I recently received the Dark Star Burner as a gift, as I'm preparing to do my first all-grain brew this weekend. I tried testing it last night, and I had some serious issues, which was a surprise to me because I've read literally nothing but good reviews when considering the price.
I'll explain the situation first. I live in Wisconsin, which last night was very cold. I was attempting to bring 5.5 gallons to a boil in 0 degree F weather with a bit of wind. I also was starting with 45 degree F water. I figured to make it difficult to see just how long it would take with cold water, and in this case, poor conditions. That said, I had a lid on my kettle and I eventually set up some plywood as a wind barrier.
Well, an hour and a half into it, the water was at 130 degrees, and I gave up (still a long way to go to get to boiling). I continually had an issue where the burner was petering out. I could be wrong, but it did not appear that the wind was doing it. I live in the country, so there was a steady draft, but it didn't appear to be affecting the flame too much.
To me it seemed like the gas regulator was gradually limiting the amount of gas going through. I would start out with the regulator only a quarter open let's say, and then I'd have to adjust it every 5-10 minutes, and eventually I'd have to have it completely open for it to continue working. Once I got the flame going well enough, I could set it back down to a lower level.
In most of the videos I saw the burner produces mostly a blue flame. It would start like this with my burner, but soon enough that would turn to orange and yellow flame.
I'm new to this, so I'm wondering what the issue is here. Equipment issue? Or am I just expecting too much out of the product?
I'm planning on going out and buying a new one since I'm planning on brewing this weekend. I don't want it to turn into a 12 hour ordeal because I'm constantly waiting for water to heat up. Either way, I'd like to know why the burner I got isn't working well enough.