Raising kettle above flame to improve efficiency

My brew pot is very wide - 24". My Banjo burner is pretty wide too - 10". My problem is that as I crank up the BTUs to get 20+ gallons on boil, the flames lick up the sides of the pot.

Without knowing the science behind it, it just seems to me that if the pot were lifted above the flame, so the flame would burn straight-up (as intended?) before hitting the bottom of the pot, that I may see better efficiency.
Any thoughts on orientation of the pot on the burner?

I would raise it an inch at a time and see how it works. You could put like 3 gallons in the pot as is, and time how long it takes to raise the temp 5 degrees. Then raise the pot an inch and see how long it takes for the next five and so on.

I think even if you raise it up, when you turn the burner way up, you're still going to have a lot of heat escaping around the sides, even if it doesn't have flames shooting out, and it may be less efficient heat transfer than what you've got now. The thing that would seem to help is some kind of heat concentrator that would trap the heat in, kind of like the skirt on a keggle.

I've been thinking about adding a foil insulation wrap... Is that stuff really non-flamable? I picture aluminum foil burning on a gas grill, except on the side of my brewpot.

Foil burns if you put direct flame to it. Are you able to get your full liquid volume to boil? If so, who cares of the flames shoot up the sides? What happens if you turn the burner down? Does it boil as fast? IMHO, f-it... i'd put the entire thing in an inferno if I could safely have an inferno in mu kitchen

I'd be pretty concerned about efficiency when you're trying to heat and boil 20 gallons. If a certain flame intensity gets you the most effective BTU into the water, even if it takes a little longer, it will save you a ton in fuel. You'd benefit from putting insulation even on the upper half of the kettle if your ambient temps are cool, like under 60F.

When I started using my keggle, I had to move my burner to a distance of four to five inches below the bottom, just for this very same reason.

I have a plain turkey fryer and use it outdoors, so not on the same league as what you are discussing.

But

I have seen improvement in heating by taking aluminum foil and wrapping around the outside of my pot after I put it on the burner. I go below the level of the pot so that any breeze is not blowing the heat away from my pot. The heat that is escaping from around the bottom goes up the sides of the pot and then out the gaps around the top.

Insulated no, but I have very hot air blowing on the side of my pot instead of cold air.

At some point, higher flame becomes a waste anyway. I have the same burner (essentially) and find that "Full blast" doesn't give me any better return.

In fact, you can see below that the flame is at a very tame level but still producing a good roling boil.


[YOUTUBE]5hYqVfPn6mA[/YOUTUBE]

It will bring it to a boil. It takes a long time, with the thing burning like hell - flames shooting up the sides. I guess the biggest thing I notice is that I'm getting a poor burn(sooting on the pot) - really lean. If the flames had a little room to burn, I was thinking maybe it would burner cleaner/more efficiently.

Jim Karr: Have you seen better efficiency / better burn / less gas waste since you've increased the space between the burner and kettle?

Lil Sparky: I thought that as gas burns in a upside down concave surface (bottom of keggle), that the flames won't stay in the opening, but actually push down and out leaving a pocket of (CO2?) in the opening (not flames). I figured either that, or it may burn even leaner...

BierMuncher: I actually turn it down once it boils. What I'm concerned with is bringing it to a boil. I add water in at 150-155`, steep for a while, then crank the burner. It took about 45mins to get to boil from there. IMO, could be better with a 210k BTU burner. Oh & BTW, the edge of that cut looks like it could easily sever a tendon! I like it :rockin: