Propane burner to natural gas

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jtd_1

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Hi everyone,

I am very new to homebrewing and i have seen people's setup using natural gas. I have a propane turkey fryer and was wondering how to convert it to natural gas for convience? Also, my waterheater is in my garage and i wanted to hookup to the gas there. what type of equipment would i need to make a quick connect (is it the same as pneumatic)?

Thanks

Joe
 
simply because of the cost benefit (i believe that natural gas is about a quarter of the cost of propane) as well as convience...ie: never running out.
 
You need a different burner. The pressure is different between propane and natural gas. Natural gas is at a higher pressure and the holes in which the gas flows through are larger.

edit - I got the pressures backwards, but here are some resources

http://morebeer.com/search/102341///Burners

http://morebeer.com/view_product/17248/102341/Low_Pressure_Burner_58000_BTUs_Natural_Gas
http://morebeer.com/view_product/17249/102341/Burner_-_90000_BTU_for_Low_Pressure_Natural_Gas
http://morebeer.com/view_product/17253/102341/Low_Pressure_Burner_116000_BTUs_Natural_Gas.__
 
you arent supposed to use turkey fryers in the garage.
at least put in a hood system. You can also look for quick disconnects.

Well, I wouldn't recommend using it in the garage it if your boiling flammable cooking oil like the manufacture intended. That is how houses get burned down, hence the warning from the manufacture to not use in a garage. If the garage door is open your very likely getting enough ventilation, or use a box fan if you are really paranoid.
 
You dont need ventilation;) Here's what you doo.........insure the place for atleast double what its worth, then when it burns to the ground take the insurance check and buy a brewery...........Problem solved!!!:mug:
 
I don't know about your turkey fryer, but I bought one of these cheap little cast-iron propane burners, drilled out the orifice, and it seems to work nicely with natural gas. The nice thing about it is the control valve, which gives you a lot of latitude for controlling the flame. At first many of the jets would self-extinguish when I turned it up high, so I just kept drilling the orifice larger until I got nice blue flames with barely yellow tips when cranked wide open.

It had no trouble boiling 4 gallons in my MLT, this weekend I'll give it a shot at boiling 7 gallons. Between this and my new NG grill, I hope to be propane free very soon!

56913.jpg


PROPANE COOKER WITH ONE BUNER (sic)
 
Thanks for all the responses.

My intentions are to run a hose outside to use as a boil kettle. I do not intend on running the burner in the garage. Where i plan to "hook up" the natural gas is about 20 ft from the garage door. It would be nice if i could run a hose outside and hook up to the burner. Conveinence!

Thanks guys!

Joe
 
Could you give us more info on how you drilled this out? IT would be a very cheap and good way for me to go natural gas. Do you know what drill bit size you ended up with?
 
Could you give us more info on how you drilled this out? IT would be a very cheap and good way for me to go natural gas. Do you know what drill bit size you ended up with?

I think I was lazy and left the bit in my drill press, I'll check it when I get home. Where to drill is self-explanatory once you've actually got the parts in your hands. I started with a bit just a touch bigger than the existing orifice, and kept moving up until I liked the results. I'd suggest doing the same, as the results probably depend on other factors...the gas pressure in your system, hose length & diameter, etc.
 
I'm getting frustrated with the level of DIY wussiness around here. Nat gas is not C4. Everything being equal, it's safer than propane because per volume it has less BTU and its run at 1/2PSI vs 20-30psi in a propane rig. If you have some basic understanding of pipe fitting and the nature of combustion, there's no problem using nat gas in a reasonably well ventilated area. The most you'd be out in the case of a botched conversion is an oversized orifice that you'd have to braze shut or replace.
 
I've been doing some research on converting LP grills to natural gas. The size of the drill bit BlindLemonLars used may not be useful information if your gas supply's pressure is not the same.

here are a couple of good links:
http://www.komar.org/bbq/mm/convert/
http://http://www.grillparts.com/howto/btu_guide.htm


thanks for the link to the burners. I'm still trying to convice my wife that running a gas line to the outside of the house is a good idea.
 
I agree, I'm going to stub out my natural gas line to the back porch. I may set up a ventilation system inside someday to brew downstairs, but until then it will be on the back porch and I want to save time and money going natural gas, I just don't want to spend $100 to do it if I don't need to.

Planning on a all natural gas rig on wheels, with a quick disconnect setup to my natural gas outlet, probably put it in one of those lockable weatherproof electric boxes outside, and/or a ball-valve inside.
 
Start with a 1/16th drill bit and test it out. That works great at my elevation 4500 feet but you may need a little larger at lower elevations to match the oxygen levels. I removed all timers and regulators and adjust my imput with the gas shut off. It works great.
 
I am interested in this quick disconnect fitting for CNG people keep mentioning.
Plus the hoses seem pretty expensive!
Any options without paramedics and insurance claims? Those things make my wife jumpy for some odd reason ;)
 
I am interested in this quick disconnect fitting for CNG people keep mentioning.
Plus the hoses seem pretty expensive!
Any options without paramedics and insurance claims? Those things make my wife jumpy for some odd reason ;)

I just picked up a natural gas conversion kit for grills from lowes for $60. It does NOT come with an orifice. But, It has the quick disconnect. I later found something similar online for $40:(
 
Bobby M gives the part #'s for McMaster Carr on his website.
(great write up on polishing by the way, I digress)
While most of my projects are the kind that cause hearing loss,
my family almost died last month because the local gas and extortion guys
forgot to check their connections when they installed their new meter.
Because of this, I am proceeding cautiously.
A plumber friend mentioned using a pressure regulator as a safety.
Is this a good idea? As several mentioned, CNG is much lower pressure than
propane.
 
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