Propane burner

[MapleCamp]

I want to make or buy a propane burner just to heat water for cleaning and stuff. I have a two burner that i put in but its a cumbersome pia. Does anybody have something made up or bought their willing to share. The evaporator is otherwise wood fired.TIA

[Brian]

Get a turkey cooker, they work great for that.We have 2 of them we use to heat water to clean stuff with. https://www.webstaurantstore.com/backyard-pro-bp30-sskit-all-stainless-steel-30-qt-turkey-fryer-seafood-boiler-kit-55-000-btu/554BP30SSKIT.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=Cj0KCQjwt4a2BhD6ARIsALgH7Dr-lbndXE_BGt_2SIE6pjMYu-RZs8w6uo16zRC_BMvtrDvdKivJWIoaAjvCEALw_wcB

[MapleCamp]

I should have been more clear that I want to heat the water in my evaporator . So it would have to fit in the fire box. I do have a turkey cooker that I use when the evaporator is in use. Im looking for something I can turn off and not have a bed of coals under it.

[maple flats]

If for cleaning the pan, especially the front pan, I've used a weed burner torch to heat water or more often white vinegar.
While I only warm it, I first drain the pan, then add 1 gal white vinegar (on a 3x3 front pan). Then I light the weed burner torch and aim the flame around under the pan until it appears to steam, at that point it will only be about 100-110F. I then let it set for 30-60 minutes or if heavily nitered, over night. Then in the morning I test to see if the niter has loosened. If not fully I heat again and let set for another 30-60 minutes depending on how much niter there is. By then it's usually all loosened. I draw it off into a clean SS pot. If more remains I pour the remaining white vinegar back in using a clean tee shirt to filter out the niter debris, then I heat again.
If this is not what you really want, be more specific with your question. If you really want to just heat water, use a turkey fryer burner placed in the firebox. A short leg model will do fine, then add water in the pan and light the burner. Those burners seem to ba available in 55,000 btu up to over 200,000 btu outputs. Try Webstaurant supply or many others to find what you want. In any case, be careful not to boil the pan dry or damage will occure.

[Andy VT]

I wonder if it would be easier to take the pan off the arch and set it on the 2-burner for the cleaning? Though it might need support, maybe cinder blocks under the corners, if it overhangs a lot.

[maple flats]

Another way to heat water if it's just hot water you want is to get a tankless water heater. I've been using them for over 10 yrs. Surprisinly the prices has actually come down in that time. My first heater was a 5 liter per minute rating which I still keep for backup if needed. I only replaced it because it was slower than I wanted. It raised water from about 35F to 115 at 5 liters a minute (just over 5 qts a minute.
I then bought a 12 liter unit, and I'm on my 3rd one for one reason only, I'm at times forgetfull. The unit must be drained when freezing temperatures are expected. I failed that, it fell colder than forecast and frost did it's work. The first time it happened I tried to repair it using epoxy. It held a few weeks but then started leaking. The next time I just forgot to drain it.
I have mine mounted over the sink in my sugarhouse. going in and out I vave valves to drain it. My water source is a SS milk tankthat uses a small diaphragm pump to pressureize the system. I fill that tank with city water by putting an IBC tote on my F350, rinsing it well, then filling it with municiple water. Our water has some chlorine so when I'm getting ready to start up my RO and flush the membranes, I drain the tank 3 or more days ahead and refill it with fresh water. Then when ready to flush the RO membranes and start up the chlorine is evaporated off and safe to use.
As for the tankless heater to drain it, I shut off the diaphragm pump, and open t cold water valve I have that drains into the sink. Then I open the drain on the outlet on the heater and drain that,I do not need to blow it out with air, it's designed to drain as I open the in and out lines. My issue has been that on 2 occasions I failed to drain it and paid. The first 12L heater was almost $220. my last one was $110. The last one even has a digital temperature reading and flow adjustments for propane flow and water flow to help get the temperature you want. My current one heats 35F water at about 12 L per minute to about 110F. I'll look up the info on it and post a link if anyone wants. I just do a Google search if I need one and pick one that's for 12 liters per minute. Mine runs off a bulk tank which is hooked up to my sugarhouse because originally my bottler was propane, I use a weed burner torch to light the fires and to warm a surup pn when cleaning and I have a 2x6 propane finisher that all run off the bulk tank plus I have an 8000 BTU wall "furnace" which heats my RO room. That furnace seldom runs the burner, just the pilot light keeps the well insulated small RO room warm but in extreme cold, like 10F and below the burner comes on as the thermostat calls for heat. I also have electric back up heat off my back up battery bank on my solar set up. If the furnace were to fail, 2 light bulbs 100W each come on as the temperature falls to 38F, the thermostat for the furnace is set at 42F. the 2 light bulbs seem to do the job, they are old school incondescent bulbs which are getting harder to find. I also have a 1250 watt eectric heater which I could run on grid power but I never tried it on my 48V battery bank of AGM batteries and my inverter.

