Ah Sam, it is annoying that the retailers don't give instructions with these things. I remember having this problem.
There should be two instructions included with all burners (especially sold to brewers.)...
1. Firstly, adjust the flame of your burner so it is burning blue not yellow. (I'll explain this below.)
2. Secondly, run your burner for 20 to 30 minutes on full with your kettle above it. Make sure you have, of course, some water in it.) This will burn off any possible excess paint. This excess paint turns into "whisps," that can fall into your wort. (I had this happen with my Italian burner and emailed the retailer suggesting it might be a good idea to mention this. Can't remember getting a reply
)
This second problem is not as common. I think you had both
Anyway, all you need to worry about now is the first one
.
This yellow flame problem is a bit of a bastard to adjust on spiral burners. If you have the same one as me, there will be a large silver 'collar' just after your gas control valve. It is probably secured by a nut and bolt. Loosen the nut and you will see that you can now slide the collar forward and back. This adjusts how much air/oxygen gets mixed with the gas. You need more air! (I just had a quick look at mine but it is buried under some other things so I can't tell you whether to push it back or forward.)
It's a pretty simple but pretty stupid and inconvenient way of adjusting your flame from yellow to blue but that is what they have done. Once you have done it though, I don't think you'd need to adjust it again.
If this makes sense to you then great. If not, I'll try and post some pics.
Why these things don't come with these basic instructions, I'll never know especially when they are sold by brewers or brew shops
. You can seriously wreck your first ever Ag by not being lucky enough to know the above.
Cheers Sam,
PP
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