5 Is Not Enough said:
Thanks, Bobby_M, I didn't realize the jets had their own ports. That's awesome!
I'm really leaning towards one of these jet burners!
A ball valve gives fair control over low pressure gas? I'd have thought a diaphragm regulator would be necessary.
I assume we are talking low pressure. I've not seen anything indicating that these burners are high pressure. Would a high pressure set up (like kladue had mentioned) be necessary?
It says the burner is for natural gas only. By definition, that is low pressure. NG is fed to the gas meter usually at something like 2 to 5 PSI, which is already lower than the pressure that LP is regulated to from an LP tank. In residential areas it is mostly 2 PSI. Then the gas company has a regulator on their meter that drops it down to somewhere between 7 and 14 inches of water column (.25 to .5 PSI) going into your house. NG on your side of the meter is just not under high pressure like the gas in a propane tank, so there is no need for yet another regulator to reduce it even more before it gets to your burners. A ball valve gives you plenty of control.
A 14 inch diameter jet burner is enormous. People use these things for 120 quart crawfish pots. They use them for enormous jambalaya cookers that feed a couple hundred people. This is just my opinion, but unless you are doing 30 to 40 gallon boils, this is just too big. There are 150k BTU burners that are eight inches in diameter. They will work much better with a keggle, if that's what you are planning to use. A keg is only 16 inches diameter across the bottom, so a 14 inch diameter burner could have flames licking up the sides.
5 Is Not Enough said:
Back to the original topic. Here's what I'm debating...
LP - portable, lower start up cost, available where NG is not, less likely to become a building codes issue.
NG - cheaper, never run out, never refill tanks.
anybody have any others?
If you have natural gas available, use it. It's cheaper than LP even when you have a 500 to 1000 gallon LP tank. It is MUCH cheaper than LP when you're using a cylinder exchange 20 gallon tank.
Now if you need to be portable, then go for propane, or have burners you can swap out easily. For a non-portable permanent stand at home where NG is an option, there is no advantage to LP. If you move somewhere that doesn't have NG, swap out your burners or rejet them for LP, put a 10 or 20 PSI regulator on it, and you're done.
The one caveat is that if you are going to use NG and you aren't comfortable doing the gas connections and piping yourself, you should hire it out to a plumber. It won't be cheap, but it will be safe, to code, and usually with a local municipality permit. Only if you are certain you know what you are doing should you do it yourself. Believe it or not, it ain't rocket science, but I DON'T mean to encourage anyone to do NG piping themselves if they're unsure.