Backyard Classic turkey fryer, sooty yellow flame

[smokinj]

Recently picked up this Walmart special turkey fryer rig so I could move my brewing out of the kitchen. Functionally its great. Burns hot, and gets the boil rolling quickly. The problem is the 1/4" of soot that it leaves on my kettle. I know that it is due to burning too rich, just can't figure out how to remedy it. Ive done extensive googling and haven't found my answer yet. I have dismantled the burner, cleaned it, smoothed any burrs, the orifice is clean, and I'm running the air wide open. Even gone as far as plugging 1/2 of the holes in the burner(which helped, but still not a good blue flame.) Anyone have another suggestion?

 

[fcwegnm0b]

Bump. I have the same problem... anyone know a fix?

 

[Catt22]

Can you post a pic of the burner? Preferably with the tank and regulator hooked up. I'm pretty sure we can trouble shoot it for you.

 

[smokinj]

I'll work on getting a pic up. Brewed with my buddy the other day. He recently bought a similar setup, different kettle with exact same burner. I was a little concerned when i saw it, but fired it up using my propane tank and it worked like a champ. Big blue flame, virtually zero soot after a 90 minute boil. Next time we get together I'm going to mix and match parts to try to find the source of my problem.

 

[jiggs_casey]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/turkey-fryer-propane-question-155897/

 

[turkeyjerky214]

I've had the same problem since I started brewing a year and a half ago. I got a turkey fryer kit from Sam's.
Several people have looked at it, and no one can figure out why it burns like that. Finally just got fed up and bought a new one.

 

[starsailor]

After trying everything you mentioned and still coming up with a too rich yellow sooty flame. You might have the wrong oriface in the burner. High pressure propane, low pressure propane, and service pressure natural gas all use different sizes. It's the little brass part with a tiny hole in it where the gas hose goes into the end of the burner by the air adjuster. It meters the gas and sized to get you in the right range of fuel to air ratio such that the burner's air adjuster can function as a fine tune control. I don't know the exact oriface sizes off the top of my head but your can search on this site for natural gas conversion, because that's the most likely reason for someone looking to change oriface size. If you're into figuring it out your self here's the charts you need for high and low pressure gases.

http://www.joppaglass.com/burner/highp_chart.html
http://www.joppaglass.com/burner/lowp_chrt.html

I'm sure one of these will lead you to finding the right oriface size you need to check for if some else doesn't chime in and reply with the sizes needed. You can measure the size you have with a set of very small drill bits or a wire gauge set. If you've got the wrong one you can probably swap with another brewer on here looking to do a high/low pressure or natural gas conversion.

 

[Homercidal]

+1

The only other thought I have is that you can sometimes turn the valve on a propane tank too far and it chokes the gas. I doubt that the cause, but if you want to see for sure, close the valve, disconnect the regulator, put the regulator back on, and then open the valve only about 1 full turn.

Is sounds as though you are getting too much gas and not enough air. Incomplete combustion. Probably due to bad orifice.

 

[Catt22]

+1

The only other thought I have is that you can sometimes turn the valve on a propane tank too far and it chokes the gas. I doubt that the cause, but if you want to see for sure, close the valve, disconnect the regulator, put the regulator back on, and then open the valve only about 1 full turn.

The valve on a propane tank should be opened fully when in use. The reason for this is that the valve has a double seat. This design prevents gas from leaking around the valve stem which can happen if the valve is only partly opened. To avoid tripping the anti-surge safety device, be sure to close the appliance valve before opening the tank valve. Open the tank valve slowly initially until the supply line is pressurized, then open it all the way.

 

[smokinj]

Thanks for the suggestions. The orifice is a size 60. The identical burner that my friend has also is a 60, and his works great. There are no obtructions in the orifice or the burner itself. Leaning toward the regulator being bad. If my time was worth anything at all I'd just cut my losses and buy a better model, but its not, and I enjoy tinkering and fixing things. Thanks. JJ

 

[smokinj]

Thanks for the suggestions. The orifice is a size 60. The identical burner that my friend has also is a 60, and his works great. There are no obtructions in the orifice or the burner itself. Leaning toward the regulator being bad. If my time was worth anything at all I'd just cut my losses and buy a better model, but its not, and I enjoy tinkering and fixing things. Thanks. JJ

 

[starsailor]

OK, that oriface sounds like it's in the ball park.

I think it's already been said but your flame is too rich, IAW too much gas for the amount of air being pulled into the burner. As such you're trying to decrease the fuel/air ratio. So for the same regulated pressure you need a smaller oriface or for the same oriface a higher pressure. This happens because the air gets pulled into the burner by the venturi effect, the higher the velocity of the gas coming out of the oriface the more air it will pull in. You can get a higher gas velocity with a smaller oriface or higher pressure.

