4-ring Burner Setup... Any Good?

[twowhits]

Happy with my 4 ring burners as well. I reckon you will have problems with any burner if you don't get the wind problem sorted. I brew in a shed and if the doors open and windy it blows it around a fair bit. Adds considerable time. Solution - shut the door. Have improved my gas efficiency considerably by putting heat shields around the bottoms of my vessels.

Regards

Andrew

 

[HoppingMad]

I'd get a adjustable medium regulator from beerbelly or gryphon and try it with you burner. You'll need the regulator even if you upgrade the burner anyway, so you might as well try it with that burner.
Making a heatshield is easy, any nonflammable material such as sheetmetal will do the job. There's a lot of nonflammable cloths and sheeting (asbestos type sheets similar to the old super6 fencing) made for welding trades that can be used too.

On the subject of heatshields, the book Brew Ware (Karl F Lutzen & Mark Stevens - Storey Publishing) page 94 has a good one (they call it a heat shroud but could fix your wind problem). If you can't be bothered getting the book (got mine on order from Dymocks, possibly cheaper on amazon) you could google it for the plan. Basically this is it:
- Take an 18 inch wide sheet of aluminium flashing
- Pot rivet it into a cylinder to slip over your burner
- If need be use tin snips to make a cut-out for the valve
- Make sure the shroud is tapered wider at the bottom (ie. where the flame will be - the key is to make it wide enough here so the flame won't directly hit the aluminium and melt it, so it pays to know where your flame will be when set at full throttle- might need to check your flame before making).

The book reckons with a heat shroud like this you can also increase the heat/efficiency of your burner. Haven't tried it myself (still setting up my AG gear - just a newbie) but could be worth a crack. I reckon if you're several floors up you could well need one regardless of the burner!

Hopper.