2 Stage Low Pressure Propane Regulator

We're trying to figure out what regulator we need for our brewstand. We've been reading several posts on here that suggest having a 2 stage regulator - we'll need low pressure with 11 wc output. I've been looking but most are fairly low BTU ratings.

What would be a good regulator that will give us enough BTU to run a few burners?

We aren't direct firing our MLT although we do have a burner setup in case we need it). We're using 3 Banjo burners as well.

I am assuming you are looking for an LP low pressure regulator. I just got one from Camping World. They say it is rated to 200,000 BTU but I don't have any empirical data yet. Anyway, here is the link,

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/single-stage-lp-gas-regulator/24029

One thing, you need a low pressure burner with this regulator. I got my burner from this site,

http://www.agrisupply.com/product.asp?pn=40282&sid=&eid=

There are also, low pressure banjo burners.

Cheers!

Sorry, I should have read the tittle more carefully, my bad!

In my set up I am using a 10psi regulator into the distribution manifold and then it goes to the low pressure.

Here is setup (and yes I am planning to copy your single tier HERMS design, it looks awesome!),



Cheers!

I continue to do some research on this and am a little bit stumped.

I'm not entirely sure how high my BTU rating needs to be on the regulator we select. In looking into the BG14 Banjo Burner's we bought from Northern Brewer - I believe they are the 210,000 BTU units - so if we drill them out per the chart Kladue has linked to a few times on the forums - we'll be running low pressure at approximately the same BTU correct?

With that said, the only time I could see us using 2 burners at the same time is during boil. The BK would be at full bore to bring to boil, while we might heat up water in the HLT or MT to use cleaning the system. Other than that I believe we'll be at lower BTU ratings on our HLT (with HERMS coil).

So my questions:

1) do we need a 2 stage (or integrated 2 stage) regulator? or could we get by with a standard low pressure single stage regulator?
2) Anyone have recommendations on a decent regulator they've used in their low pressure setup?

Thanks!

The 2 stage regulators offer better pressure control but the cheap one have BTU ratings aroun 160K max. The low pressure single stages are usually built for 10 PSI inlet pressure, some can be found that will take tank pressure at inlet.

So I guess I need to dig deeper in the forum to see what others have used who have a low pressure setup.

I've not found many dual stages that are reasonable price (and again not sure it's needed) but came across this one on eBay that I might bid on.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rego-LV404B23-twin-stage-propane-regulator_W0QQitemZ290391630739QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item439cb0a393

Would it work?

Or - would doing something like is mentioned in this thread a better option? Basically separating the gas - low pressure regulator (11" WC) to drop the pressure for the Honeywell furnace valve and leaving the rest of the line at high pressure for the Boil Kettle and the Mash Tun burner (which is only there in case we get into trouble maintaining temps).
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/low-pressure-vs-high-pressure-propane-100301/

The regulator looks like it should do the job, you should be able to run at least 2 burners wide open, the larger problem will be not tripping the excess flow valve or icing the tank from the high load.

So gas plumbing experts - will this idea work?



We're thinking of either 2 smaller (20 lb) tanks or a big 100lb tank to just make it easier. We are using banjo burners which come for high pressure but we can drill out to be low pressure and need to on our HLT because we're using a furnace valve which needs to run low pressure. This idea allows us to maintain high pressure on the BK and run low pressure on the HLT.

The mash tun burner will probably never get used, but installing it just incase.

Or is there a simpler easier way?

Why not use a Marshall 290 series regulator in place of the 30 PSI regulator and make all the burners low pressure. Then automation at a later date would just be installing valve and pilot. The rating on the 290 2 stage is around 160K-190K but you will usually only have one burner (80 K) on at a time so a regulator for all 3 burning full throttle is overkill. The 2 stage regulators and switch over valves for multiple tanks and such can be found at a RV supply place or online.

Kevin - I guess it comes down to my confusion with the following. The banjo's we bought from NB are high pressure rated to 210k BTU - drilling these out I'm not sure what BTU we'd be getting at low pressure.

Looking at this chart: http://www.joppaglass.com/burner/lowp_chrt.html

I am wondering if our BTU goes down or if we drill out to match the current BTU?

Also - what negative impacts will that have for us in boil times, burner efficiencies? If any.

As you reduce the pressure at the jet you reduce the ability to induce air and the maximum output drops accordingly. You should be looking at the 80K btu size drill for a start and increase if shutter is not fully open. The 210K rating sounds a bit optimistic as the flames would be quite large, 80K under a keggle is usually too much fire and you have flames up the side that look impressive but actually give less heat input than half that rate. Also did you get the propane conversion spring for the furnace valve?, if not then the burner inlet pressure will be quite low. If you have an LP valve there is a regulator adjustment that is internal to the valve that can be used to set flame size regardless of input pressure.

kladue said:

As you reduce the pressure at the jet you reduce the ability to induce air and the maximum output drops accordingly. You should be looking at the 80K btu size drill for a start and increase if shutter is not fully open. The 210K rating sounds a bit optimistic as the flames would be quite large, 80K under a keggle is usually too much fire and you have flames up the side that look impressive but actually give less heat input than half that rate. Also did you get the propane conversion spring for the furnace valve?, if not then the burner inlet pressure will be quite low. If you have an LP valve there is a regulator adjustment that is internal to the valve that can be used to set flame size regardless of input pressure.

Click to expand...

Good to know - we'll look at the 80K drill then.

And yes we did pick up the conversion for the furnace valve.

So you don't think there would be any concerns around being able to get to the appropriate temps if we're around the 80K BTU (running low pressure)? If so we'll go that route, easier plumbing and less parts to deal with.

Matt - so did you eventually go this route? I was thinking of using three hurricane low pressure burners and wanted to make sure that only one regulator, like the Marshall 290 that Kladue mentioned, between the tank and gas manifold is all that is needed. Thanks.

We went the route of 1 marshall 290 and drilled out our 2 burners (BK and HLT). The MT does have a burner hooked up but we don't use it - just there in case we need it. And probably not too bad to have it undrilled - should be super low btu's.

Thanks. I started reading your build thread after I posted - very nice rig!