Banjo Burner low vs. high pressure

[Mike89]

Hello all,

Bare with me as this is my first post and I am new to home brewing. As a lurker for a while on this forum, I have read about high and low pressure banjo burners. I'm going to be building a manual control propane single tier, single pump HERMS setup for starters. I would like leave room to expand to automation in the future, that is why I have decided on low pressure burners. Now to the point! What the heck makes the burner from Brewers Hardware "low pressure"? Can't I just buy the $7 adapter from brewers hardware, and add it to the burner from agrisupply.com?
Agrisupply.com high pressure banjo:
http://www.agrisupply.com/Bg-High-Pressure-Cast-Iron-Burner/p/64494/

Brewers Hardware low pressure banjo:
http://www.brewershardware.com/10-Low-Pressure-Burner.html

7 dollar adapter to make high pressure, low pressure:
http://www.brewershardware.com/Valve-and-LPG-Orifice-for-BURN10.html

Isn't it more cost effective to go with the "high pressure" burner from agrisupply and add the 7 dollar adapter than the "low pressure" burner from brewers hardware or am I missing something?

Thanks for helping a NEWB! -Mike

 

[kaconga]

I have never used the adapter but I think I concur with your research. It certainly does sound like the adapter will work by reading the description.

 

[paulster2626]

BG14's come with propane orifices. Your best bet to switch to NG if you wish is to simply buy the blichmann conversion kit - just another larger orifice and a needle valve.

The 10" burner itself is always the same. Don't be fooled by the descriptions of "not to be used with propane/natural gas". I don't know why they say that, but it's not true.

 

[OmegaRed]

subbed for outcome. Time for someone to be the guinea pig

 

[Mike89]

I have never used the adapter but I think I concur with your research. It certainly does sound like the adapter will work by reading the description.

Well, looks like I will find out! Glad I'm not the only one who came to that conclusion

subbed for outcome. Time for someone to be the guinea pig

I just bought some stainless 96/72/48 qt kettles from jarhill for around 85 bucks for 3! Seems like the best deal around and others seem to have success with them. With that being said, the wife wouldn't approve my burner purchase until next paycheck, so stay tuned. That and the fact that I am in Afghanistan for another 2 months...

BG14's come with propane orifices. Your best bet to switch to NG if you wish is to simply buy the blichmann conversion kit - just another larger orifice and a needle valve.

The 10" burner itself is always the same. Don't be fooled by the descriptions of "not to be used with propane/natural gas". I don't know why they say that, but it's not true.

Thanks for clarifying that regardless of the advertisement, it is the same burner. Makes me feel a little better. Thanks for all of the help guys, I love this forum. So much knowledge and experience from diverse backgrounds.

 

[paulster2626]

subbed for outcome. Time for someone to be the guinea pig

Time for someone to be the guinea pig? I've been doing this for, well, years now. Started with the blichmann burner, switched from NG to propane all the time. I've now built a stand and sold the burner and my old stuff, and bought 2 BG14's for it as I loved my results with both NG and propane with the blichmann.

Here is my stand using BG14 burners with propane. It is now plumbed for NG and I use that instead. I have both orifices so if I ever want to take this bad boy on the road for some reason, I can.

There is nothing I would change about this setup.

 

[sirmerced]

Mike, I just bought the LPG Burn 10 you posted about, and I have the BG14 burners your going with. Once the new nozzle ships I will install and provide feedback to you, and all.

 

[sirmerced]

Just got the new propane nozzles in today, and installed them. The flames are more controllable. I can use the regulator to adjust the flame height.

I wonder if this is the right flame height though. I am about 2.5 inches from the top of the burner to the bottom of the pots. The flame height is adjustable based on pressure from the regulator. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[paulster2626]

All the tips and advice in the world is nothing compared to you yourself actually experimenting. Every setup is different and no two are the same.

I'd start with the 2.5" gap and go from there.

 

[Mike89]

Great to hear they work as advertised. Mine are sitting in the garage for another month until I get home...

 

[sirmerced]

Mike, I got the first test boil in last night. The major thing I learned is the less length in your tubing, the better. My boil kettle is the first thing attached to my propane tubing and it is a jet burner! The mash kettle and hot liquor tank burners are way less powerful. I think I will run a two propane tank setup. One for the BK, and one for the MK/HLT.

You will have to fuss with the valve on the propane nozzle to get the flows right....

 

[Mike89]

Great lessons learned! I hope this saves me some headache if I have the same issue. Thanks for the follow-up.

 

[sirmerced]

Mike, I got the first brew in on Thursday. Manual control of the heat on the rig is tricky. I elected to bypass the automatic gas control in an attempt to get the rig running. Stick with some sort of temp com top solution for your HTL/MK. Once the project funds recover I will covert to automatic controls like the Brutus 10.

 

[sirmerced]

Mike - Brewed on Thursday. Turns out that the gas lines to the propane are too long. The burner closest to the tank is a rocket engine! The other two are a lot less powerful. I have a secondary propane tank I will fill and use the smaller one for the HLT/MK and the larger for the BK.

 

[sirmerced]

Mike, I think I got an idea on why the flames are weak. The airflow inlet on the back of the burners was almost closed. I noticed this wasn't the case on my boil kettle burner. Open them up and you should get a decent flame. I also have the HLT/MK on one tank, and the BK on a second tank.