I think your next step is to determine what burner element you have, whether it's a high or low pressure burner, and what regulator you have. Then see if it's a combination that is supposed to work well together. Based on your comment of "plugging 1/2 the holes in the burner", I'm going to guess you have a lower pressure burner because you can actually plug the holes. As such, my best guess is that you may have a regulator mismatch. You can usually figure out what pressure your regulator is by looking at the markings on it or by matching it up with one you can find online. Adjustable regulators with turkey fryers, (i.e. have the adjustment knob on top of the regulator) usually max out at 10 PSI. While 20, 30, and 40 PSI regulators are usually acutually fixed pressure regulators (almost always painted red BTW) with a needle valve somewhere down stream to adjust the output gas flow resulting pressure.

On my brew rig I have a 2 BG-10 high pressure burners, 2 #57 oriface (just a little bigger than your #60), and a 30 PSI regulator with 2 needle valves off a tee fitting that drives 2 of these burners. This all burns cleanly with a bright blue flame. I can get some orange in the flame by choking the air vent down to the smallest setting, but nothing that will create a lot of soot on a pot. This is burner:

http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/bg10_cast_iron_burner.htm

If you have the burner in the link below with more than a 10 PSI regulator then you may have a problem. See the comment on the burner page.

http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/bg12_cast_iron_burner.htm

If you have a banjo burner, like in the link below, then your only problem would be having a big enough regulator.

http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/bg14_cast_iron_burner.htm

BTW, if you got your turkey fryer on special or on sale at Walmart there's a good chance it may have been a return or open box that someone else has already had a chance to mess with or swap parts with. If that's the case who knows what you really wound up with.

Good luck figuring what you've got. Post a pic or two here and one of us may be able to help you figure it out further.

 

[smokinj]

So, I was doing some organinizing yesterday and found the owners manual for this turkey fryer. Inside it was a customer service #. I called but it was after business hrs so I left a message. Got a call back this morning around 8. After I told the lady my issue she, without hesitation, volunteered to send me a new burner. This leads me to believe that there is a known issue with some of the burners they made, and that my flame will be fixed. The # is 888-837-1380. As soon as I get the new burner I'll re_ost.

 

[starsailor]

Consider yourself lucky, especially for a Walmart mfg. Their margins are so thin, I'm surprized they can even afford to pay for customer service phone number. Just say "thank you" to their customer service and take the new burner and run. If they don't want you to backship the old one keep it for spare parts. You never know when you'll get motivated to build a brew sculpture.

 

[smokinj]

Agreed. I couldn't believe there was a customer service #, let alone that they were so helpful. I almost feel guilty now, though. Over the weekend I decided to tinker a little more with it. Went and bought a small, coarse wire wheel that would fit in my drill. I took the burner apart and went over the whole inside of the 'bowl' and the entire serrated disc that sits in the middle, paying particular attention to all of the grooves around the edge, making sure to get 100% of the sliver paint off. I reassembled it and brewed a batch. Boiled 90 min. and ZERO SOOT! Big blue flame. Everything that I had hoped for. Got the new burner in the mail today. It will get the wire treatment and go into the drawer until the sculpture build becomes a reality('cause I'm not taking that thing apart again!). Thank you everyone for all of your input and suggestions.
JJ

 

[starsailor]

Agreed. I couldn't believe there was a customer service #, let alone that they were so helpful. I almost feel guilty now, though. Over the weekend I decided to tinker a little more with it. Went and bought a small, coarse wire wheel that would fit in my drill. I took the burner apart and went over the whole inside of the 'bowl' and the entire serrated disc that sits in the middle, paying particular attention to all of the grooves around the edge, making sure to get 100% of the sliver paint off. I reassembled it and brewed a batch. Boiled 90 min. and ZERO SOOT! Big blue flame. Everything that I had hoped for. Got the new burner in the mail today. It will get the wire treatment and go into the drawer until the sculpture build becomes a reality('cause I'm not taking that thing apart again!). Thank you everyone for all of your input and suggestions.
JJ

Great! Glad you finally figured out what the problem with the old burner was. I have to say I'm surprized that paint along would cause so much problem. It must have been on there thick enough to really choke down the flow through the passageways enough so that the venturi effect wasn't pulling enough air into the burner.

Based on the way the vendor responded, it sounds like they were aware of the problem and probably just shipped a new one to anyone that complained. Just another instance of the cheap Chinese crap Walmart has to offer. Anyway, now you're all set for burners to build your future brew sculpture.

 

[bradpoff]

Had the same problem with a cheap burner, searched HBT, found this oldish thread, did the wire brush (and some grinding wheel) and no more soot! Thanks guys!