I went to do a short boil on a sour mash beer last night and my burner lit on fire where the hose connects to the metal frame of the burner. It just kept catching fire. I tightened the nuts, moved the piece that opens the flow on the ports, nothing worked, just kept catching fire. The flame from the burner itself just scorched the bottom of the kettle and threw off black smoke instead of actually heating the wort (the entire bottom was covered in soot). Any thoughts from the more mechanical minded guys that know about this kind of stuff? Do I have to just buy a new burner? Thanks for any assistance. Kinda like this:
Could it possibly be a crack in the hose that could be replaced opposed to the burner itself? Just wondering?
Put some soapy water in the area and look for bubbles. Also, I was wondering if you had your air vent open all the way, could be 2 problems
My guess is either a crack in the burner, or a clog obstructing gas flow to the jets. Either way, a close inspection should reveal the problem. Mechanically speaking, these are brilliantly simple devices, and there isn't much that can go wrong with them.
The vent was closed, and I adjusted it open to see if that fixed it. I'll have to try the soap this weekend and check for blockages as well... Had about 7 boilovers on Saturday that may have clogged it up some (used my old 7 gal kettle).
Another thing to check is the vent passage, spiders and caterpillars sometimes nest in these places and obstruct airflow, I had this problem recently. The passage looked clear, however compressed air through the passage revealed an obstruction (cocoon) that needed to be fished out with a small hooked piece of 14 guage wire.
