Propane to Natural Gas conversion on Banjo burner

[Komocabo]

I decided to switch to Natural gas to save time (filling pumps, etc.). I have the banjo burners (BG14?) and bought the conversion orafices from Williams Brewing for about $20 shipped. This way I don't have to mess with drilling the old practices, and also, I can easily go back to propane if I want to brew away from the house.

I bought the 25' NG certified flex hose from G4 Burners ($110 shipped) and had a valve and QD hooked up to my NG line that leads into the garage.

Here's my feedback for my 10 gal batches using a kettle:
- It takes a bit longer to get strike water to temp (a LOT longer). I think It took close to an hour, and propane would do it in about 45 mins.
- Fly sparged into my kettle and turned on the burner after about 10 mins. After a 45 min sparge, it took about another 30-40 mins to get to boil,
- Once I reached my boil it was perfect and I didn't have to turn it down at all, so basically has the same amount of power as propane did when it was turned down to maintain a boil.

I like the easy of just plugging into the QD, but it seems that I am not getting the power I want from NG.

Set-up for gas is: 3/4" nipple to 3/4" valve, then another 3/4" nipple to a coupler, reducing to 1/2" nipple, the the QD. From QD, there is a 25' hose (1/2" ID) to a manifold that is made of 1/2" black pipe, leading to a valve and 3/8 flared hose (about a foot) to the orafices.

Why am I not getting a stronger flow of fuel to crank the burners up? Should I sell my banjos and buy the NG ones and would that even make a difference since I have the correct NG orafices now?

Thanks, Komocabo

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[FourSeasonAngler]

NG is a much lower pressure. LP is measured in Lbs/Sq. in. and NG is measure in inches of water column. You will not get the same BTUs or strength of heat from NG, but it's cheaper and much more convenient.

What you can do is invest time into concentrating the heat so that less heat is lost to the atmosphere. Some wind guards and operating your boil kettle/burner in a smaller enclosed area with only moderate ventilation will help.

I run a 23 tip jet burner on NG and it brings 18 gallons of room temp strike water to a boil in 1 hour.

 

[Komocabo]

Gotcha, and I was concerned about the lower pressure. At this point, would I benefit if I bought the NG banjo burner, or is buying the conversion orifice essentially the same thing... I mean, should I expect a big difference? (Note, I am using the conversion orifice at this time, not a drilled out one.)

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[purplehaze]

Stick with the burners you have they are fine. There are way of increasing the performance of your burners to compensate for the lower pressure/btu's.

-the distance from the burner to the kettle may need to be reduced.
-a pot skirt

 

[Komocabo]

I will try raising the burners up a bit and see if that helps. Good looking out boys!

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[mxrob]

We just made the change from propane to NG on our flat rack system. With two BG14's and one BG10. The conversion for the BG14's required a .120" main orifice for a clean burn. With the proper orifice size you will get just about the same level of heat from your burner... the BG14 is more than capable to draw in enough air to mix with the higher volume of NG required to create the needed BTU's.

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[Komocabo]

Thanks mxrob. The williams brewing site says the diameter is approx 1/8" (0.125"). I may pull on off the burner and get my friend's gauge to see if that really is the case. It's not the end of the world either way.

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