BE SAFE !!!

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orf
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BE SAFE !!!

Post by orf » Fri Dec 28, 2012 22:46

NEVER,NEVER leave your smoker unattended!!!!! I did. I won't be too long winded here but I put a turkey breast in my smoker,I've been trying different heat and smoke sources and ended up with the base from my turkey deep fryer hooked to a propane tank out side with the hose and regulator that came with it. turned the heat up to 235° put a pan of chips on and went in to hook the new tv up,its x-mas morning. And yada-yada(for you seinfeld fans)a guy comes across my yard telling me my shed is on fire! Long story short the hose must have burned thru because of the higher temps(I don't really know cause I wasn't watching it) and the whole inside was on fire! about an hour later and many buckets of water and the help of my family It was out .It looked like the inside of a jack daniels whiskey barrel. The moral of this story is you can never be too safe and at 54 yrs. old thought I was.I feel very foolish but thought I would share so no one else goes though this.It is no fun. Happy Holidays and be safe. orf...
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Post by ssorllih » Sat Dec 29, 2012 00:07

Bad news all around. Nobody got hurt? Get a flex metal connector pipe .
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Re: BE SAFE !!!

Post by el Ducko » Sat Dec 29, 2012 01:04

orf wrote:NEVER...
So sorry to hear of your fire, near miss, and loss. I hope this doesn't permanently set back your smoker plans, but am sure that it will delay them.

Know what...? I'm scared to death of turkey fryer bases. Those things put out a stack of BTUs (...oops. ...mega therms.) in a real hurry. I tried one for home brewing recently and decided that, although it heated up the water for the wort twice as fast, it scorched the wort itself too. (...even with a mineral oil buffer between fire and wort). More "fun" happens when the water you're heating boils over, runs down into the mineral oil pan, and blows hot oil all over the place and you! :cry:

So... keep us posted on reconstruction recovery efforts. Best wishes, and thankful thoughts that nobody but the turkey got hurt.
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Post by orf » Sat Dec 29, 2012 18:45

I do have the new and improved plan in my head and will go forth asap. i'll keep you posted and try to have a few pics.orf...

as someone once told me ,no sense bein dumb less ya show it.
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Post by ssorllih » Sat Dec 29, 2012 19:13

I am scared spitless at the thought of open fire and hot oil. Once you heat that oil past the flash point anything can happen.
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Post by el Ducko » Sat Dec 29, 2012 19:30

ssorllih wrote:I am scared spitless at the thought of open fire and hot oil. Once you heat that oil past the flash point anything can happen.
Ross, I think we had the Therminol discussion about 6 months ago. Just to clarify for others: mineral oil is a mixture derived from low volatility petroleum products which has a rather high flash point. Instead of flashing, it smokes when you heat it with a propane torch or open flame.

We used it in polymer plants for heat transfer, for that reason. In over forty years with Monsanto, Champlin, and Celanese, I never saw anything worse than smouldering insulation with the stuff. Even a pipe break was not so much a fire hazard as it was a thermal hazard and a spill. True, the smoke could get thick when the were wrecking out a sixty year old polyester spinning operation and cutting torches hit saturated insulation, but that's not anything done during sausage smoking.

The biggest hazard is skin contact with the stuff when it's hot. ...just like when you fry chicken or potatoes. THAT was my cautionary tale.
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Post by ssorllih » Sat Dec 29, 2012 19:41

Russ , I wondered about that because I use drug store mineral oil for candle lamps. When I worked for Firestone we used heat transfer fluids in the tire cord production operations. Polymer leaks would char when they were exposed to air and low pressures.
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Post by el Ducko » Sat Dec 29, 2012 19:55

ssorllih wrote:Russ , I wondered about that because I use drug store mineral oil for candle lamps. When I worked for Firestone we used heat transfer fluids in the tire cord production operations. Polymer leaks would char when they were exposed to air and low pressures.
Yeah. The good part about the charring was that it would seal off small leaks.

I guess we should tell folks that frying a turkey, or chicken, or ANYthing, is inherently hazardous. Grease fires are more likely than mineral oil fires but yes, either one will burn under the proper conditions. ...and so will YOU, guys & gals, so be careful.
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Post by atcNick » Mon Dec 31, 2012 04:18

Glad it wasn't worse!
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Post by Krakowska » Mon Dec 31, 2012 04:59

Use a turkey frier quite a bit down here for a bike club I belong to down here (VNV organization) I do not have one but the last one I used, I would buy and recommend is an electric frier. Flame wise, SAFE! Have to use a smaller turkey but well worth the slight disadvantage. Works very well
Keep them safe until they all come home.
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Post by ssorllih » Mon Dec 31, 2012 05:47

When you consider the food load that you put into a normal deep fat fryer compared to the overall volume of that fryer then it is immediately obvious that all turkey fryers are drastically over loaded. Everyone that I have seen was an accident waiting to happen.

The heat output of a fryer burner is as great as that for a large water heater. We need only 160° F for precooking and we need a good constant heat not an on-off cycle that fluctuates between 130° and 180°. Just like cooking of a stove we adjust the burners to provide only as much heat as we need to keep the pot simmering.
The kitchen ovens are an on-off control but the temperature control for roasting or baking is not as critical as for pre-cooking smoked meat.
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be safe

Post by ursula » Mon Dec 31, 2012 09:43

Orf, You poor bugger! That would break my heart, after all the work you put into your smoker. Hope you can get it up and running again soon. At least noone was hurt
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Post by orf » Mon Dec 31, 2012 15:19

thanks to all. the burner wasn't the danger the cook was! new design will be safe and more efficient,more air tight =less heat loss=less btu's to begin with.instead of a hose going in it'll be a piece of pipe=non flam=safer.orf...

If the entire burner must be placed inside, replace hose with an iron pipe.

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