Advice about delicate gas plumbing situation? (1 Viewer)

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We have a Dynasty 3-burner (plus the radiant grid/burner) built in barbie (3 x 25,000 rated BTU for the grill burner portion). When we built the house I thought it would be super, like you, to not have to haul propane tanks anymore; I ran NG pipe before we had concrete poured. So I re-jetted it for NG and over the course of a year I got less and less enamored with the conversion due to the lower heat/BTU output of NG. So then I reversed and went back to propane and what a difference on this grill. That's my only direct comparison between NG and propane using the same grill...

The NG took considerably longer to get up to searing temp and although I only have empirical data regarding the heat output differences the difference was substantial regarding the searing of meat...and overall outdoor cooking experiences.

For me the inconvenience of moving propane tanks around (I have 4-20# tanks to lessen the trips) is more than off-set by the heat/cooking performance of propane...on this grill.
 
spressomon said:
We have a Dynasty 3-burner (plus the radiant grid/burner) built in barbie (3 x 25,000 rated BTU for the grill burner portion). When we built the house I thought it would be super, like you, to not have to haul propane tanks anymore; I ran NG pipe before we had concrete poured. So I re-jetted it for NG and over the course of a year I got less and less enamored with the conversion due to the lower heat/BTU output of NG. So then I reversed and went back to propane and what a difference on this grill. That's my only direct comparison between NG and propane using the same grill...

The NG took considerably longer to get up to searing temp and although I only have empirical data regarding the heat output differences the difference was substantial regarding the searing of meat...and overall outdoor cooking experiences.

For me the inconvenience of moving propane tanks around (I have 4-20# tanks to lessen the trips) is more than off-set by the heat/cooking performance of propane...on this grill.
Click to expand...

good point.

I also have several LP tanks, that helps.

I have a NG grill and a LP grill so we'll see -although they are different models and the NG is in fact smaller. I could use the NG for slower cooking if it comes to that.

I was also thinking of converting my LP grill to NG if that turns out OK. Your point to the opposite effect is well taken.

On the LP, I have an infrared searing burner (the large rectangular ceramic affair). Man that thing does indeed do a number on stuff to be seared, in fact it will burn stuff in a matter of seconds if left unattended. Maybe that technology would help with the NG grills if they suffer from lower heat output.

Part of the motivation of going NG is also that the NG grill is a Weber of much higher quality than my LP grill which may not last anywhere as long, that I want to test out before I buy a bigger one.
 
spressomon said:
We have a Dynasty 3-burner (plus the radiant grid/burner) built in barbie (3 x 25,000 rated BTU for the grill burner portion). When we built the house I thought it would be super, like you, to not have to haul propane tanks anymore; I ran NG pipe before we had concrete poured. So I re-jetted it for NG and over the course of a year I got less and less enamored with the conversion due to the lower heat/BTU output of NG. So then I reversed and went back to propane and what a difference on this grill. That's my only direct comparison between NG and propane using the same grill...

The NG took considerably longer to get up to searing temp and although I only have empirical data regarding the heat output differences the difference was substantial regarding the searing of meat...and overall outdoor cooking experiences.

For me the inconvenience of moving propane tanks around (I have 4-20# tanks to lessen the trips) is more than off-set by the heat/cooking performance of propane...on this grill.
Click to expand...

Did you use a regulator set for propane pressure?
 
spressomon said:
Yes sir.
Click to expand...

Yea,...I think I was on the wrong track,...I was thinking that maybe you used a regulator on the NG,...in that case you can use an adjustable one,..and jack up the pressure,....but I think you meant you used one on the propane tanks,...as you don't need a regulator on natural gas.....
 
I looked up the Weber site. They list a specific heat output for a given model, independently of LP or NG, making no distinction. I would think that if the burners and jets are sized properly to achieve a certain heat output with either fuel, it should make no difference as far as searing speed. I suspect most problems mentioned after conversion to NG are because of smaller than spec output for the grill due to an undersized NG setup.

Still haven't gotten time to do the dang cap, dammit.
 
Beautiful...!

The dope fiends above were right. The dope kept the thread beautifully clean. No corrosion at all under the cap. I had put on a big wrench on the nipple and a little one on the cap to be sure the nipple would not twist and lo and behold, the cap came off with hardly any effort at all. Very smooth. Much less torque than what I normally put on pipe with tape. Don't know if the PB treatment helped or not, but may not have been necessary either. Interestingly, it looks like the original plumber had used both teflon and dope.

Anyway, as suggested, definitely unclimactic, which I'm delighted about. I really did not want to have to dig through my wall if that nipple came out. Better prepared than sorry on that one.

Now to make sure the valve is not leaking cuz it only fit over 3 or 4 of the 1/2" NPT threads, which seems kinda short to me. I'll let the dope dry out a bit before turning the gas back on to help with that.

