Do I need to tune my Italian Spiral?

[woodwormm]

i've created a brewrig and i don't feel i'm getting the same usability out of the flame.

It still boils the same amount but seems to take a little longer to ramp up to rolling boil.

The height of burner to pot has changed slightly, and i seem to get a lot more flame licking up the side of the pot.

I've noticed on full noise there seems to be a lot of the spirals jets seemingly not burning, ie there's flame coming out of them at low rate, but full rate they're empty.

Should i be trying to tune the flame with the sliding metal shroud on the neck that creates air/gas mixture?

should i be trying to drill out the jets and make sure they're all open?

what colour / size flame should i be aiming for at the base of the pot?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

you want a nice blue flame and the kettle sitting just above the top of the flame

 

[Camo6]

Definitely drill out the holes. Mine were chockers after a year or so. I had issues with sooting and I actually changed the height of my burner before realising the fault so need to change it back when I upgrade kettles. After cleaning I found I didn't need to open the air port anywhere near as much. I don't run mine at full pelt any more as I feel its less efficient than a controlled flame.

 

[1974Alby]

interesting...the collar on my italian spiral burner sits fully open to give me a nice blue flame. I find closing it leads to yellow sooty flames. My pot sits around 2 1/2 inches above the burner and I get from mash to boil in around 30 minutes (~32L). It also has no trouble keeping a rolling boil on a double batch. I get at least 6 batches to a 9kg bottle and thats usually with a 1 1/2 hour boil. Might not be the most powerful burner out there, but I reckon its bloody efficient runnning off a standard low pressure bbq reg.

 

[woodwormm]

Good info. Anyone know what size the holes are?

 

[drofmob]

I drilled mine out with 1/8 drill bit. Works fine. Some of the holes where quite a bit smaller than the others. 3mm would work ok as well

Cheers

 

[Camo6]

Probably worth pulling the jet out when you do this too. Give the whole thing some gentle taps against a piece of wood and you'll be surprised at the flakes that come out. Come to think of it I'm going to do this to my F@#King BBQ right now.