Converting Propane Grill to Natural Gas

[JoeyGee]

How do I go about modifying my propane fueled gas grill into one that can run on natural gas? I have a propane grill, but our house has a line for NG, which I would like to use.

[LCHIEN]

http://www.mobilehomerepair.com/article18gasgrill.html

P.S. I used Google, the key words convert propane natural gas,
then scanned the first page of resulting hits, the third or fourth one down sounded good so i clicked on it, looked good so I copied the URL and posted it here.
there's probably more, I spent about 30 seconds on this project.
The internet is wondderful.

[jAngiel]

That is a pretty informative article that Loring pointed to. Enough info to actually do it yourself depending on whether your grill is worthy enough.

When I converted my first grill, a holland tradition, I just called the company and they sent me a new venturi for free, although it appears that I could have just drilled it out (but by not drilling I was able to go back to LP if I wanted to). It was easy enough as there were no dials to calibrate for tempurature.

My current grill had a kit that I had to purchase that came with everything I needed, including new knobs calibrated for NG. I think if I had seen the article Loring points to I may have done it myself and saved the $50 for the kit.

[scorrpio]

Generally, the difference is in the orifice that controls gas flow to a burner in order to produce same BTU output. LP needs a smaller orifice. You can save by drilling out the orifices, but you'd need to know how big it should be.

[eezlock]

converting grill

Take the burner assembly to you local gas supplier or a HVAC dealer and they should be able to sell you the proper orifice to change from propane to natural gas. eezlock

[Tom Slick]

If its a weber you can buy a kit. I'm sure other companies will do the same.

[sparkeyjames]

Why on earth would you want to convert from nice clean burning propane too something that has an additive to make it smell like rotten eggs. I swear that this alters the flavor of food. To this day I cannot abide having my food cooked in a natural gas oven or grill. I can tell the difference every time. I own and use an electric oven. I'm also a charcoal fanatic when it comes to BBQ. Ah well to each there own I guess.

sparkeyjames

[Tom Slick]

Why on earth would you want to convert from nice clean burning propane too something that has an additive to make it smell like rotten eggs. I swear that this alters the flavor of food. To this day I cannot abide having my food cooked in a natural gas oven or grill. I can tell the difference every time. I own and use an electric oven. I'm also a charcoal fanatic when it comes to BBQ. Ah well to each there own I guess.

sparkeyjames

propane doesn't have the same additive?

[wan2fly]

Propane does indeed have a smell additive.
I've converted a number of things from natural gas TO propane and I calculated the venturi orifice had to be reduced by 1/3 to run propane because of the oxygen to gas ratio. You may find that you loose a fair amount of BTUs in the conversion of your gas pressure is lower with NG.
Here is a webpage with some pretty detailed information.
Good luck
http://www.komar.org/bbq/mm/convert/

[sparkeyjames]

Yes propane does have an additive to make it smell. Just not an additive that smells like rotten eggs. I stand by my taste buds.


sparkeyjames