Propane burners at Academy?

[BetterSense]

Academy has propane burners for $20-$40. The $40 jet burner looks decent at 100kBTU, but it's hard to judge. Has anyone any experince with Academy burners? I have a 7.5 gallon aluminum kettle at the moment. I thought maybe the burner would be more versatile if it had a rounder, more stove-like pattern so I could put a cast iron skillet or dutch oven on it if I wanted, but I don't want to spend much.

 

[RustyZymurgy]

Is there one in particular that you're looking at?

 

[BetterSense]

Well they have 3. They have a $20 one which I assume sucks--it doesn't list the BTU. Then they have a steel one with 4 angle-iron legs, which I think says 58,000 BTU and it has a small cast burner which probably makes a 3-4 inch circular flame. And then they have a "Propane jet burner" which is over 100k BTU and has 3 steel legs, but the flame does not appear very spread out.

I was thinking of getting the jet burner just because it has the most BTU but I don't know if it's a bad thing to have the central jet burner. I have seen some burners on here that are cast and give a more uniform flame, like This One, but I don't know if that's important. I think it would be nice to be able to heat a cast iron skillet or dutch oven on the thing and I don't know if the jet burner will be good for that. What kind of other stores carry propane burners? Are there better options available online?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I started out with the $20 burners from Academy. The ONLY part of that system that I had issues with were the cheap regs. But the whole thing was cheap enough that I could justify replacing teh reg with a better one. After that, (3) $20 provided me with 3 to 4 years of use and I eventually sold them along with a DIY system.

 

[rothj617]

I recently bought the one with the 4 angle-iron legs, and have been really pleased. Brewed 4 or 5 times with it so far. Granted it's the only propane burner I've used for brewing (was using electric stovetop before!). I have a 15 gal stainless kettle that I do full boils for 5 gal batches (7.5 gal boil) and it seems to have no problem getting it to a boil fairly quickly (granted, I'm in Houston, and it's been over 100 degrees here...). Doesn't seem to use an excessive amount of fuel. So far, I've done 3 (one partial-boil extract and 2 full-boil all grain) brews on a single tank. Could probably do more, as the tank's not empty. I think I'd be a little uneasy about the jet burner. Seems like the heat would be pretty concentrated, but I've never used one. How thick is the bottom of your kettle? Would it distribute the heat well?

 

[BetterSense]

No, I have the 30 quart (7.5 gal) kettle also from academy. It's made out of super thin aluminum. I know it's barely big enough for a 5 gallon all-grain batch but I can't find any larger kettles anywhere.

 

[msedtal]

i bought the jet burner from them 1st, considering it was twice the BTU as the other. It took forever to get to a boil (im in dallas).

We then bought the one that was 58k BTU and that thing is 10x better. It gets water to a boil pretty fast, we do 15gal batches. I think the last time we brewed i got 8gal of strike water to 170 in 20ish minutes.

 

[RustyZymurgy]

For $29.99 http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_27741_-1?Ntt=fryer&Ntk=All this one should serve your purpose well. No need to over kill.

 

[mredge73]

As a Louisiana native who loves boiled crawfish, I am naturally a big fan of jet burners.
They do tend to waste lots of propane but will get a 100 quart pot boiling in half an hour.

If you don't need that kind of power, this one looks very attractive:
http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/s...51_27747_-1?N=662858433&Ntt=stainless&Ntk=All

 

[BetterSense]

So it looks like I will pass on the jet burner and either get the $20 one or the square one. The square one comes in regular steel for $30 or stainless for $40. I don't really care about looks but do the plain steel ones rust away real fast because of the heat?

 

[mredge73]

It takes a few years to rust out to the point where it will need to be replaced. The burners will rust out before the frame anyway and they are the same in both units.

But for $10 more, why not get a stainless frame.
In 10 years you will have to replace the burner but the frame will still be as good as new, assuming that the wields are good quality.
http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/s..._27351_-1?N=77985508&Ntt=replacement+&Ntk=All

 

[BetterSense]

Well I went back to academy and I looked at the $20 one and the 4-legged one and they both had identical burners and regulators, so I bought the $20 one. They also had 42, 60 and 80 quart aluminum frying pots with aluminum baskets, which I didn't buy because it wasn't in the budget.

 

[ibbones]

I have the three legged one and it works for me. I use a keggel and I had to buy a weber replacement bottom grill to set on top of the burner. My keg is almost the same size as the top of the burner and didn't seem to be steady so I have a little more base now.