Turkey fryer burner timer/interlock mod

DISCLAIMER: Propane is dangerous. I am not a certified anything. Be careful and use your head, dammit.

I have one of those turkey fryer setups with the timer that shuts the gas off every 20 minutes. That got tiresome, so I removed the timer.

It also has a safety interlock for the gas - you have to push a button to get the gas started, then hold it until a sensor heats up. This will shut the gas off if the flame goes out.

Then when I used my new 15 gallon pot, it was too wide and reflected too much heat back onto the control box, causing erratic behavior. The interlock would shut the gas off randomly for no good reason.

I decided to see if I could bypass all that by directly threading the regulator hose into the burner body. No such luck - the body is 1/8" NPT and the regulator hose is straight thread sealed with a copper washer. So I decided before buying a new burner, I'd see if I could defeat the interlock.

When I pulled the black box apart, I saw the fitting in the following picture.



The aluminum cap on the left side of the photo was straight up and the button was straight down. It's skewed in the picture because I tightened up the threads in the body of the burner and this is where it ended up.

There was a brass tube and fitting going into the top of the aluminum cap. I removed that, then removed the aluminum cap. Inside is a cartridge with a spring and rubber washer at the bottom. It's this rubber washer that seals the gas off. I popped the rubber washer off and the spring and metal washer behind it came with it.

Then I just put the cartridge back in and threaded the aluminum cap back on. There's no need to put the brass fitting back in the top of the aluminum cap because the cap seals on the cartridge inside.

Now the burner works like a normal burner. Turn on the regulator, you get gas at the burner. Yay!

-Joe

I have the same on mine cept it's 10 minutes..i hate it. I'm gonna do the same thing.

Joe - Thank you so much for this guide. I found a cheap fryer on clearance this weekend and bought it. The 20 minute timer was so incredibly annoying. This was exactly what I was looking for! The hardest part was just getting that aluminum cap off. Once it was off doing this mod was easy.

Thanks again!
-wheatstraw

I just did this modification. How is it working for you guys so far?

Still using it. Probably 2 dozen brew days on it so far.

-joe

No problems at all after approx 6 brew sessions. Very happy with the mod!

Awesome!
Thanks! That timer was killing me, I tried disabling the timer but then I couldn't get the gas to stay on.

Followed your directions and now it is working like a champ!!!

I've brewed twice since making the modification and everything is running smoothly. Thanks!

Duct tape, opened the timer and put some duct tape inside to have the mechanism eat the tape and block the timer. I can still switch of the burner by turning the knob and if it blows out the gas gets shut off in about 20 seconds.

Glad it's working out for you guys.

-Joe

I'm about to buy a fryer that has just the timer. I'm confused as to how you bypassed that.

Thanks!

Elproducto,

Your mailbox is full so I can't reply via PM. You asked if the mod was easy and I replied,

It was very easy. Just unscrew the aluminum cap and you should be able to pop the guts right out.

-Joe

Have the same setup and a rubber band from the timer to the leg of fryer holds the timer in place an it never has to be reset.

Thanks! Just did this on my new fryer and it works great!

agodfrey11 said:

Have the same setup and a rubber band from the timer to the leg of fryer holds the timer in place an it never has to be reset.

Click to expand...

True, but the problem I was having was with the safety interlock malfunctioning. Disassembling it fixed that issue.

-Joe

Yeah... I wasn't trying to take anything away from disassembling it. I want to do that myself. I have just found that a rubberband works well if someone doesn't want to disassemble it or doesn't feel comfortable doing it. I will try and bypass it too and will comment on how it goes.

Thanks.

Ah I see. Well thanks for the input

And I'm glad people are finding it useful. I just did another brew with it yesterday.

