cheap banjo burner?

[bendavanza]

I was at my local El Rio Grande grocery and saw these burners and stands. The burner comes with the regulator and hose, although the hose uses worm drive screw clamps. It also has a starter and flame control right on the front.
The burner is priced $29, the actual banjo part is about 6" and it has some sort of shield that is a few more inches. I believe it's an aluminum casting. The stand is sold separate and was $27. the stand may be too wide for a keg, I was somewhere between 17" and 19". The burner may be a great DIY part for brewing sculptures.
What do you think?

 

[Gonefishing]

I think if I lived where that store was and had $29 to experiment with I;d own one of those. Looks workable to me. Does it have a BTU rating on the box anywhere?

 

[bendavanza]

odd thing, no box. chinese writing on the face of the flame control. Maybe they have more in boxes in the back, and this was just their display. These are used for giant wok looking cookers and big ass boil pots, and tamale steamers.

 

[bendavanza]

someone on craigslist is selling them locally, claim to be 30,000 BTU's so not near as much BTU as a kick-a banjo.
PROPANE OR NATURAL GAS BURNER FOR COOKING

 

[bendavanza]

Ok I have also seen these advertised on ebay. I bought one for $29 this weekend, it includes the regulator and it's nice to have the built in control panel, and electric start.
However it took damn near an hour to boil 7 gallons from 70˚F. Not enough BTU's for me. Also the regulator has a rubber seal on the tip, which did not work with my tanks, but did work when I removed the seal. I can use this for my outdoor wok to free up my other burner for the brewstand, so it's all good.
I do not recommend this burner for brewing, at least not full boils.

 

[mr_goodwrench]

Necropost...

I saw this burner yesterday in a local 'International Farmer's Market' and was intrigued by it ~ especially by the electric start. I am planning on building a weldless single tier brewstand in the near future and though this might be a possible burner candidate. Thankfully, I made a quick search and found this thread!

Thank you, bendavanza for being the guinea pig on this one.