[maple flats]

The link keeps failing as I try to copy it. Amazon has a couple that are close to what I have, I don't see mine offered any more. The price however in the 2 or 3 years since I had to buy a new one, like everything else have shot up to $160 for a 3.19 gpm and $339 for a 4.3 gpm that needs 120V ac to fire the propane. My unit has 2 D cell batteries to fire it.
The way prices are going keep in mind, these prices are good on 8/20/24. No idea when prices might change. The $160 unit looks very similar to mine. The 3.19 GPM is 12 liters per minute.

[maple flats]

I also use mine to bring my RO temperature back up while cleaning. Higher pressure RO's raise the temp so no added heat is needed, mine doesn't. Because while running the RO for cold sap the membranes are usually at about 37F up to maybe 45F on a warm day. AS I start thew wash cycle the temperature falls from the 110-113 F I heated the wash water to quickly as the cold sap and permeate get mixed in. That's when I start reheating the wash water
I have my water sustem set up so I can run permeate while my RO is running back thru the tankless heater. After my in feed diaphragm pump I have a tee into the line to feed the water heater. One side of that tee has a valve and a hose connection. I then have a section of potable water hose I run from the RO valve that sends water thru to the wash tank. That portion is permeate. I then send the permeate thru the hose and then the tankless heater and back into the wash tank. The condensate portion in the wash cycle flows thru a separate tube into the wash tank. I then monitor the temperature using a non contact thermometer. As the temp gets up to 113F I stop the reheating. The temperature stays there long enough to finish the cycle. My membranes want 113F max. vHeating this way with my tankless heater takes most often between 6 and 11 minutes. The temperature does not get heated instantly to the 113 setting because the flow is significantly higher than the 12 liters per minute it's rated at, but as the inflow temp raises it gets to the outflow temp of 113F.

[MapleCamp]

Thanks Dave , all good idea's, I have most of the stuff you mentioned, the tank less water heater is something I've been toying with. Before and just after the season , I like to fill up the evaporator with water and soak and clean all my sugar stuff. When I use wood it always gets too hot eventually. I think I'll try my weed torch , I think its about 80000 btu.

[maple flats]

That should work. Back when I had my original 2x6 I didn't have a bulk propane tank nor a weed burner torch, I used a regular propane torch to light the fire, but used 1,2 oe 3 turkey friers to heat water, I had 3.
I think my weed burner torch is 400-500,000 btu but I only open the valve on the torch maybe half way or less, so I'd think it will do fine for you. I'll tell you one thing, when I lay up a fire and light the torch I rest the handle on a folding chair, set the torch head on the door opening and have the valve open 1/3 to 1/2 (which might be 150-250,000 btus and then I get other things ready for maybe 2 minutes. At that point the fire is fully involved and I use no kindling (however my wood is all split to wrist size, so up to about 3" x 2" or 3+" by about 1.5", I just lay up the fire criss crossing layers and the fire is near full burn in about 2 minutes. I then shut off the torch, close the arch door and turn on the high pressure over fire/under fire air. That then remains on until about 45-60 minutes after last fueling as I'm shutting down. Back when the high pressure air was new, I started shutting it off to add wood, but once my grandson who was about 12-13 at the time forgot to shut it down and I noticed it caused no problem. From then on I never shut the air off to add wood.

[maple flats]

Another option would be to get a set of tube burners that you could set up in the firebox to hold the burners about 8-10" below the pan held up on a non combustable . Then light the burners and shut off as the desired temperature is reached or turn way down to maintain temperature. If you do something like that I suggest a 2 tube unit about 12" narrower than your firebox and 12, I think it gives you an idea how well a tube burner works." shorter.
I'm basing these on how well my 2x6 finisher works and it's spacing on the tubes. While it has 4 tube burners in it, I very rarely light all 4. Each has a valve and I only light the center 2. Even with as much as 75-80 gallons of syrup in it the syrup is up to temperature fairley quickly. The few times I've lit all 4 it seems the outer SS on the sides of the finisher get very hot, if I only light the center 2 they get hot but not as hot. While that would not be a concern for what you would be doing.
Basically a tube burner set up would have a manifold from which each tube extends forward. you will want the manifold outside the firebox and a framework could be designed to support the burners while the support is completely outside the firebox. Each tube would have an adjustable valve. On my finisher I have 2 ways to shut it down. Once I got the 2 burners set for the amount of flame I wanted, those adjustable valves have remained set there, now to use it, I have 2 ball valves to turn on and off the propane supply to the manifold. I only use one, the other remains open. The reason for 2 is only in case of emergency, the valve that is always open would be faster to reach and if needed i could operate it using my fire poker. Fortunately there has never been a need for that, but every few uses I operate the second valve off and back on just to be certain it still isn't frozen in position.

[maple flats]

If you google tube burners you will find several options. Just make sure the manifold is outside the firebox.