-Joe

Im glad to see that you did this because I am having the same issue with my burner just going out randomly. Before my next brew session I am going to do the same thing! Thanks for posting this.

just bought a 30 gal fryer at Fleet Farm(wisconsin chain of stores) for 49.95.
it also has a 20 min timer.
the timer is just a electrical/mechanical switch inline of the thermocouple.
put a wire jumper across the timer connections and it is bypassed

crash1292 said:

just bought a 30 gal fryer at Fleet Farm(wisconsin chain of stores) for 49.95.
it also has a 20 min timer.
the timer is just a electrical/mechanical switch inline of the thermocouple.
put a wire jumper across the timer connections and it is bypassed

Click to expand...

Do you have a pic of the bypass?

dont think I can post pics yet,but the timer has just 2 connections on it. run a wire from one to the other

Well, I took the seal out as described in the OP, and it fired up fine. However I didn't have to do anything to the timer.. it just worked without the timer. Is that normal?

I bought a MasterBuilt 30qt with 15 minute timer and discovered if you press the plunger down again when the light is blinking, it resets the timer. It would have been nice if they mentioned this somewhere in the manual.

I went the duct tape route as well, but I just taped the actual knob for the timer down on mine.

I am bringing this back from the dead to help those of you who got turkey fryers for Christmas! I got a second one and just finished doing this mod a few minutes ago.

Another bump to say thanks for this fryer modification, this is going to save me tons of headaches. After a few uses, I was having the same issues with the burner randomly shutting off during a boil. I took a few additional pictures during the mod to help out anyone else in the future.

Here's where the OP started with the pictures, the copper end piece with the wires has already been unscrewed from the right side:



Then you take the aluminum cap off:



I had a little trouble getting this next piece out - I needed a pair of rounded pliers to twist it out of the housing:



Close up of the cartridge. I geeked out a bit investigating it, it's a neat little device. It looks like the heat from the sensor triggers a magnet, so when you depress the button, the little metal piece next to the spring sticks to the magnet, and that keeps the gas line open to the burner:



Back on track. Here's the little rubber & metal washer/spring assembly you take off:



When I put everything back together as described in the OP, I noticed a very slight leak when I had the burner cranked up high. I put my finger in the divot at the end of the aluminum cap and noticed a very small pressure build up. It may have been the way I took everything apart, but here's what I did to fix it. I put the cartridge back in. Then there was a very small rubber washer and a slightly larger plastic washer where the end of the copper piece fit snug into. So I put them back together like this:

Here's that copper piece that screws in the end of the aluminum cap. This is where the wires led back to the timer in the original setup. The rounded end fits in snug with the rubber/plastic washer:





Re-assembled, no signs of leaks:





Thanks again for the original tutorial, this is a huge help.

I'm going to duct tape the timer till it stops working then do this mod. Thanks

It was bad enough my dog had the runs last night and defic8ted in front of my expresso maker where by forcing me to wear a gas mask and stand spread eagle this morning so I could make the coffee I so desperately needed to awaken to clean up his s$it. Now this afternoon I decided to unbox this overpriced canadiantire turkey fryer combo pack piece of junk I settled on just for the propane burner to find out it had a mother %%^##%^ safety timer on it that goes 'ding' after 20 minutes and turns the gas off. LIKE I'M GOING TO OVERCOOK MY WORT AFTER 20 MINUTES!!! Instantly I thought it was the *&%#@! Canadian Safety Police [they are everywhere in Canada, WATCHOUT!] and their rules trying to keep me from thinking for myself or god forbid taking some responsibility for my actions. My second conscious thought after seeing red was 'I'm going to defeat you mother #!!@#@!!!' so naturally I turn to Homebrewtalk.com and low and behold there is already a kick a$$ thread (WITH PICTURES) on making this safe piece of junk unsafe. I felt a little better learning my problem wasn't just confined to Canada but sane people down south have been tricked into buying this crap.

You have been defeated stupid safety timer! S%ck it!!

Big thanks to nostalgia and Irish for the instructions.

I use one of these turkey fryers to brew with. The first brew was annoying because of the stupid timer. So I took the timer. Rotated it to max time then forced it past that time. This was actually an accident as I was ticked it turned off again but it hasn't turned off since. I turn it off at the tank now. I originally planned to open it up and bypass the timer but no need to now. Not sure if you will get the same results but it's worth a try as the timer is useless anyways.

