Heatshield needed?

[rjolin01]

I have a darkstar 2.0 burner and 10 gallon tall boy kettle. I added a ball valve, sightglass, and planning on whirlpool port. My question is do I need a heatshield for these? As you can see in link the putter ring of the darkstar is quite a bit away from the burner itself and the kettle rests on this outter ring.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/dark-star-burner-2-0

I have a 120v boilmaker coil I plan on eventually installing but need to figure out an affordable control unit. Until then it propane.

 

[LarMoeCur]

Do a few test with water. See where the flames and heat go. If they are directly hitting the sight glass elbow or ball valve. Maybe you can offset the kettle a little and prevent it. If you can't then you will need a heat shield. Hard to say with out seeing the kettle on the lit burner at operating flame heights.