VRF pipe burner too hot

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orsmokerinaz

Fire Starter
Original poster
Oct 2, 2014
41
10
Hello - Sure hope I can get some ideas as I have a homemade VERY WELL INSULATED Smoker with a 28W x 25D x 55H  Smoke chamber and a Firebox below that is 28 x 25 x 20H.  I made a twin pipe burner with 9" of closed spaced 1/8 holes, adjustable reg and needle valve.   It works well to maintain 250 in chamber and will easily go higher but I can throttle back just fine.  The heat chamber is made of block and has steel top with ceramic tile sandwich and concrete board between.    LOTS of mass so pipe burner lets me get it up to temp quickly (<1/2 hr).   and keeps temps stable.

The issue is I want to do sausage and can not get chamber below 220 which is WAY too hot.  Need 170.    I have shut down the one of the two burners but it only reduces temp a few degrees.  All vents are nearly closed as well.  Just need to keep flame from blowing out.

Only have a 5-10 degree difference from top to bottom of chamber.  

Is this a limitation of this type of smoker when using a pipe burner?   Thought about moving water pan from bottom to top near side heat channel exit but not sure.   

DO I need to switch to an electric element like a skillet for lower temps?

Maybe add a very small burner  after to temp but need to keep smoke going.

Any Help appreciated
 
Protect the burner from air drafts...   Open the upper and lower air vents on the smoker...   Try 1/2 the burner again....    I do hope you have a "flame out" protection device on your burner.... 
 
Re Flame Out Protection.  Been wanting to add but have not found anything unless I use a Thermo-couple with a pilot light or re igniter valve.  They are spendy.   If you could recommend something it would be appreciative.

Thanks
 
I have a 3/8 Low Pressure high volume regulator and have 2 - 12"  3/4 pipes with 36 1/8 holes in each.   

So there are 18 each 1/8" holes in each leg....   Plug half of them...    every other one..    use a tooth pick...   use high temp silicone...  or, drill new burner legs with 3/32" holes.....

How big is the gas orifice....   do you know how many BTU's it will deliver ??  Each one of those 1/8" holes you have drilled is capable of delivering 100,000 BTU's   .....

Gas Orifice drill table  

.......
chart_number.jpg
 ...
500x1000px-LL-1985634a_Orifice20Capacities20Chart20I.jpeg
 
 
Last edited:
Thanks much.  I  got some very wrong info.re holes.  I am using a High Flow orifice from a auto changeover regulator for LP bottles.  It will do several hundred K BTU.  The regulator is a 0-10 adjustable however I did try a BBQ low flow (.5) reg but flame out was an issue.    3/32 is doable for a new legs however I may just do a single leg strait from the venturi.. I can also reduce pipe to 1/2 but I was concerned it would create mixing issues,    

I will also run a  test with the old legs by blocking off 2/3 as there are 28 holes in each leg.   Thanks much for the chart.  Wish I had it before I drilled the legs.

Did you have any specifics re flameout protection??  Did not want to spend for PID setup.  Is there a lower cost alternative???  or just gas valve and auto igniter or pilot??

Thanks Again

Bob in AZ
 
For building your own venture, one member on here uses welding wire feed tips...    you can get them in 0.030, 0.035, 0.040 etc. at the weld shop for your wire feed gun...


Find an old gas controller off of an old style H.W. tank...  pilot light is best I'm thinkin'...

Anywho, somebody around here knows something about anything...   Good group of members...

Dave
 
Dave,  

Thanks for the info.   Will start on rev 2 tomorrow,   I had thought about welding tips but it seemed like a lot of work for that many holes.    I am thinking I may just put a shutoff for one of the legs so I can do a quick warm up and the use the other leg for lower temp control.  

Thanks again 
 
The MIG wire tip goes into the venture to regulate the maximum BTU's allowed into the burner rack....  

8557 BTU's is what the main supply would be if you installed an 0.035 wire feed tip......

That number is based on 11" water column pressure at the venture inlet....

Then, if you had 20 holes in the legs of the burner,    8557 / 20 = ~430 BTU's per flame hole....  Not sure how to figure out what size holes are needed on the burner legs... 
 
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