Review: Brinkmann 815-4005-S Outdoor Cooker Stand

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zzARzz

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Hey Everyone,

I just received Brinkmann's 815-4005-S Outdoor Cooker Stand and am pretty happy with it. I ordered it from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CSTHPY/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i01) with free shipping for just $50 and received it quickly and undamaged.

Construction is easy and the instructions are straightforward. I used an electric screwdriver and socket wrench and it only took 20 minutes from start to finish. It's pretty light (I can carry it around with one hand) yet sturdy.

I broke it in using 5 gallons of water in an uncovered 40 qt heavy aluminum stockpot and it took the water from 72F to boiling in only 19 minutes. The boil didn't slow down even when small to medium wind gusts came through. This was only at about 75% power since I didn't want to crank it on its first run out, but I did max it out for the last minute and it's almost scary (100,000 BTUs tends to do that :D).

I've used various cookers for other things like crawfish and lobster boils, but this unit gets much hotter than any I've used at a really good price.

Here are a couple pictures I've taken with a 12oz bottle to get an idea of the size. I really like this unit and would recommend it to anyone looking to get away from the agony of using an electric stove (as I so desperately did) for a decent price.

cooker1-55598.jpg


cooker2-55599.jpg
 
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Considering this over the bayou country because I don't need 300I btu. In say 4 gallon can you bring the boil down gentle from violent?
 
Considering this over the bayou country because I don't need 300I btu. In say 4 gallon can you bring the boil down gentle from violent?

Yeah, the controls are pretty sensitive and I can adjust temperatures/boil activity quickly with only a slight turn. I had 1 boil-over scare on my last brew and a quarter turn of the knob calmed it down within a few seconds.
 
Thanks. I'm thinking this might be a better option for me. It's never very cold here so probably powerful enough even when I go up to 7.5 gallon full boils, right?

Currently I'm boiling around 4 gallons in a 12" 20 qt pot. My stove has a turbo boiler but I still waste a lot of time waiting to boil.
 
Thanks. I'm thinking this might be a better option for me. It's never very cold here so probably powerful enough even when I go up to 7.5 gallon full boils, right?

Currently I'm boiling around 4 gallons in a 12" 20 qt pot. My stove has a turbo boiler but I still waste a lot of time waiting to boil.

Before getting this I had a 20qt pot on an electric stove and it felt like waiting in line at the DMV for it to reach a rolling boil (which it never really did). The unit brought my last 5 gallon brew (starting with 7 gallons of wort) up to a boil quickly, so you shouldn't have any issues.
 
"Florence, Y'all"... ;)

Looks good. If I wasn't dead set on getting burners to run on natural gas, I'd probably go ahead and order this right now...
 
Find any? I have a natural gas stub out back.

I don't have natural gas in my neighborhood or I would have gotten something like these: http://www.outdoorstirfry.com/index.php/products/natural-gas-stoves/1-burner-ng-stoves?layout=blog

We used natural gas wok burners like these in culinary school and they get hot enough to smelt gold. You'd probably need to get a cast iron spider or grate to put on it to hold the pot, but if you want to use natural gas they're a decent buy.
 
I've got a crap walmart clearance turkey fryer propane outfit that was great for the price ($30) but I'm looking to upgrade my burner to something that I can tune to a nice blue, or at least mostly blue flame. Regardless of what I do now, my current burner has a horrible huge orange flame that leaves a layer of soot all over my beautiful stainless pot. :mad:

I'm looking to buy this Brinkmann burner. You still happy with it? Can the flame be adjusted easily/effectively?

Thanks!!
 
I've got a crap walmart clearance turkey fryer propane outfit that was great for the price ($30) but I'm looking to upgrade my burner to something that I can tune to a nice blue, or at least mostly blue flame. Regardless of what I do now, my current burner has a horrible huge orange flame that leaves a layer of soot all over my beautiful stainless pot. :mad:

I'm looking to buy this Brinkmann burner. You still happy with it? Can the flame be adjusted easily/effectively?

Thanks!!

Hey Jim,

Yeah, the burner has worked out really well. I've done about 5 brews with it and it has never left soot on the bottom of my 10 gallon pot. the controls are very precise and I can make noticeable adjustments with only a quarter turn of the knob. I never use it full blast (I do 5.5 gal batches), so I figure it has more than enough power for larger 10 gal+ batches.

I heat up my mash water with it between mash steps and it can bring even a large volume of water to temp pretty quickly. I can then lower it down to maintain the water temp until I need it.

I'm very happy with it and the price was even better, so I'd say go for it.
 
I've had that same Brinkmann since 2009. I bought it at Home Depot and it has been great. The wide stand is very stable and the legs are big enough to bolt on some caster if you want to roll it around.
 
This looks like just what the doctor ordered. My first batch last week took forever to get to boil. Never hit a strong boil at all, this was with the pot straddling two burners on a gas stove.

Amazon is currently out of stock, but I'm ordering now so it will ship as soon as they get more.
 
