by moya034
I was bored tonight, so I decided to make a simple forced air propane burner based off how I put together my oil burner. I had all the fittings on hand already.
WARNING: This seemingly innocuous burner is fairly dangerous. First, the pipe pictured is galvanized pipe. Problem with this is hazardous zinc fumes may burn off during furnace operation. Use black steel pipe instead. Also if the airflow is interrupted, the heavy propane will just collect in the burner and the furnace. If that happens make sure to turn off the propane tank and get air flowing as fast possible without creating sparks to disperse the propane. This burner is also susceptible to having propane blown out the air inlet caused by a furnace backfire. I'm told backfires are caused by too lean or rich a fuel mixture, starting the furnace with the lid on, or blocking the vent hole. Be careful!
It's made from 3/4" pipe. The propane inlet is simply a 1/8" pipe nipple threaded into the 3/4" pipe. No jet of any kind. You'll need a 1/8"-27 NPT pipe thread tap unless you wish to weld.
Here's my propane regulator. I got it and the hose from a welding shop. I remember both being about $40 in 2002 or so.
Here's the test rig. This burner has no flare, so it needs a furnace to work properly. I used the same test furnace (that is falling apart) as my oil burner. I'm using the same vacuum cleaner too. You adjust airflow by moving the firebricks closer to the burner.
It works! I'm sure this baby will melt some metal.
This webpage was first made on June 13, 2008 with a text editor. This webpage uses W3C compliant code and is best viewed with ANY browser or operating system. Well, lynx won't be very useful because there are images where ALT tags would be useless.