# Rocket Hot backyard burners?



## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

So in the May challenge I made some blackened catfish. You may recall I told the tale of how when the butter soaked fish hit the insanely hot cast iron griddle it burst into flames. Flames were not a problem, easily blown out. But the entire house was filled with smoke for hours afterwards. So it got me to thinking it might be nice to have some serious firepower in an outdoor cooker.

Poking around, I came across this:

210,000 BTU burner

Now as I recall the burner I used for the catfish is rated at 12,000 BTU. So this propane unit is nearly 20 times more powerful than my indoor stove. Is that overkill? Many more such burners are available in the 55,000 - 110,000 BTU range.Any of you have practical, hands on experience with such devices? It also seems to me it could be great for getting some serious heat going under my wok, perhaps with a few shields and deflectors fabricated to fit. ROund bottom woks on Western style flat burners are not the best combo.

mjb.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Wow. That could drain a tank pretty fast. I cook on 30k camp chef and that's significantly hotter than my 14k stove. Restaurant wok burners are usually 150k. These are often water cooled.


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## millionsknives (Apr 25, 2014)

A lot of companies make dubious claims of high BTU. I'll tell you the facts... If you're using a 20lb propane tank you have limits. For propane to work, some gas evaporates on the surface of the liquid and goes out the hose. You don't burn liquid propane, you burn the gaseous propane that evaporated from that liquid propane. It depends on surface area(and temperature) and the rate is limited because of the tank size. 

210k BTU just isn't possible off a 20 lb tank. I think my outdoor wok burner is 65k or something like that


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

I figured that at least 50% of that BTU rating was marketing hype. I'll probably end up with a Bayou Classic cooker in the 50 - 60,000 BTU range. Whatever I end up getting will likely need some mods to the legs, and possibly some fabricated directional shields for best wok heating. Not that a mechanical type guy like me who plays with old British sports cars would want to fuss about with new toys or anything like that.

Of course, that project is on hold until the broken tree gets cleaned up off the garage and damage to the various Triumph cars is assessed.

Ah, the curse of interesting times.

mjb.


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