regulator life

[wiseguy]

What would be considered a normal life for a regulator? My flame is nice crisp blue when I start but turns yellow when I dial up the heat. I do sometimes get diaphragm flutter and have to shut the tank off and open the valve vvveeerrryyy slowly for the regulator to work.

Using GOSM cabinet style. Don't remember the age. Could be 8 - 10 years old.

Any advce welocme.

 

[lamar]

The flame turning yellow indicates a lack of oxygen. Sounds like a spider has set up houskeeping in your burner. Cleaning it should solve your problem. As far as the life of the regulator some last forever.

 

[wiseguy]

Thank you for the reply. When not in use it stays in a storage building. Could easily have a critter set up camp. I have loads of banana spiders, think little finger, with legs. Good guys to have around as as they LOVE mosquitoes.

When the Christmas ribs & chicken come off, I'll dismantle and inspect burner.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

The original regulator on my GOSM worked for three smokes and died. Couldn't get temps above 180. So I replaced it with a Bayou Classics needle valve and haven't looked back. Super easy to control. I can run temps anywhere from 120-500+ with minimal babysitting.

With all that said it may be that you have something blocking the burner. As mentioned spiders love to hang out in them and the venturi tube

My GOSM is an oldie too, going on 10 years now!

 

[lamar]

DS is giving good info about the needle valve. I have one on my GOSM and it just stays where I put it. Temp fluctuations of no more than +/- 5*.

 

[wiseguy]

Thank you gentlemen. I'll explore cleaning first then needle valve.

Happy new year, and may you always have plenty of smoking wood.

 

[wiseguy]

Thank you for the reply. When not in use it stays in a storage building. Could easily have a critter set up camp. I have loads of banana spiders, think little finger, with legs. Good guys to have around as as they LOVE mosquitoes.

I did separate the burner assembly from the cabinet. There were no spider webs in the mesh, which I assume is the air intake/mixing just past the venturi. While rolling the assembly around I did notice some debris, scale maybe, fall out of the ports on the burner. I knocked it around a bit and got out some more. Initial lighting after re-assembly had a pretty blue flame at low which continued when set to med with a little yellow on the tip. I put in the butt, and within a half hour I had all yellow again. I guess I need to disassemble more to see where the scale is coming from. I wouldn't expect brass or a brass alloy to scale.

Thoughts?

 

[lamar]

This is a long shot guess...........do you have a drip pan under the meat? Is it possible that the meat is dripping on the burner?

 

[wiseguy]

I do have a drip, rather a water pan and a smoke box over the burner.