Best gas burner to buy?

[Ralph]

Looking at getting myself set up with a gas burner for brewing. I will need to grab a 50L pot at some stage too, but figured the burner came first.

 

Having a look around it seems that the best choice for buying here in NZ is either the 3 or 4 ring burner that works with a standard regulator on a BBQ gas bottle.

 

I can find the 3 ring burners for about $70

 

I can find the 4 ring burners for about $130.

 

What I would like to know is if it is worth paying almost double for a 4 ring, or whether the 3 ring does the job just fine??

 

Are there any other options I could consider? I am quite happy to buy stuff in from overseas if it is cheaper and works better. Also not adverse to having to do some assembly or source some parts to make stuff work.

[Raffe]

Jo, are you able to give a ball-park estimate of how much one of the 10-tip rambo burners will cost? I am looking to get a burner soonish and may well wait for one of these.

[JoKing]

From memory they were around $150 - $160... I can't fully remember now. The price now will depend on differing exchange rates etc.

[Raffe]

Sweet, thanks.

[Sam]

I'd be keen for a rambo burner... Let me know if you get some in.

 

I have a 34l stainless steel pot, and a 3-ring burner from Mitre 10. I have trouble maintaining a rolling boil using this setup. 

[Christian]

I was having trouble with my 3-ring burner. Tuned out to be my regulator that was getting past it - might be worth looking into. I now get a great boil.

[David Wood]

I have the same burner and it will boil my 50L keg. I turn it down to maintain the boil.

[Pilgrim]

I have a 3 ring Campmaster burner (the green one) and was having trouble with it. I did the following:

1) I took the injector assembly off and cleaned out the the inlet tubes to the 3 burners. I got a lot of scale and foundry sand out of these tubes. I had a long taper reamer and this helped smooth out the casting. There were a lot of burs inside and these disturb the gas flow causing turbulance which slows it down and causes incomplete combustion.

2) the smallest ring would not burn clean (yellow flame) and so I took the adjustment ring off altogether and then it burmed correcly (blue flame).

This brought my 56ltr pot up to the boil ok but when I went to an 82ltr pot it took forever to bring a 60ltr brew up to the boil. It would do it, but it took ages. So:

3) I fitted an adjustable regulator and cranked the pressure up.

It now burns nice and clean and brings 60litres up to the boil in no time at all.

[hayden]

I'd be keen if anyone wants to purchase together for cheaper freight.

[Ralph]

Freight is about $64 for 1 x mongolian 23 jet.

[hayden]

Thanks ralph, just email them to get a quote for multiple units.

 

 

[Arron]

What volume are you planning to boil?  The 23 jet burner is around 150MJ/h and will be way oversized for 50litres. 

 

[hayden]

On second thoughts, I'd probably get the italian spiral burner as they are supposedily more adjustable heatwise? I was thinking a 10 tip unit for 23 litre batches.