly 1/4 turn and light. While the flame is low, adjust the air intalke dial until the flame turns yellow, then turn the other way just until the yellow flame dissappears. Now you can adjust the reg valve to raise the flame and you shouldnt have to adjust the air intake again.
 
lol...maybe...but not sure if the wife would be cool with me leaving the door open when it is 12 degrees outside. Maybe I will move to the garage and see what happens.

Well, at least you can always pick up the boil from where you left off. This is going to need a lot more heat than you think. Good luck. Just have her hang a blanket over the door, or stuff it in the opening.
 
Alright, well I am in the garage now. Gained maybe 10 degrees. It is about 21 in there. I may just be screwed. I tied a heating pad to the tank and wrapped a towel around it to hopefully make use of whatever heat it does put off. I will keep track of it, but I may give up.
 
Looks like your temps are in the teens.

If you are using a propane cylinder and brew outside, I'd bet you lost your pressure. The only thing you can do is warm the little bugger up. Hot water bath or an electric blanket for propane cylinders.

(Yes! they do make such a device)

I fight sub-zero weather Jan and Feb and I cycle two 20# and one 30# propane cylinders. Yesterday I lost and had to finish the last 30 min on the stove.
 
Well, I just lit it back up and I guess the pressure is better, but not much. I dropped down to about 160 during all of this, so I will see if I can get it back to a boil and finish it off, but if not, what are my options? Can I cover the pot and bring it inside, then put the tank inside overnight and hopefully finish it off tomorrow night when I get home from work?
 
My guess would be cover the pot to see if you can get the boil going. If not then you have sanitized the lid and I'd just leave it out covered. Think refrigerated. Yeah. Take the tank inside overnight to warm up.
 
Maybe you could use some hot tap water in a cooler or some other container to warm the tank up? One thing to be sure of is the proper way of opening the valves. The newer grill bottles have built in check valves to prevent gas from coming out if turned over. Will also cause trouble if turned up too high too fast.
Good luck.
 
Well I gave up. Lid is on the pot, and I left it int he garage. It is going to freeze no doubt, but I figure that is better than bringing it inside and having it get infected with something. Brought the tank in and it should be room temp by tomorrow evening. Hopefully that will be enough to get me 30 minutes or so of boiling. I'm sure Im not going to end up with anything that resembles good, but what are you gonna do? Just chalk it up to a learning experience, and at least I'll have a good story when someone asks me what my worst brewday was!
 
I have the same burner and have pretty much the same issue. My last brew day my tank had 1/2 inch of ice coating the whole thing, and all I needed to be warm outside was a sweatshirt, so it couldn't have been much cooler than 50 or so. The warm water bath for the tank is the only thing that helps for me. I use a metal washtub, but a decent sized plastic tote would work as well. I just dump another pot of warm water into it as things cool off.
 
I have the same burner and have pretty much the same issue. My last brew day my tank had 1/2 inch of ice coating the whole thing, and all I needed to be warm outside was a sweatshirt, so it couldn't have been much cooler than 50 or so. The warm water bath for the tank is the only thing that helps for me. I use a metal washtub, but a decent sized plastic tote would work as well. I just dump another pot of warm water into it as things cool off.

The problem is largely due to the high propane demand of those burners when they are run at a relatively high output. The high gas flow tends to chill the tank excessively and sometimes the valve will freeze up. Placing the tank in a tub of water should solve the problem. Open the tank valve slowly initially with the burner valve closed in order to avoid tripping the excess flow rate safety valve. If you have already tripped the valve, you may need to close the tank valve and open the burner valve to relieve the line pressure, then close the burner valve and start over by slowly opening the tank valve. Open the tank valve slowly, but do open it fully.
 
The problem is largely due to the high propane demand of those burners when they are run at a relatively high output. The high gas flow tends to chill the tank excessively and sometimes the valve will freeze up. Placing the tank in a tub of water should solve the problem. Open the tank valve slowly initially with the burner valve closed in order to avoid tripping the excess flow rate safety valve. If you have already tripped the valve, you may need to close the tank valve and open the burner valve to relieve the line pressure, then close the burner valve and start over by slowly opening the tank valve. Open the tank valve slowly, but do open it fully.

Yes and no. I can't even use my grill during the winter because the tank lives outside with the grill. I NEVER get enough heat, even at start up.
 
Don't know why that would be. I use my grill all winter long and I keep the tank outside with the grill. I just grilled some steaks a couple of nights ago and it was like 18 F outside. No problems at all.
 
Well, I went at it again tonight. Pretty much the same story. I had about 30 minutes left to boil and was only able to get about 15. My 10 minute addition ended up becoming a flame out addition and I only netted about 45 minutes of boil time, but I was sick of screwing with it. I will make adjustments for the next brewday, but I am done with this one. Hopefully it ends up decent. I think it'll be okay. Man, what a pain though!! I
 
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