Just did the mod, mine was slightly different.
Should have taken pictures I guess, but a little tinkering got it together.
Removed the thermocouple and the timer junk out of the box leaving it empty so that my burner is a little more supported.

+1 to the Original poster on this, helpful for those with minimal tinkering skills, and made it super easy for me as I didnt have to wonder what was inside before disassembling.


Just wish I had a purpose for this timer and thermocouple now.

Picked up one of these fyers for a second burner around here.. it was 10 bucks on craigslist. Guy I got it from had a plastic zip tie around his... I boiled some water with it to clean my boil pot. Working like a champ, but if it melts I'll be modding it. I had seen this thread and gave the guy 13 bucks for the burner since I was happy he still had it after he had gotten 4 emails on the turkey fryer and still sold it to me.

Thanks for sharing, and I'll have to mod eventually I suppose, but for now the zip tie is working. My unit just needs to hold down the top of the unit. Sorry no pick at the moment.

I fixed my friend's fryer a little different, but still did it cheap $3.32. I unscrewed the safety shut off. The regulator itself is female 1/8" NPT, however the fitting on the end of the hose is smaller than this. I took it to the hardware store and could not find anything to fit it. Therefore, I cut the hose and purchased a 1/4" barb x 1/4" Male NPT and inserted this into the hose. I also purchased a brass 1/4" Female NPT x 1/8" Male NPT coupling. Don't forget the 1/2"-29/32" hose clamp and pipe dope.

Joe - thanks for instructions. My turkey fryer is useful now. I turned off three times over thanksgiving. Now it lights right away and stays on as long as I need it to. You are a life saver.

Sweet glad it worked out for you! Keep on brewin'

-JOe

I just did this mod today on a fryer i got cheap after thanksgiving. Thank you this helps so much, now I have 2 burners working great!

I picked up a fryer post-thanksgiving and it has the stooopid timer on it too! Wally-Mart was liquidating the $80 fryer kit for something like $30!!! I just had to get it. Heck, I was in the market for a boil pot anyway and was going to spend $28 on one of those...
I will be mod-ing my burner ASAP!

Thanks a lot for this. I purchased a $79.00 fryer for $35.00 only to be dismayed when I found out that it had a timer. I was able to bypass it thanks to your instructions. Took a bit of wrangling to get that aluminum cap off but after that it was easy. WD40 is your friend when doing this mod since that aluminum cap isn't really meant for you to be tinkering with.

Cimerian said:

I use one of these turkey fryers to brew with. The first brew was annoying because of the stupid timer. So I took the timer. Rotated it to max time then forced it past that time. This was actually an accident as I was ticked it turned off again but it hasn't turned off since. I turn it off at the tank now. I originally planned to open it up and bypass the timer but no need to now. Not sure if you will get the same results but it's worth a try as the timer is useless anyways.

Click to expand...

I did the same, just rough and simple. Took the pliers and turned the timer until it stopped ticking. So far it works fine.

I just removed the whole timer box.
Only thing left is the safety valve the turns off the gas when the timer runs out..
Not sure if it is the same as others but there are two options.
The first is what I did.
1- take a short 6 inch or so piece if wire and wrap it around to hold the valve open.

2- I did a quick test and this valve is controlled by an electro magnetic switch of some basic kind.
I assume that the timer puts out a small electrical current to this switch / or as some say the heat builds up and keeps it open and when the timer runs out it releases the valve.
I attached a 1.5v battery to it and this held the valve open.
It has two wires so trial and error to figure out positive and negative. if it matters.

But for me the wire holding the valve open seems ti work.

Wish I would have tried turning it to far if that is all I needed to do.
also wish i would have found this thread before i started messing with it but the way i did it works so far.


I really liked the turkey fryer during my fist batch.. But we will see how well it holds a boil during a north Canadian winter.

Ps typing on my cell phone so many grammar mistakes I apologise for..