Outdoor Burners

Need some help. I am working on my second batch of beer. For the first, I used the stove to boil and realized that may not be the most efficient.

I bought an outdoor burner: Grand Gourmet Outdoor Cooking System

Steel stand with 160,000 BTU burner.

Before I start on the batch, I just wanted to test it out a bit. I put a bit of water in my 8 gallon stock pot and fired it up. The burner lit as expected.

I walked out about five minutes or so later and the bottom of the pot isn't even warm to the touch. The burner itself is hot. I also can smell propane when I'm close to the burner (after I turned it off).

Since I've never worked with this setup, I don't know if all of this is normal or if something seems off. It is cold outside (about 30 degrees) and I'm doing this in a fairly open-air setting.

HELP!!!

Does it have a thermocoupler on it?

I have one that I rarely use but the thermocoupler on mine gave me fits and I would always have to fiddle with it to keep my burner lit.

160,000 BTU's is plenty of heat. I use a 65,000 BTU burner and have no problem getting 7.5 gallons up to a boil.

You don't say how much water you put in the pot to test it, but basically most of the pot is going to be the temperature of the water in it due to the large thermal mass of the water. The pot will basically be warm on the very bottom, but it is passing the heat into the water. As the water heats up so will the pot.

There should be some sort of small metal air intake adjustment near where the propane hose goes into the burner. It probably looks like a metal disc with some holes in it. Just turn this until you get the bluest flame. This adjusts the propane/air mixture for the hottest flame.

It is normal to smell a little propane when you turn the unit off or when you disconnect the hose. This is just the small amount of unburnt propane left in the hose after you turn the unit off. Make sure you shut the propane off on the input line to the burner, and at the tank.

That's not good. It's hard to imagine the kettle not getting hot at all. I'm assuming this is because the flame is too far away from the kettle, but I'm not sure. The bayou classic I use is 185,000 BTU, but I would assume 160,000 should be ok. I would check the distance between the flame itself and the kettle. Outside temperature should have no effect. Extreme wind can cause a problem. You should have a pretty gnarly looking blue flame coming out that gets the kettle burning hot really fast.

Got it working. The fryer I bought didn't have the instructions. I was opening the valves out of sequence. When I opened tank first, then a slight turn on the intake, it sounded like a blowtorch and the flame was high. Wasn't seeing this before. I boiled a few gallons in no time. Thanks everyone!

Glad I could help...