Is is possible to melt a hole in a kettle?

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htm6934

htm6934

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This might be a really dumb question and i'm starting to think it is based on the lack of information when googling but I just purchased 3 badass 15 gallon SS kettles and they are beautiful. I also am working on my single tier system with 12 or 15 tip jet burners. There are no guides on how close to mount the burners but i'm about 2-3 inches between burner tip and bottom of kettle. Those jet burners just seem so damn hot and im seriously afraid that I might just melt a hole in the bottom of the pot or warp the hell out of it.

Any thoughts?
 
Is it possible? Sure. But you'll need a torch to do it.

Natural Gas or Propane just don't burn hot enough on their own.

Only way you could even get close to melting or warping is if you dry fired, which you shouldn't. But with any water/wort in the pot it just won't happen.
 
Propane can only get you to around 1800~1900 degrees F. (Not going to bother looking it up. :D ) Steel melts at around 2100~2200F. Stainless is a tad higher.

So no, I wouldn't worry. With a couple inches separation, and a kettle full of liquid, you'll be fine. Just don't boil the pot dry and leave it on the flame. You might get some interesting distortions. :mug:
 
I used a 23 tip burner for a while, but it had way too much power and used too much fuel. I now use the banjo burners that edlemetall and bilchman use on their products. As for melting a pot... I highly doubt it. If you only turn it on when their is liquid in your kettles you should be fine. The liquid boils around 212, and vapor leaves it takes energy with it. This means the liquid is constantly cooling your kettle as you heat it. Stainless steel melts at 2500. You could warp thinner metals if heated with out liquid, but you will probably never do that.
 
Mackster said:
I used a 23 tip burner for a while, but it had way too much power and used too much fuel. I now use the banjo burners that edlemetall and bilchman use on their products. As for melting a pot... I highly doubt it. If you only turn it on when their is liquid in your kettles you should be fine. The liquid boils around 212, and vapor leaves it takes energy with it. This means the liquid is constantly cooling your kettle as you heat it. Stainless steel melts at 2500. You could warp thinner metals if heated with out liquid, but you will probably never do that.
Click to expand...

Never say never, just advise against it.

I say this because there is an old school method of adding some body by dry firing a kettle before adding wort this causing a shock carmelization. It works. It's good. But there are easier, safer ways.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. That makes me feel better. If I didn't spend so much money on these kettles I wouldn't be so concerned with it. And yeah I dry fired a 10 gallon SS kettle on these same burners when I was just testing for propane leaks not thinking and it did warp the bottom of that kettle within a couple minutes.
 
htm6934 said:
Thanks for the replies everyone. That makes me feel better. If I didn't spend so much money on these kettles I wouldn't be so concerned with it. And yeah I dry fired a 10 gallon SS kettle on these same burners when I was just testing for propane leaks not thinking and it did warp the bottom of that kettle within a couple minutes.
Click to expand...

OUCH! Yeah Dry running is BAD MoJo!

DON'T DO THAT! Now that you have been reprimanded you are here by punished to 8 hours of NO BEER! Feel free to use that time while you sleep :D:D:D

Cheers
Jay
 
Fun science experiment:

Get a paper cup, like the little cone-shaped ones next to water coolers in offices. Fill it with water. Take a cigarette lighter, light it, and hold it under the paper cup.

The cup will not burn.

Same thing with your kettle. As long as there is liquid in it, it can never get appreciably hotter than the boiling point of the liquid it contains.
 
Yeah you can't really get the metal very hot when there's liquid inside, since the liquid will stay around 212F. The heat input dissipates into the liquid almost right away.
 

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