Pig Cooker

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scmoose

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Any large propane pig cooker builders in here? I’m in the middle of a build, oil drum with three home made pipe burners run off of a common adjustable regulator, each burner has a valve to control flame. I can get the flames low and clean burning, however if I open the lid too fast it blows out the flame on the pipe burners. Is there a fix for preventing this? The drum is fairly tight as far as air flow except for the three 2x2 exhaust stacks. Do I need to add more vents on the bottom of the grill so as not to create such a vacuum when opening the lid?

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scmoose said:
Any large propane pig cooker builders in here? I’m in the middle of a build, oil drum with three home made pipe burners run off of a common adjustable regulator, each burner has a valve to control flame. I can get the flames low and clean burning, however if I open the lid too fast it blows out the flame on the pipe burners. Is there a fix for preventing this? The drum is fairly tight as far as air flow except for the three 2x2 exhaust stacks. Do I need to add more vents on the bottom of the grill so as not to create such a vacuum when opening the lid?

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As to your question, I would put a moveable bent on the lid. Open it and then open the lid.

This should cut down on the mass flow of air created by opening a sealed lid.
 
scmoose said:
Any large propane pig cooker builders in here? I’m in the middle of a build, oil drum with three home made pipe burners run off of a common adjustable regulator, each burner has a valve to control flame. I can get the flames low and clean burning, however if I open the lid too fast it blows out the flame on the pipe burners. Is there a fix for preventing this? The drum is fairly tight as far as air flow except for the three 2x2 exhaust stacks. Do I need to add more vents on the bottom of the grill so as not to create such a vacuum when opening the lid?

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Can you post an image of where the burners enter the tank from the outside? I suspect the flow (low and slow) is too low to stay lit when you create a vacuum opening the lid and the whoosh of air coming in the ports where the burners enter the grill is knocking out the flame.
 
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You can see in the top pic where the burners go into the drum. Three burners on the opening side of the drum. I can only run two burners to keep the temp about 260.
 
I looked at some locally made grills and it looks like they have large vents at the bottom of their grills 90deg from the burners.
 
scmoose said:
I looked at some locally made grills and it looks like they have large vents at the bottom of their grills 90deg from the burners.
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I’ve never operated or built a propane pig cooker. But that’s what I said. lol.

Simple deduction.
 
scmoose said:
You can see in the top pic where the burners go into the drum. Three burners on the opening side of the drum. I can only run two burners to keep the temp about 260.
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I don't want to see an image that shows that the burners go into the drum, I want to see an image of the actual entry point from the outside.

Like this.

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I suspect the holes around the burner tubes are fairly large and the source of your problem.
 
That is a 3/4 x 1” swage to the pipe burner. Burners are 1”.
 
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I don’t use my gas burner except to burn off my wires and grates, I cook only on wood, but I have two 3” vents on the bottom of each end.

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Add vents to the ends near the bottom. You can create your own or use the circular style ones that are slotted. Ive put them on all the old ones we used to have both gas and wood.
 
I've got a very similar oil drum pig cooker that I built years ago with my uncle. He'd built a few so I went with his suggestions.

We put vents/openings on each end at the bottom with doors that I open partially while cooking. Wide open they'd be about 6" x 6" each side and I think the airflow helps.
 
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Most of the cookers I have used only have a single burner, running lengthwise. Burners were 2" pipe with slots cut the depth of a hacksaw blade, every two inches.
Best cooker had a grate that ran on tails and will slide out. That one was wood fired.
Used to have nine cookers going at the same time for church chicken dinner fundraiser in Bailey.
 
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