KAB4 Banjo Burner

Northern Brewer General
1

I bought the KAB4 Banjo Burner from our host, NB and I’ve used it 4 times so far. The thing is a monster and it can bring water needed for a 10 gal AG setup up to temp very quickly. However, I have the hardest time getting it fired up.

I use one of those long-nosed BBQ/fireplace lighters you can get at the grocery store. I light the lighter, bring the lighter to the burner and slowly open the regulator. I get this loud whosh sound and it either blows a bit of fire out of the burner or out of the shutter then it kills itself. Usually scares the crap out of me. Sometimes, it never fires. I never hear any hissing so I am guessing the regulator safety valve has tripped when this happens. Then I have to close the regulator and wait a few seconds to air out the burner before trying again. It can take me a couple of minutes to finally light it up. I’ve adjusted the shutter to get a decent blue flame.

The only thing is I have over tighten the shutter so it cannot be adjusted. I can loosen it up to see if the makes any difference.

Any advice? I doubt this is normal. Note that once it’s lit, it works great.

2

You may be doing this already, but this is how I lit mine when I had them.

Close the shudder all the way. Light the lighter and hold it near the edge of the burner. Slowly turn on the gas. Give it a second or two to clear the air in the line, and slowly move the lighter toward the burner nozzles. As soon as you see a blue flame, move your hand back and turn the gas up some more. Once you have it lit, open the shudder slowly until you get blue tips all around (the amount varies).

3

I am going to try loosening the shutter so that I can close it. I read the manual, go figure, and it suggest that. Which DCBC said he was doing. I will report back. In the meantime, I welcome other thoughts.

Thanks DCBC!

4

Good luck. If you run that burner with anything less than 1/2 of a propane tank, don’t run it too hard. You can freeze up the tank pretty quick. You can avoid this by putting the tank in a big tub of water.