Going from Natural Gas to Propane

[hooper]

Brewing 12 years on NG and just move to WA to a city with no NG. Change the orifice on my burner and brewed using propane. Brew day went normal, but the bottom of my kettle is covered in soot. It then got on everything it touched including me. Anyone got any ideas on how to keep this from happening. I could go electric, but I really enjoy brewing the old-fashioned DC way.

 

[day_trippr]

Burner is running too rich.
What type of burner elements are you using? Most will have an air damper you can adjust to change the mixture...

Cheers!

 

[kevin58]

Do yourself a favor and go electric. After you run out of gas in the middle of a brew day coupled with the price of propane these days and you'll forget that old-fashioned notion pretty quickly.

 

[wdavis2003]

Probably need to upgrade the burner. If it's an orange flame and not a blue flame then it will do that.

 

[day_trippr]

Interesting. I've never read on HBT of a burner element that didn't work on propane. Most elements we use were actually designed to run on propane, and usually if there's any problem with them it's getting them to run on natural gas (Bayou Classic BG-12, for one example).

fwiw, if the burner sat unused for long, might want to check the venturi horn for a spider nest. Those are well known to turn burner flames orange via air restriction...

Cheers!

 

[hooper]

Burner is running too rich.
What type of burner elements are you using? Most will have an air damper you can adjust to change the mixture...

Cheers!

Banjo - I would have sworn it was wide open. I appears to have closed during the move. Just tightened it open. We'll see. NG was awesome. Propane sucks...going with it for now.

 

[hotbeer]

Propane and natural gas use different size jets. You might be able to adjust the air. But typically on something high performance, it won't be satisfactory. I think propane uses the smaller size orifice. So you might can drill out the jet. Search google to find what size drill you should use..... assuming it can be taken apart to get to the jet.

I also recommend electric. And induction at that. I got a 3500 watt induction hot plate and it heat up water fast and boils very hard. I had to add a new circuit to my breaker box, so you'll have to consider if you have 240v service near your brew area or not.

They have 1800 watt burners that can use a 120 volt outlet, but I wouldn't recommend them for anything but 1 gallon brewing. Though I know others use them and are happy with the slower boil times.

 

[day_trippr]

The OP mentioned changing the orifice.
As someone who runs a pair of BG-14 burners I can testify they run like complete crap with the air dampers closed - propane or NG...

Cheers!

 

[hotbeer]

Oh, I got it backwards. Propane does use a smaller orifice. Natural gas uses a larger orifice. And of course you have to adjust the air mixture for either.

So whichever you are using, make sure you have the right orifice first.

Or go induction electric. Nice not having to look for fuel or worry about burning the house down if you mash in the kettle and just want to wrap it in bath towels or other insulation to hold temp.

 

[ITV]

Besides changing the orfice (as you have done) I find that I need to readjust the air damper on my burner between the two gases.

For my burner the red line is natural gas and the black line is propane. The adjustment was made visually by obtaining a blue flame.

I normally run on natural gas, don't have to worry about running out.

 

[Lalo_uy]

You say already changed the orifice, but looks it is bigger than needed.
You can fill it with solder and re drill .
A less tha ideal way is to hit the orifice with a hammer to slash out of a circle orifice. Work for me on a hurry ;-)

 

[InspectorJon]

You might also want to check that the regulator is the correct pressure for the burner. I think some regulators are adjustable.

Most outdoor, portable propane burners are not intended to be used at the pressure that indoor propane appliances use and you should not hook them up to a residential propane system. That was the conclusion I came to after researching it a few years ago.