Pipe Burner Questions

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JckDanls 07

Legendary Pitmaster
Original poster
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SMF Premier Member
Sep 10, 2011
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Tampa area, Florida.
ok... so I made a pipe burner for my smokehouse and I have a question or two...

the pipe is 40" long, I cut 20"worth of slits at 1" apart (21 slits)... the venturi end is outside of the house.... I fired it up and the house got "WAY TO HOT".... I shut it down at 170` and that was on the lowest setting... so I then used some metal tape and covered every other slit... leaving 11 slits open.... fired those up and it still climbed to 160`+... here's a couple of pics....




should I keep covering slits up until I can get the temps down to 120`? Then when I get it down low enough should I make a new pipe with that number of slits... obviously I don't want to leave the tape on the burner...

The house is gonna be used mainly for sausage.... size of the house is 3' x 3' x 6'4"

any and all tips will be helpful...

THANKS, Keith
 
So I did tape up more slits... only have 6 slits burning now but it's asking for more air (yellow tips on flames)... still 160`+
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The thermal mass of the cold meat will be a factor in the final operating cabinet.  Heating air is easy.  Heating a mass of cold damp refrigerated meat is another story.  You could try putting a couple of brick (solid ones, not hollow) in the fridge overnight and then put them in the smoker to simulate a meat load.  See how it performs on low then.

You may want to think about designing two pipe burners.  One for lower temps, and one for higher temps.  I think your current o2 shortage is from the length of the pipe and the venturi effect not sucking in enough air now that you have most of the slits covered up.  Not as much area for the air/gas mixture to exit, so it's not coming in as fast (and not bringing in as much fresh air to support combustion in the process).
 
Dave... thanks for the tips... I gave up on it for tonight.. I did change to a smaller orifice and that helped clean the flame up.... I turned it down to low and the slits closest to the venturi keeps going out....
 
Dave... thanks for the tips... I gave up on it for tonight.. I did change to a smaller orifice and that helped clean the flame up.... I turned it down to low and the slits closest to the venturi keeps going out....
That is due to the velocity of the gas coming out of the orifice, a venturi effect at that point, and inadequate pressure inside the burner tube.... (too much volume and too many slits)... The first few slits are now becoming air intakes for the burner tube....  

Dave
 
Hey Keith,

Any new developments on your burner?

That just might be too much for the box, I'm pulling together parts for a plywood smoker myself. I'm using a low pressure burner that's big  (my smoker will be 18 x 21 x 72).

The valuing on that two ring burner is great (tested it) you'll be able to get as low as you'd like.

I'm one thread below yours.

Bets of luck.

Randy
 
Randy... I gave up for the time being and went with electric... but I will be trying to go back to gas as well....
 
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