Distance from Burner to Keggle

Hi guys, I'm making a 3 tier system. I already have keggles I've been using and I bought 3 of these burners:

http://www.agrisupplyco.com/cgi-bin/cgiitmls?m=ThisP&p=30295.000000&l=1



I was wondering if anyone knew the best distance between the burner and keg. I think these burners are 170,000 BTU at 20 or 30 PSI, I can't imagine them pumping out that much heat at 10 PSI or less. So I would think with those high pressures I may need to keep some sizable space between the keg and burner.

Last time I brewed I was using a smaller rated burner, running at 10 PSI, and I had about 3.5" of space b/w the burner and keg, but that was as close as I could get it b/c of frame constraints.

Any idea what I should shoot for? I can always shorter the gap to some degree, but I'd rather build once and tweak as little as possible.

Thanks in advance.

Search for this in the forums. There have been a few good threads already.

Are you aware that you can buy JUST the burner of the KA4 Banjo Burner, for $25 ea., with FREE SHIPPING?

Of course, you'll still have to find out how close to mount them...and you'll need a hi-press reg...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009JXYTG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Sounds like you already bought the burners you have. I have 2 banjos in my rig, and IMHO, they may be cool, but they're overkill. I never have to turn them up past 50%, so you could very easily go with a smaller burner and get the job done. The 170k burners will work great, and they are WAY easier to mount/shield. Stick with what you got, and try to keep the burner 4" from the bottom of the vessel. If you shield it properly, the burner will be way more efficient.

I agree that the burner he bought is perfectly acceptable. I use one on my turkey fryer and it can get a nice boil going pretty quickly. It's good enough for my needs, but I don't do 10 gallon batches.

Well I do ~13 gallons batches, so I've bought these burners to be able to heat water for the mash quickly and come to a boil afterwards in short time. 170,000 BTU/hour is way overkill, I agree. It's only ~20k BTU to bring 50 degree water to a boil, so assuming 40% efficiency of the burner and pot set up, that's only 20 minutes to a boil at full blast. I have variable regulator I will run with these burners so I should be able to tweak the power output easily.

For now I suppose I'll start by mounting them about 4 inches off the keggle bottoms, and I'll make up some shrouding to help the efficiency.