Ross Reid writes:
>
"Craig Davis" > wrote:
>In looking at burners for fish fryers there seems to be two levels of
heat
>ratings. Some in the 55,000 BTU range some in the 160,000 BTU range.
What
>size burner is needed if I want to use an 18 qt pot to fry fish?

It matters not the Btu/hr rating a burner if the ambient temperature
as well as the size of the cylinder supplying the propane is not taken
into consideration.
At 70=BAF, the standard home-type, 20 lb. propane cylinder is only
capable of supplying approx. 90,000 Btu/hr and even that is only when
the cylinder is completely full. As the cylinder empties, or the
ambient temperature drops, so does the output from the cylinder.
You may also want to consider that those "Cajun Cooker" type burners
rated up in the 150K to 200K Btu/hr range are high pressure burners
which are notoriously inefficient and hard to regulate.
A low pressure "ring-type" burner in the 35K to 55K Btu/hr will be
more than adequate to handle the job for you.

Why are you assuming only a 20 lb cylinder, for that matter why are
you assuming propane... the OP could very well be using natural gas.