darkstar a lot of soot

[223nbecker45]

My neighbor has a darkstar and we get a ton of soot on the bottom of the pot. Has anyone had luck getting a good flame with no soot?

 

[anthropod]

I too had the problem. I tried a bunch of things hoping to lessen the soot. I couldn't figure out a solution. Full blast seemed to be a little better than on low..but still Soot, Soot, Soot. Nice overall performance for the price. But the soot issue got me looking for a different burner.

I also had a Bayou Classic jet burner..but same problem soot, soot, soot.

Got tired of scrubbing my brew kettle.

Ended up with a Bayou Classic 1114 Single Burner Square Patio Stove. (About $100) No soot... great performance.

I bought the stainless version, but they have a black version that seems to hover around the $40.00 mark. Haven't used it, but the burner seems to be the same design.

 

[DrWill]

If you're getting that much soot, your fuel mixture is too rich. [edited to alleviate my own stupidity]

 

[anthropod]

"If you're getting that much soot, your fuel mixture is too rich."

Great thought! I forgot to even mention that.

On the darkstar you can control the fuel to air mixture by air control shutter.

I think this is the correct name for it. I put a picture of it for reference.

Adjusting mine didn't seem to have enough of an effect on the soot level I could never get the blue flame like I like on a lower flame setting.

This is from another burner's instructions, but might help in playing with the mixture:

Adjust the air shutter slowly. When most of the orange has left the flame, and it has become uniformly pale yellow-to blue, the flame is properly set. There should be no need to re-adjust the air mixture for the life of your grill, however, it is wise to check the flame color each time you light your grill. Use the peep hole located just above the control panel to observe the flame. The flame should be blue in color, with slight yellow at the tips. Yellow-tipping is not unusual and will not affect the performance of the grill. Too much air results in a "fluttering" sound and may cause your flame to blow out. Too little air-gas mixture will result in improper burning of the gas which can leave black soot on your pots and pans.

 

[davekippen]

Just used my Dark Star for the first time today and had the same problem. Very yellow flame at "low" flame. When I cranked it up, it was blue but I dont need that much flame for the whole boil! Did you ever find a solution? I too tried to adjust the air intake round thing but it didnt make any difference that I could see. Also noticed that it was shockingly quite, maybe its a high/low pressure thing?

 

[jleiii]

I got one of these a few months ago mostly for auxiliary heating. The first time I used it for a boil it coated my pot with soot to the point where it was flaking off.
I promptly replaced the burner with a $9 bango style burner, and problem solved.

The air mixture plate is woefully mis-designed on this burner. I can't believe NB is still selling them. Lots of complaints. I bought mine when they first released them, and had I know about the soot problem I would have passed on it.

 

[cheesehed007]

I can't help with the burner. But incase you don't know this trick already, coat the bottom and sides of your kettle with liquid dish soap. This will help the black soot come off more easy. Cheers!

 

[Jim_Holmes]

theres another thread where a member suggested covering the shutter completely with foil tape then poking holes in the tape untill you get the flow you need. that was suggested by member landolincoln

 

[jleiii]

theres another thread where a member suggested covering the shutter completely with foil tape then poking holes in the tape untill you get the flow you need. that was suggested by member landolincoln

This seems backwards. I'm running the 5psi regulators that came with the Dark Star and my other burner into the low pressure banjos that I replaced them with. If I turn it up too much they draw in too much air due to higher pressure, but they remain blue. I have the shutter closed down for my optimum flame at heatup and boil points. The shutter is 1/3 open. If I close it more they turn yellow and soot up.

The other problem I had with the original darkstar burner was that the shutter design sucked. It does not close more than about 10% before the other end of the slot begins to open again. There is too little range to be useful, but would not have solved the soot problem anyway.

The other burner I had was very uneven due to the position of the central gas swirl disk being off center, and sooted a quite a bit on one side as you can see on the right burner.

In the pics below the DS is on the left and the other on the right, and the DS burner shutter in the 2 extreme positions. Clearly the designers were asleep at the CAD software (or paper and pencil??). The shutter screws are on the sides of the other one.

I posted a review on the NB site for this burner, and they apparently deleted it as I could not find it later.

 

[davekippen]

jleiii, If I am reading your post right, you never did get the original Darkstar burner to work right? Can you share where you got the $9 banjo, and did it bolt right in?

 

[jleiii]

jleiii, If I am reading your post right, you never did get the original Darkstar burner to work right? Can you share where you got the $9 banjo, and did it bolt right in?

Sorry, it was $12.95 (plus shipping of course), from Agri Supply, however this is the first one I bought. Not sure where I got the second one. This is a short stem model to fit the other burner I have. The second is a longer stem on the DS burner, but should have used this one for the DS too.

After the massive soot on the first use, the useless air shutter, and the experience with the this style on my other burner, I did not even give it a second try. Hot spots, crappy performance, etc. The banjo style is vastly better.

They all use a 6mm screw, but since the banjo's mount closer (higher) I had to use a longer screw. I also had to punch a new hole/slot in both to get them mounted higher. For anyone considering this look for cheap conduit punches. 'Real' ones are very expensive, but the cheap imports are not - check harbor freight and ebay.

The other burner came from Bass Pro Shop although it looks slightly different from this one, but still all stainless. It was on sale for $125 at the time.

The turkey fryer burner has a timed burner control, but 5 minutes on the internet and you can find instructions on how to remove the control and modify the gas fitting. Takes about 15 min to do.

Reminder - these burners are LOW PRESSURE but work fine with the 5 lb regulators that came with my original burners. You can't turn them up too high, but for 5 gallon batches I don't need to.

 

[davekippen]

Awesome, thanks!!

 

[oneMoreHobby]

Just in case you didn't see this thread, I added washers to increase the air/fuel ratio and now my Dark Star burns a nice blue instead of yellow:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=543579