Disapointed in this Turkey Fryer

[jgln]

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=135977-58892-BB12182G&lpage=none

At first I was excited since it pretty quickly heated my mash water but when it came to boiling the whole volume it took forever and never really boiled even though the temp read beyond 212. I kept stirring it just so the top got mixed in with the hotter liquid below. I am sure it will be fine just took longer than stove top. What was nice was one pot and not having to go around with a thermometer to each pot to check temps for mash water.

I did 2 brews Saturday. The second I heated the mash as before, fine. But for the boil I split it in two pots, one in the fryer and one on the stove and was able to get full boil this time. Still a lot easier with the turkey fryer but still I need 2 pots.

The regulator is a 10 psi and the flame was weak and looked more like the flame from a fire than a burner, some blue out of the burners but all yellow flame under the pot. It is 32 qt but I think that is full volume and it is not designed to heat a full 32 qts.

Did I make a bad purchase or is this what I should expect? Is there something wrong with it?

 

[Brewers Hardware]

There might be a problem with the safety valve in your propane tank. Sometimes the OPD valve gets locked up and it just trickles propane.

try leaving the tank sitting upright, disconnected, for a while. Then gently pick it up and give it a solid wrap against the ground to drop that ball out of place. When you hook it up, make sure the regulator is shut, slowly open the tank valve, then try using as normal. It's also best to light them at their lowest setting and slowly turn up the power.

 

[springer]

The regulator is a 10 psi and the flame was weak and looked more like the flame from a fire than a burner, some blue out of the burners but all yellow flame under the pot. It is 32 qt but I think that is full volume and it is not designed to heat a full 32 qts.

Did I make a bad purchase or is this what I should expect? Is there something wrong with it?

sounds like an air problem.

Q) Why do I have a YELLOW flame and how can I fix it?

(A) A yellow flame can be caused by two things: bad air/propane mixture, or a dirty burner. Try adjusting the air vent, the silver round disk on the burner where the hose and orifice are. This will allow more/less air to be mixed with the propane and will generally result in a blue flame (blue flame with yellow tips is good).
If you have tried adjusting your air vent and still have a yellow flame you will need to clean out your burner. Please note that even brand new burners can be clogged, by dust or other particles from storage or transit. To clean out your burner simply take an air compressor, and stick it in the air vent. This will flush out any problems that may be clogging the burner. If an air compressor is not readily available a garden hose may be used instead. However, with a garden hose you will need to dump the water out of the burner and wait approximately one half hour for the stove to dry, before the stove can be used.

 

[gingerdawg]

I have that Turkey fryer and it rocks. Make sure to adjust the fresh air damper as mentioned above. I think mine is wide open. The overheat protector thing should be defeated, too. (just pull it out of the aluminum block it is in and coil it up out of the way.)
The regulator adjustment knob works backwards from what is normal and intuitive. I leave the flame adjustment knob all the way up to high and adjust the flame with the (backwards) regulator knob.

 

[earlytimes]

I have that Turkey fryer and it rocks. Make sure to adjust the fresh air damper as mentioned above. I think mine is wide open. The overheat protector thing should be defeated, too. (just pull it out of the aluminum block it is in and coil it up out of the way.)
The regulator adjustment knob works backwards from what is normal and intuitive. I leave the flame adjustment knob all the way up to high and adjust the flame with the (backwards) regulator knob.

+1. It works great for me, but only after I disabled the saf-t feature. Do what gingerdawg says and you'll be good to go.

 

[jgln]

Ok, I thought it was all regulated like a grill is with just the control knob, didn't know about the air adjustment. Guess I need to read the directions.

 

[BigNastyBrew]

I have that Turkey fryer and it rocks.

+1

I've brewed probably 20 batches on this thing over the past 7 months and I have no issues with it. I did not install the upright stabilizers and I cut the lead to the safety probe.

Also, I don't even use the regulator ON the stand. That's all the way up. I use the regulator on the hose. Yes, clockwise gives you more flame, counter-clockwise gives you less.

I can bring 7 gallons to a boil on this fryer in about 15 minutes (from mash and sparge temp, of course).

