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Infrared Burners or Traditional Gas Burners
Posted by guest on December 31, 2018 at 12:00 amI’m looking at replacing at salamander in one of our kitchens,
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It’s currently using traditional burners and they wear out every couple of years so I’m thinking an infrared burner might work better in the long run.
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What do you guys think?
olivero replied 5 years, 4 months ago 4 Members · 10 Replies -
10 Replies
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I think they get clogged extremely quickly.
And they r a pain in the neck to take apart wen they r all greased up. (Just like every thing else but this especially)Â
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I’m not sure what eritech1 is referring to, but I personally prefer infrared type burners. Their performance is FAR superior to open-type burners. If a grease source is nearby, they DO require a cleaning of their venturi every few years, but that’s not a big deal. They certainly don’t get bent and bowed like cast iron burners do.
Where I work we only have IR burners in about a dozen salamanders. In my seven years here, we’ve never had to replace any.
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I haven’t worked on many that’s true. But the ones I worked on must of been really bad I guess!
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I know what you mean by that. However, olivero is in-house and I think he can address any problems quite handily. In such a case, degredation of IR burner performance is easily measurable by the lack of an orange flame. Therefore a cleaning is necessary once every few…or three or four years – will get them right again. The alternative with the open style burners is they’ll warp and require expensive replacements in about the same amount of time. Again – I’ve never had to replace any of my IR burners.
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Okay well it sounds like it’s a good alternative, I’m not too worried about grease in that area, it’s kind of the smaller cooking line we have so I think i’ll opt for that.
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I haven’t dealt with any infrared equipment before, what’s important to know?
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Probably the most general question I could ask.
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WHAT happened HERE?
It seems that half this thread is gone…
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 olivero, I’d done some in depth research and composed a detailed & informative post to help you shop for a new salamander. You’d asked what model I recommend and I answered.Â
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But…it’s GONE now. Did you get to read it?
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No, I never saw it. I didn’t get an email notification about it either.
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I’m sorry to hear it’s all lost.
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No, I never saw it. I didn’t get an email notification about it either.
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I’m sorry to hear it’s all lost.
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So, you’d asked my recommendation on a Vulcan model. I’ll try again.
FIRST, I wrote what distinguishes the differences between a salamander and a cheese melter. They look nearly the same, so they can be easily confused.
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A cheese melter has limited shelf adjustments – which must be physically removed to adjust the cooking height. Interior dimensions are smaller than in a salamander. A cheese melter is limited in its cooking applications. For instance, it might not be suitable for broiling a steak. They’re not constructed as robust as a salamander – but are easier to repair. The burner can be easily removed through the top.
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A salamander is built more robust, has greater options for cook rack height adjustment – done simply through using a spring-assisted handle. A salamander weighs more because of the cage to support and operate the shelf. You can broil a steak in a salamander. Salamanders are quite a bit more difficult to repair. The burner is more diffuclt to access and the cage mechanism may get seized up over time.
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Here’s a blog which explains all of that:
https://www.katom.com/learning-center/cheese-melters-salamanders.html
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Here’s a Vulcan cheese melter:
https://resources.itwfeg.com/sites/resourcecenter/vfeg/ProductDocumentation/F45425.pdf
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Here’s a Vulcan salamander:
https://resources.itwfeg.com/sites/resourcecenter/vfeg/ProductDocumentation/F32548.pdf
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The 36″ version of each both use a 30,000 Btu IR burner.
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Thank you Ectofix, we are going to go with the 36SBI, that’s the same one I ended up deicing on so we’ll buy that and put it in.
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Hopefully outlasts the traditional burner style.
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Thank you for all your time on this, I very much appreciate it.
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