[TheForge] simple propane burner question

Mon Aug 12 11:42:01 2002

You're in the soap business and don't know how to keep pots clean of soot? =
=20

You rub soap on the outside!  Still soots up, but cleans right off.

I don't follow exactly your problem.  It sounds like at the higher gas =
flow rate your wife wants, you're not getting enough air into the fuel =
mix.  If this is the case, then the flames should be yellow and smoke even =
when the pot is off the burner.  The yellow flames get that way from =
traces of sodium burned off something.  In this case, the sodium would be =
from the burner itself.  (Sodium is on virtually every surface, but not in =
the gas.  Clean gas burns blue.)  Most burners have an air inlet which can =
be adjusted.  Open it wide and try again. =20

Alternatively, maybe the pot is too close to the fire, so that when your =
wife turns up the gas, the larger flame hits the pot and the gas is =
incompletely burned, leaving carbon deposits.  In this case the flame may =
be yellow from sodium on the pot.  Raise the pot until the flames no =
longer touch the pot.  They may then turn back from yellow to blue (but =
maybe not, if the sodium is coming from the burner).=20

BTW, WHY are you making soap in aluminum pots.  Sound like asking for =
trouble.  Lye dissolves aluminum.

Bruce
NJ

>>> Barking Crow <[email protected]> 08/05/02 11:42AM >>>
In the soap business we routinely heat large pots of solid and liquid
vegetable oils in 4 or 5 gallon aluminum pots over a simple maybe $40 =
burner
on the floor on its own legs.  The problem that's causing a domestic
disturbance is that the pots keep getting a thick coating of soot which is
nigh impossible to clean off and gets on everything it touches.  I keep
adjusting the burner so that the many little flames are blue and to my =
mind
burning the fuel efficiently, then my wife who is the real soapmaker comes
along early in the am to heat the pots of oils and says she can't wait on
the flame like I've adjusted it and turns it up so that the flame has lots
of yellow but she thinks heats faster.  My question is,  can it really put
out more heat with the yellow flames?

Any help will be appreciated, even if I'm wrong.  I'm used to it.

Thanks,

Jeff Valentine

Barking Crow
http://www.barkingcrow.com=20
[email protected]=20

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