 

[EMPyre]

+1 t everything above. My brother and I both use this burner and it works great. He disabled the temp sensor, but I didn't. I do find it easier to regulate flame (and thus boil speed) via the hose regulator.

That being said if you wanted to do partial mash or BIAB and you don't disable the temp sensor you can get teh burner to cycle at whatever mash temp you want. You simply fire it on high until the thermometer (digital, not the cheap one that was included) reads the correct temp, then dial back the burner knob on the stand until it kicks off. The temp sensor will now do a pretty good job of holding your temp for you.

Also if you want that crumby faucet comes off easily and a 1/2" ball valve and bulkhead goes in with just a touch of enlarging the factory drilled hole. Did mine with a Dremmel.

 

[jgln]

Ok, took a look at it last night and I saw the screen and adjustable rotating "shield" but at no time during the assembly instructions did they mention it and to loosen the two screws to allow me to rotate it I had to disassemble the burner and the controls to get to the bottom screw. Poor design there IMO, so I left that one loose. It was fully open. So maybe I need to close it some? They really don't make it easy to make adjustments while it is burning. They tell you to turn it off, make the adjustment and try again. Kind of hit or miss. A better design would be some sort of extended leaver so you can turn it while it is burning and not burning your hands. I did not light it as it took longer than I thought and had other plans. Thanks for pointing that out though!

 

[gingerdawg]

I have only had to adjust the air damper once. It was in my set-up instructions. I have mine wide open. Most of the flame strength adjustment is via the hose mounted regulator. Leave the panel mounted flame adjustment on high, and use the hose reg.

 

[Poobah58]

Swap the 10psi regulator for a 20psi. Will do wonders...

 

[BeantownR6]

i don't mean to thread jack but that thing looks like it rocks and i may want to pick one up to do 5 gal boils. anyways my questions is i see the pot that comes with it has a drain spout. do you guys transfer your wort from the spout into the fermentor using tubing of some sort. does it work well or do you just pour it into the fermentor.

 

[EMPyre]

I just replaced the faucet with a bulkhead and ball valve, but I did transfer a couple of batches with it. You can almost get a carboy right under it, put the whole stand up a few inches and the bottle will fit. Or 3/8 ID tubing will fit over the faucet. I'd recommend a hose clamp, especially if you're using vinyl, it'll get a bit soft from the latent heat in the metal...

 

[BeantownR6]

cool i want one maybee ill pick one up to do the DFH 60 this weekend. and im now im gonna have to make an immersion chiller too out of copper tubing

 

[jgln]

Ok, last night I played around with the air vent and it looks like it burnt better with the vent more closed but I have to say it was poorly designed IMO. Even with both screws loosened it was still binding up and difficult to move. Something about cheap thin aluminum sliding up against rough cast iron just doesn't work out well. I think I need to take it apart again to loosen the other inaccessible screw even more. What a pain. I wonder if removing the whole control module out of the way and adjusting the flame through the tank valve or regulator a better way to go, that way I have easier access to the vent.

 

[wildwest450]

Did you read the reviews? It didn't do so well. If I was going to drop $100 on a turkey fryer, I would have bought a banjo burner for $65 and got 10 gallon pot on ebay.

 

[jgln]

Did you read the reviews? It didn't do so well. If I was going to drop $100 on a turkey fryer, I would have bought a banjo burner for $65 and got 10 gallon pot on ebay.

No I didn't. It was kind of an impulse buy. GF was going to buy me one for my birthday (over a month ago) and after searching the internet I finally found just the one I really wanted and when she put the order in she was told it was discontinued. We also had been searching through the stores for one but they were all not what I wanted. Finally one day at work she called me to say she stopped at Lowes and they had this one. She described it to me and it seemed to fit my needs so I told her to buy it. It will do but overall I expected it to be easier to use.

 

[jgln]

Just to update; since I made the adjustment to the air intake the thing works just fine. I did eventually remove the thermostat control because the sensor kept flipping back and making contact with the pot when trying to remove it making it difficult and almost impossible to get the pot off the burner especially without someone to help with pressing the two locks to release the sensor.