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?

"Craig Davis" > wrote in message
...
> 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?

The number of BTU"S you need really depends of several factors: How quickly
you want to heat the oil, How much fish (Lbs.) you intend to fry at a time.
The important thing here is maintaining the temperature after the food is
added and the recovery time.

A 30 quart turkey fryer will use about 50 to 60 % full and will handle up to
a 22 pound bird. These fryers use an adjustable burner going up to 150,000
BTU'S.

For an 18 quart fryer I think you would be fine with 100,000 adjustable.

IMHO


Dimitri

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?

I'm sure a 55,000 BTU burner is more than plenty for a 16 qt deep
fryer... 55,000 BTU fryers are rated for 40 pounds of frying medium,
which weighs more than 16 qts worth... the furnace that heats my entire
house is rated at 160,000 BTUs.

"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 70ºF, 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.
Ross.
To email, remove the "obvious" from my address.

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.

I say go with the big one. You can throttle it back necessary but you can only get 55,000 out of the small one no matter what...

I doubt he is trying to get his house up to 375 degrees and keep it there...

dkdeckmann wrote:
> I say go with the big one. You can throttle it back necessary but you
> can only get 55,000 out of the small one no matter what...

You must have a really small pecker because that sure sounds like penis
envy to me...

A 160,000 BTU burner is too large a diameter for the OP's 16 qt pot,
most of those BTUs would be used to heat the atmosphere. And you can't
safely use more than 10qts of fat in a 16 qt pot lest it foam over...
then all you'd need is the large burner on your kitchen stove... just
that deep frying in a plain pot with more than 4 qts of fat is just not
very safe and should never be attempted indoors.

Before I'd go to all that trouble and take all that risk I'd get a
thermostaically controlled electric deep fryer... there are some very
nice ones of decent volume these days for very little money, certainly
cost a lot less than that fercocktah foundry set up, amd a thousand
times safer. And if one is not enough for your party get two... still
a better deal than Gargantua's bunsen burner... and you'll have one for
the fish and one for the chips.

Here's but one ---> http://tinyurl.com/65l2y

Sheldon