Heat shield under entire pot?

[PDevlin75]

Good morning, folks!


Here's a question... Can anybody recommend a reason why I should NOT just put a thin piece of metal under my entire kettle while it's on the burner? Does anybody else do this?

So it's not the worst thing in the world, but when my brew day is done and I'm cleaning up, 9 times out of 10, I will pick up my brew kettle to clean it, and forget that the bottom of it is completely blackened with soot. Okay, fine. All over my hands. Whatever, minor nuisance.

I'm thinking of adding a valve / therm / sight glass, and I know I should put a heat shield under them to protect from the heat. Why not just put one big sheet of metal under the entire pot to act as a heat shield AND keep the bottom clean?

I've never seen anybody else try it, so either there's a flaw in this plan, or I just care disproportionately too much about the level of soot on the bottom of my pot

-Pete

 

[kh54s10]

The heat shield under the pot will lower the efficiency of the heating. You now have to heat the shield - then the pot.

You should not be getting any soot from the burner. It is not adjusted properly! Blue flames!! as little orange as possible.

The heat shield for a sight glass, thermometer, or valve it to keep the heat away from them and possibly melting seals, or the sight glass.

 

[brandonnys]

The heat shield under the pot will lower the efficiency of the heating. You now have to heat the shield - then the pot.

You should not be getting any soot from the burner. It is not adjusted properly! Blue flames!! as little orange as possible.

Agreed. It's a pretty significant loss in efficiency too.

What kind of heat source are you using? If it's NG, you may not care about efficiency, but on a propane system, you're going to burn a lot of fuel.

 

[Foosier]

Adjust the flame first to reduce / eliminate the soot issues. I have had a cheap jet burner and a blichman burner and neither soots as long as you follow the "blue flame" advice.

 

[PDevlin75]

Thanks for the info! I figured there must be something to it.

I'll look into adjusting the flames.

 

[brandonnys]

Thanks for the info! I figured there must be something to it.

I'll look into adjusting the flames.

What heat source are you using? There are a lot of options, and depending on what you have, there are a lot of us that can give you a quick point in the right direction.

 

[Jimbodaman]

Most propane burners are designed to have the air intake fully open when the gas is fully open. Also I've read that some cheaper cast burners need to have the air intake filed out because sometimes metal is left in there and inhibits the airflow making yellow flame even when the air intake is fully open.

 

[PDevlin75]

What heat source are you using? There are a lot of options, and depending on what you have, there are a lot of us that can give you a quick point in the right direction.

Oh, right on! I'm using a propane burner. A darkstar bought from NB.

Thanks!
Pete

 

[day_trippr]

If that's the notorious Darkstar 1.0 version, MW/NB eventually conceded the wrong burner was used, and may be receptive to replacing yours with the Darkstar 2.0 version with the better burner...

Cheers!