Aweaselkid
Active Member
I bought a used propane/turkey burner. I believe it is a Blichmann, not sure of the model.
When I went to pick it up, the seller hooked the burner up, and all worked fine.
I set it up for my first brew day last week. Everything worked perfectly while heating strike water for mashing.
After mashing, I went to relight the burner to bring wort to a boil. In the meantime, only small residual spills, no moving of the burner, no bumping or dropping it. Now, the burner won't relight.
I've tested all regulator settings, and propane tank settings, but mostly with the tank on full, and the burner's regulator mid to low (but tested all settings).
The only way the flame stays lit, is if the red button on the burner, which you press to ignite the flame, is depressed the whole time. Even after holding it for upwards of 2-3 minutes, as soon as you let go, the flame dies. This was NOT the case when I was heating water to mash. At this time, I bought a brand new tank while my wort was sitting there, thinking maybe the issue was with the propane tank. Same issue. To get through the boil, I rigged up a way to keep the red button depressed so the flame would stay, did my boil and finished everything fine. After, I felt like the new propane tank was pretty low, especially since I bought a new one to be sure that wasn't the issue
That was last week.
Second brew day, set up a brand new propane tank (third one, not used the first time), same issues. Flame is there, nice and happy, when the red button is depressed, and as soon as you let go, the flame dies. I decided to bail on the brew day until I figured this out.
My concerns are, that keeping the button depressed, which I did to get through the boil on the first day, might burn more fuel then when operating normally. Perhaps this is not correct.
The seller of the burner has been helpful, and we both initially thought I couldn't relight the burner during the first brew day because of a temperature issue, (there is a probe over the flame, and a spring loaded bolt on top of the burner where the kettle sits). We thought perhaps it was too hot and wouldn't relight.
During the second brew day, this couldn't be the case, as everything was cool, (tried testing this before even putting water in the kettle). I rigged up a way to keep the spring loaded bolt on top out of the way, and during 30 minutes of troubleshooting, even clipped the wires between the temperature probe and the spring loaded bolt to the stem of the burner (where it feeds where the flame comes out) so there is no way a safety feature would shut the flame off due to overheating.
Still having the same issue where the red button you need to depress to light the flame, needs to be pressed down to keep the flame running.
Questions:
1. WTF is going on?
2. Could it be because of some wort somehow got in there? I didn't spill at all during the first brew day, maybe just some residual dripping, but nothing serious. Seller has used this for years without issue, I imagine some spilling has occurred, but I don't know why all of a sudden, between mashing and boiling, the burner is having this problem...
3. Should I just rig the red button so it stays depressed the whole time?
4. If when doing so, would this drain the gas more quickly?
5. Should I just buy a new one? This used one was working when I bought it, and while heating strike water, so I know I didn't buy a broken one...
Any thoughts would be appreciated. I bailed on my brew-day today, but would love to get this resolved as I have all the ingredients ready.
Thanks!
When I went to pick it up, the seller hooked the burner up, and all worked fine.
I set it up for my first brew day last week. Everything worked perfectly while heating strike water for mashing.
After mashing, I went to relight the burner to bring wort to a boil. In the meantime, only small residual spills, no moving of the burner, no bumping or dropping it. Now, the burner won't relight.
I've tested all regulator settings, and propane tank settings, but mostly with the tank on full, and the burner's regulator mid to low (but tested all settings).
The only way the flame stays lit, is if the red button on the burner, which you press to ignite the flame, is depressed the whole time. Even after holding it for upwards of 2-3 minutes, as soon as you let go, the flame dies. This was NOT the case when I was heating water to mash. At this time, I bought a brand new tank while my wort was sitting there, thinking maybe the issue was with the propane tank. Same issue. To get through the boil, I rigged up a way to keep the red button depressed so the flame would stay, did my boil and finished everything fine. After, I felt like the new propane tank was pretty low, especially since I bought a new one to be sure that wasn't the issue
That was last week.
Second brew day, set up a brand new propane tank (third one, not used the first time), same issues. Flame is there, nice and happy, when the red button is depressed, and as soon as you let go, the flame dies. I decided to bail on the brew day until I figured this out.
My concerns are, that keeping the button depressed, which I did to get through the boil on the first day, might burn more fuel then when operating normally. Perhaps this is not correct.
The seller of the burner has been helpful, and we both initially thought I couldn't relight the burner during the first brew day because of a temperature issue, (there is a probe over the flame, and a spring loaded bolt on top of the burner where the kettle sits). We thought perhaps it was too hot and wouldn't relight.
During the second brew day, this couldn't be the case, as everything was cool, (tried testing this before even putting water in the kettle). I rigged up a way to keep the spring loaded bolt on top out of the way, and during 30 minutes of troubleshooting, even clipped the wires between the temperature probe and the spring loaded bolt to the stem of the burner (where it feeds where the flame comes out) so there is no way a safety feature would shut the flame off due to overheating.
Still having the same issue where the red button you need to depress to light the flame, needs to be pressed down to keep the flame running.
Questions:
1. WTF is going on?
2. Could it be because of some wort somehow got in there? I didn't spill at all during the first brew day, maybe just some residual dripping, but nothing serious. Seller has used this for years without issue, I imagine some spilling has occurred, but I don't know why all of a sudden, between mashing and boiling, the burner is having this problem...
3. Should I just rig the red button so it stays depressed the whole time?
4. If when doing so, would this drain the gas more quickly?
5. Should I just buy a new one? This used one was working when I bought it, and while heating strike water, so I know I didn't buy a broken one...
Any thoughts would be appreciated. I bailed on my brew-day today, but would love to get this resolved as I have all the ingredients ready.
Thanks!