Which Gas Burner ??

[murphy625]

I'm building a stainless steel smoker to be powered with Natural Gas.   

My vertical smoker is 84 inches tall, 54 inches deep and 36 inches wide.   You might ask "Do you really need something so large?"..  Well, we plan on butchering our own hogs and they get pretty big.    A ham that comes from a 400 to 500 pound pig is the size of a 5 gallon bucket and there are two of them, plus the picnic hams (front sholders), plus bacon, plus jerky, etc.

Looking on Ebay and several BBQ smoker website that sell parts, I have to ask if anyone has experience with any of these burner heads.

As an engineer who's designed many industrial process ovens, I'm very familiar with what is needed.   However,  rather than re-invent the wheel and build my own burner, I've noticed that the burner heads can be purchased for much cheaper than I could ever build one for.

Example 1:  (opinions?)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/23-Tip-Jet-...hash=item4640f0413f:m:mA8ZWGhMO4FOYT18AHVaCrA

Example2:

https://tejassmokers.com/Jet-Burners/32

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

 

[daveomak]

Have you considered a pipe/ribbon style burner AND using a flame out sensor that turns the fuel off....

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/newsearch?search=pipe+burner&type=61

 

[murphy625]

 
Have you considered a pipe/ribbon style burner AND using a flame out sensor that turns the fuel off....

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/newsearch?search=pipe+burner&type=61

Considered it..  I have two stainless steel kitchen sinks that I'm going to be using for my wood chips and water bowls.. All I have to do is weld up the hole at the bottom and its the perfect wood / water holder.  

I also prefer mixing the oxidizer right at the nozzle.. I've never been crazy about those pipes having pre-mixed fuel and oxygen in them.  I have to say they are nice however for being able to make really small blue pin-flames..  The pre-mix style burners have a wider range of operation and still burn cleanly thought the entire curve but its a feature I don't think I'll need.  

The water heater style flame sensors you linked to are also something I'm not overjoyed about as pilot lights are a bit unreliable outdoors.... they require a standing pilot flame to heat a bulb sensor and they do not like windy or drafty conditions as they tend to get blown out and then the whole system shuts down.    I plan to use an optical sensor and spark ignition instead.. far more reliable, mostly immune to drafts..

I've been wondering if anyone has any experience with the burners I linked to..  any quality concerns or anything of that sort?

 

[daveomak]

Those burners are new to me.... 

 

[murphy625]

No one else can help????

 

[tardissmoker]

Not my strength, but did you try looking for wok burners. I once considered them but they put out a ton of heat, too much for my smoker.

 

[daveomak]

I'm thinking a low output BTU burner that was on 80% - 100% of the time would give uniform / even temps across the smoker....   That's why I suggested a ribbon burner....

 

[murphy625]

 
I'm thinking a low output BTU burner that was on 80% - 100% of the time would give uniform / even temps across the smoker....   That's why I suggested a ribbon burner....

Ya.. any burner I get will need to be "tuned" to an output setting that doesn't cause the digital controller to cycle too quickly.  I figured this would be as easy as a ball valve on the input line to control the volume of gas going to the burner head.

I've also considered going to a two burner system. One burner almost always stays on.. the other burner kicks on when it needs extra heat..   It would be easy enough to wire the second burner to the high-limit alarm contacts on the controller..   

So the system starts up and both burners kick in.. when it reaches the temp set point, one burner turns off and the second burner keeps it warm for as long as it can.. if the temp continues to climb even with one burner off, then the high-limit would kick in and shut both down.

But it seems to be something that might not be needed..  Its not a heat treat oven and since the enclosure itself weighs north of 300 lbs, and will be well insulated, there should be enough thermal mass to keep things smooth and steady.