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Can You Make a Propane Burner Out of a Galvanized Pipe?

Do-it-yourself propane burners are made for all sorts of things, including tiki-torches, barbecues and decorative torches for festivals. These propane burners often use off-the-shelf materials, such as pre-threaded steel plumbing pipe and pre-threaded connectors. While many of these prefabricated pipe sections are unplated mild steel, many are coated with galvanization.

Galvanization
- Galvanization is an anticorrosive often used on plumbing pipes. The process of galvanization or hot dip galvanization dips the pipe in a bath of super-heated, molten zinc. The zinc fuses to the outer surface of the steel and coalesces. When it cools, it dries in what may look like a gray crystal pattern, leaving a zinc-coated steel surface that's resistant to corrosion. Flame used in conjunction with galvanization may release some zinc.
Zinc
- Zinc is a mineral. In fact, zinc in small quantities is healthy and necessary for a number of metabolic and physiological functions. It's present in many foods and added to others. The National Institute of Health reports that adults should consume 11 mg of zinc per day, with younger children requiring less. However, in larger quantities, zinc is toxic. Recommended maximum daily intake levels are 40 mg for adults. Taking 150 mg of zinc or more per day can cause nausea, immune suppression and other maladies. Excess zinc may also interact with some medications.
Ingesting Zinc from Galvanization
- In most cases, using zinc-coated steel pipe as propane conduit won't cause you to ingest zinc, though it's possible. Minerals can transfer through osmosis and through heat. For example, cooking with an iron skillet actually imparts iron in your food in a small enough amount that it can be beneficial. However, that involves both high heat and direct contact. Simply using a mineral coating on conduit won't pose a threat.
Cooking
- Galvanized pipe may also be used for a burner nozzle where it's exposed directly to flame. This is more likely to release zinc into the atmosphere. While that's not an issue for a decorative torch, for example, it's not a good choice for a cooking nozzle. Cooking over a zinc-coated flame nozzle will release some zinc. In an open grill application, it will release some zinc directly into your food. While it may or may not do so in dangerous quantities, there are other materials, such as brass, that don't possess this potential drawback, making them a much better choice.

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