I started a thread on this burner recently but haven't been to HD to make the purchase. Home Depot price is $49 last I checked. BTW, while Amazon doesn't show it.. or I didn't see it.. this unit is 100,000 btu's compared to the Bayou Cooker and most others at 55,000 btu. I have NO idea why BC discontinued their 185Kbtu cooker and dropped the unit down to a 10psi regulator and 55kbtu.. other than I did see some folks talking about the flame lifting off the burner far enough to blow itself out.

I looked at the specs for it here before buying it on Amazon: http://www.brinkmann.net/products/details.aspx?item=815-4005-S

It also has a PDF copy of the user's manual, as well, which details cleaning spider webs out of the mixer.
 
Just got an update email from Amazon regarding the backorder. Expected delivery is Tuesday, which means they must be expecting their delivery tomorrow to make the two day Amazon free shipping window.
 
So what's it sound like? Quiet like a Blichmann or loud like a Bayou Classic? Any comment on the efficiency of propane usage?
 
Amazon's page only shows one left in stock, 'but more on the way'. Must have been a lot of backordered homebrewers. :D
 
Yeah, I'd thought about that but none of the Home Depots within about 20 miles even stock it at all. Plus, I'm a cheapskate and can save $4 tax. Finally, seeing FedEx or UPS pull up is the closest thing to being a kid on Christmas Day at my age....:ban:

It is good to see that two of the four reviews at Home Depot, and both of the two reviews at Amazon, are from homebrewers.
 
They did the same thing in Texas, but I don't always get charged tax. I think it has to do with if the product ships from their Texas warehouse.
 
Well you know Bill here in the southeast one can never have too many fry pots. Catfish, pork skins, frog legs, hushpuppies......Good beer eats :)
 
All right, finally put this together tonight. Overall solid construction. The screws are not standard #2 phillips slot, hard to tighten and easy to strip with a standard #2 screwdriver. A #3 is what you really need, fits perfectly and you can really torque the screws down well.

For those of you that already have this cooker, I have a question about connecting the hose to the burner. The conical spring that they show going on the hose, where exactly and which way? Is it supposed to go underneath the shutter and push against the burner body, or on the end of the hose fitting and push against the outside of the shutter? Putting it on the hose seems like you can't thread the hose into the burner body very far at all, no matter which direction you orient the spring. Help! :drunk:
 
Does yours look like this? I don't have a spring on mine, but I've had it since 2009 so maybe they've changed it.

DSC_0039.jpg
 
All right, finally put this together tonight. Overall solid construction. The screws are not standard #2 phillips slot, hard to tighten and easy to strip with a standard #2 screwdriver. A #3 is what you really need, fits perfectly and you can really torque the screws down well.

For those of you that already have this cooker, I have a question about connecting the hose to the burner. The conical spring that they show going on the hose, where exactly and which way? Is it supposed to go underneath the shutter and push against the burner body, or on the end of the hose fitting and push against the outside of the shutter? Putting it on the hose seems like you can't thread the hose into the burner body very far at all, no matter which direction you orient the spring. Help! :drunk:

The link to the online manual can be found here: http://images.brinkmann.net/docs/pdf/815-4005-S.pdf
On page 15 they have the spring between the hose and the burner. I guess it's to keep pressure on the hose and threads so it doesn't rattle loose and maintains a good seal. I remember it was a bit of a pain to screw it on with the spring in place when I built mine, but it's better than risking a gas leak.
 
Yeah, the online manual is the same as the printed one. They've changed how the shutter mounts from the older units, now the shutter has the screws on the outside edge instead of on the face of the shutter.

20120930_100055.jpg

The spring seems way too long for the amount of room it needs to fill.

20120930_100136.jpg

Oh well, the fitting is in tight and I can rotate the shutter, so I guess it's OK. Just looks like cr#p.

20120930_123912.jpg
 
Anyone know if this unit can be converted to NG?

There's a forum here that runs through converting a LP cooker to natural gas, but it sounds like an explosion waiting to happen. It would be safer to just get one that is designed for natural gas, though they tend to be more expensive.

This site has a couple and a few more that they will convert to NG for free at Tejas Smokers.
 
I"d write/call Brinkman. They might sell the proper venturi to do the job. I don't know what the tradeoff would be. Propane is more expensive and more efficient than NG.. so, I believe it would take longer with NG to do the job.. ie a lot of NG. I, personally, like the speed of propane. This is an awesome burner.
 
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I just ordered this burner at home depot for 25 dollars free shipping. What sort of pressure regulator is on this... The burner looks the same as my Brinkmann turkey fryer but thats only rated at 45000 btu
 
I believe it's an LP regulator, but it will get hot fast. Having used it for a while I can tell you that the only down side is it will rip through propane tanks (I usually only get 2-3 AG, 60 minute brews out of a tank; that includes heating mash and sparge water, etc.). Other than that it has served me really well since the original post. Great price you got on that too!
 
Do you know what pressure the regulator is though? The one for my fryer is 5psi. No that it really matters.... I was really just looking for burner and a hose with a regulator and stumbled across this. I thought it was a good deal... I might not hack it up after all
 
The manual for it can be found here. On page 7 it states that the regulator is rated for a maximum output pressure of 10psi.
 
OK cool that's pro ally where they get 100k BTUs then. Mine is only 5psi so the would make sense.
 
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