Any propane users able to help please?

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jat147

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After buying a kettle that was too big because it was cheap, I decided that I'd have to go gas as I'm already using as much power for my HLT element as my garage can cope with. Saw the 'Paella ring' burner at: 640mm Paella Gas Burner | Buy Now at gasproducts.co.uk which is 640mm wide - fits nicely under the kettle which is 700mm wide.
The kettle has a false bottom/skirt, the plate welded below the tap in the photo:
kettle.jpg



Putting the burner on the floor and raising the tank up over it was a non starter as the flames are only around 30mm tall at full power, so I decided to keep the tank on the ground (less chance of it spilling over also I guess) and raise the burner up so that the flames were able to touch the base of the tank. I did this by cutting a letterbox from the skirt of the tank, allowing the inlet pipes to pass through, like this:
IMAG0240.jpg




The feet of the burner ring are stood on concrete blocks at the moment, and the height is just right. Well, except that I was only able to light 1 of the 3 rings at any time. When trying to light the 2nd I found the draft through the letterbox was too strong for a match to stay lit. It was clear that the burner needed more air to be able to light all 3 rings together. After some debate I opted for cutting slots around the circumference of the lower skirt to let the air enter the space evenly and stop the draught at the letterbox. No change. I then widened the slots to make this:
IMAG0241.jpg



which was better but I was still unable to get a good burn going, the flames seemed to flicker quite a bit with some nozzles refusing to stay lit all the time. A friend suggested that it should have a flue to remove the exhaust gases, which made sense so I installed this :
IMAG0242.jpg


which sadly seems to have had zero effect.
Raising the tank up a little on the wooden blocks you can see above had the effect that I was able to light all 3 rings together but not in a convincing way, still very weak looking flames that in places were too readily blowing out to make it any use. I haven't (yet) got a CO tester but it seems certain that the space under the tank is either full of unburnt propane, CO2 or both. I'm unwilling to keep cutting bigger and bigger holes in the skirt because of the danger of making the structure too weak to carry the weight that will be inside.

I'm at a loss where to go next with this. The burner is rated at 20kW, or 1.38kg/hr - is there a way of finding the correct amount of air gap that I will need to allow the burner to burn the gas completely inside the enclosure that its in? Or am I better off with removing the skirt completely and mounting the remaining tank on some sort of platform which will allow the burner ring to be more open to the air. Or is the problem that I'm inside the garage (with door wide open) and this ring is designed for outdoor use??
Really grateful for any ideas, thanks.
 
As I appears in the picture there is no way for the hot gas from the flame to escape above the burner, which means the burner will work poorly at best. You need vent openings at the point where the skirt connects with the kettle to let hot gasses out and let fresh air flow up and through the burner. About 3 times the area used for the vent slots shown should work if they are as high as possible and burner is as low as possible. You should be aware that the radiant heat of the flame will heat the area under the kettle, a reflective heat shield under the skirt with an air gap will keep the floor from doing bad things when the burner is in use for a while.
 
Thanks very much for that, I forgot to make clear that I cut 7 holes in total around the base of the skirt - each one being 5cm x 10cm, which makes a total of 350cm2 of open area - about 54 sq inches I think?
Do you think that extending the 7 slots up to the base of the tank would provide enough air in and out?
 
Thanks Kevin,
Thats a sweet looking setup - love that electric ignition, wish I'd thought about one rather than lying on the floor with a long lighter to get mine going. Looking at your exhaust also makes me realise I've cut that in far too low aswell. Lucky I'm getting better at cutting holes in 2mm stainless!
 
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