The Bar Towel

Is there any reason to shell out for a burner designed specifically for homebrewing ( like this one) when you can get a cheapo turkey fryer all over the place for a third the price? (This one or This one)

There is a bit of a difference in BTUs, but it's not that much.

I've been using the Martin made unit, from Home Hardware for 4 years.
With a good wind shield around it, I regularly boil 52 litres no problem.
Takes about an hour to raise from 150*F to boil. Others may be faster, but use more fuel, and are noisier.

All comes down to what you consider adequate performance.

Those big units get the job done faster but burn more fuel, with greater thermal inefficiency.

I use the turkey fryer as I mostly do 5G batches and have time to spare. If I was doing 10G batches, had more money and less time I would likely get a bigger, badder unit

I have been using a cheap turkey fryer burner from Rona for nearly 4 years now and it has always worked perfectly for me.

Uh, guys the Blichmann is more efficient than the cheapo turkey fryers.

High efficiency, fast, wind resistant, extremely quiet, no pot scorching/soot buildup, and built like a tank.

Mine was worth every penny.

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/sit ... tition.jpg

The efficiency depends on whether you're measuring it vs time or propane use really.

As Mark's graph shows, you'll use 15-20% less propane with a Turkey Fryer, but take twice as long to heat your liquor or wort

edit- I'm using a 38K BTU Turkey fryer personally, and find I can heat my strike and sparge water (40F to 170-180F), and boil wort (145-212F) and get about 3 5G batches per 5lb tank of propane

anyone I know with a Blichmann swears by them - they work awesome and will last forever. I built my 3-burner stand and paid a good chunk more than the cost of 3 blichmann's, but i also had particular goals in mind.

before that I was using a pair of propane burners. one of the jet-style "king kooker" or something. sounded like a jet, tore through fuel pretty well, but heated up in no time flat. i also had a turkey fryer unit from CT (not as big and fancy as the ones linked) that was probably half as strong and more efficient. If I wanted to warm 10gal on the small one, it'd take for-ev-er, so i was always heating things on the big one and transferring over to maintain a boil and such, or just doing smaller volumes on the little one.

for me, it comes down to your long term goals. I was happy with the two cheapo burners because i knew i wouldn't be using them forever. blichmann's weren't really on my radar as i knew i was going to get a stand built. if I had wanted to stay with standalone burners long term, i'd have probably upgraded to blichmanns at some point. but i'm pretty happy with what i have now.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I'll probably just stop by a home hardware and get a cheap one. I only brew a handful of times a year, so I don't think the upgrade would be worth it for me.

Plus, anything will be better than my 17000 BTU stovetop, won't it?

squeaky wrote:
Plus, anything will be better than my 17000 BTU stovetop, won't it?

might as well just put the kettle at the foot of your bed and let the heat from your feet heat it up.