And sure enough, the paranoia above about gas and fire was utterly baseless. I turned off the gas, turned on a stove burner until it fizzled out, and when I took the cap off there was absolutely no smell of gas at all. I doubt any came out. Not that it would have mattered outside anyway.

So from now on, count me in as a dope addict too! :)
 
The dope won't dry out. It's either sealed now or it isn't.

If the nipple had come out of the wall, you would have reinstalled it or installed a new one through the hole. No drama there, either. Gas pipe isn't like water pipe, it usually doesn't get badly corroded. If it was water pipe and the nipple broke off in the wall, then you're digging into the wall.

Congratulations on your conversion to the dope side. :D
 
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god i love these threads.. glad you got your cap off and your valve in place. leaving it sit is not going to make it seal any better,

so working in the gas indusdustry all my life , as a technician and an inspector for the utility , i usually refrain from giving advice to people who should not be playing with gas or let alone handling tools. i have seen first hand the aftermath of blown up homes because some idiot thought he knew what he was doing, and now the house is gone , the neighbours house is gone , the house across the street is knocked off its foundation cuz somebuddy told him how to fix it.

please if you dont know LEAVE IT ALONE !! and pay somesumbuddy to do it right, to the OP . now that you have fixed your pipe. have sumbuddy check it,
the utility around here would check it for free.
 
spressomon said:
We have a Dynasty 3-burner (plus the radiant grid/burner) built in barbie (3 x 25,000 rated BTU for the grill burner portion). When we built the house I thought it would be super, like you, to not have to haul propane tanks anymore; I ran NG pipe before we had concrete poured. So I re-jetted it for NG and over the course of a year I got less and less enamored with the conversion due to the lower heat/BTU output of NG. So then I reversed and went back to propane and what a difference on this grill. That's my only direct comparison between NG and propane using the same grill...

The NG took considerably longer to get up to searing temp and although I only have empirical data regarding the heat output differences the difference was substantial regarding the searing of meat...and overall outdoor cooking experiences.

For me the inconvenience of moving propane tanks around (I have 4-20# tanks to lessen the trips) is more than off-set by the heat/cooking performance of propane...on this grill.
Click to expand...

yes propane does burn a little hotter than natural gas, but if set up right your nat gas bbq , should run just as hot as the propane
the differance shouldnt be that drastic.. my gas bbq can hit 1000 degs in a matter of minutes, it is self cleaning..
 
no leak.
That dope stuff is dop... errrr.... :eek: great!
 
e9999 said:
lo and behold, the cap came off with hardly any effort at all. Very smooth. :)
Click to expand...

Hallelujah!

I can't believe that I read a 5 page thread just to see if the cap came off. I guess it was the suspense.

PG&E will check anything to do with gas for free.
 
Pin_Head said:
I can't believe that I read a 5 page thread just to see if the cap came off. I guess it was the suspense.
.
Click to expand...

Nope, it was the dope. (Wide open door here, fellas. :D)
 
what's interesting about this thread (among other things... :D) is the range of opinions from "wack that thing haphazardly with a BFH and it'll be open in 3 seconds" to "if you look at a gas pipe it will kill you and all the orphans in the neighborhood instantly"... We are a diverse lot... :) It's all good. I learned new stuff. Plus it gave a sourpuss or 2 a place to vent, which is good for their stress level... :D

As I saw it, the real problem was that if the nipple would have unscrewed inside the wall, yes, I could have set it back in, but how would I have been able to check that there was no leak inside the wall after that without making a hole in the outside wall? And I really really don't want a gas leak inside my wall. IOW, whereas this was outwardly a minor operation, it could have had really nasty consequences if the nipple had loosened. Kinda like there is a bolt in an inaccessible part of your engine and if the head were to break, you'd have to pull the whole engine out and take it apart to remove the bolt, to use a MUDdy analogy.:)

Anyway, all is good, getting ready for some NG steaks. May even reconvert my other LP grill to NG now if this works OK. Now to decide whether I should attempt the conversion myself... I hear all it takes is a fine drill bit in the orifices... Whaddaya think? :D
 
yes, if you drill them out it will work.
depending on the grill, you may be able to buy new orifices.
the ones you buy will already be sized correctly for your application to give you the proper btu output

i have adjusted the orifices on 2 stoves.
i enlarged the orifice on one burner on my parent's magic chef stove....took an hour to boil a big pot of water with 9,000 btu's...so i bored it out to give about 12,000. much better. had to be very careful not to overdo it and exceed the insulation capacity of the appliance.
on my home stove, it was actually too hot (something like 20,000btu burners) and difficult to get a good simmer. so, i called garland and they sent me a propane orifice which i bored out to somewhere in between the propane and the original NG orifice. works great.
the orifice should be brass...easy to drill. small increments is best ;)
 
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