NG -> Propane burner conversion

[lgoolsby]

I recently became the very happy owner of a single tier brew stand. However, the stand was plumbed for NG and I need to use propane. I found replacement jet tips at HomeBrewStuff.com and I am fairly sure they will work. If all my assumptions turn out correct, I should be good.

My question is this. The previous owner plugged up 2/3 of the jets on the jet burners. This means the 24 jet burners are only 8 jet burners now. Apart from less BTU's and using less gas, is there another reason for reducing the number of burners? Does NG burn hotter than LPG and therefore not suffer much from the loss in jets?

Also, the gas lines to the burners is 1/2 steel pipe to each burner with a simple ball valve to control the flow independently. Most of the LPG burners I have seen have some kind of regulator/airflow mix control thing-a-ma-jig for each burner after the gas supply. Does LPG need them and NG doesn't or is this an acceptable way to plumb LPG?

I know these are fairly dumb questions, but this is my first foray into gas burners. Up till now I was a partial mash guy cooking on the kitchen stove so never had to worry about this. Last thing I want to do is blow myself up (and I don't mean that literally)...

 

[cletusp]

I recently became the very happy owner of a single tier brew stand. However, the stand was plumbed for NG and I need to use propane. I found replacement jet tips at HomeBrewStuff.com and I am fairly sure they will work. If all my assumptions turn out correct, I should be good.

My question is this. The previous owner plugged up 2/3 of the jets on the jet burners. This means the 24 jet burners are only 8 jet burners now. Apart from less BTU's and using less gas, is there another reason for reducing the number of burners? Does NG burn hotter than LPG and therefore not suffer much from the loss in jets?

Also, the gas lines to the burners is 1/2 steel pipe to each burner with a simple ball valve to control the flow independently. Most of the LPG burners I have seen have some kind of regulator/airflow mix control thing-a-ma-jig for each burner after the gas supply. Does LPG need them and NG doesn't or is this an acceptable way to plumb LPG?

I know these are fairly dumb questions, but this is my first foray into gas burners. Up till now I was a partial mash guy cooking on the kitchen stove so never had to worry about this. Last thing I want to do is blow myself up (and I don't mean that literally)...

You should hook that up to your natural gas supply if you have one. way cheaper & never runs out. the previous owner had it set up that way for a reason. ( hopefully because it worked ) before you think outside the box, know what is in it and why.

 

[kpr121]

Ill trade you burners!

 

[cletusp]

He plugged up the jets because of the pressure difference

 

[lgoolsby]

@cletusp - My house isn't connected to NG so I have no choice. I have to go propane.

@kpr121 - Sure, drop me a PM

@cletusp(again) - Should I go ahead and plan on adding the additional jets then?

 

[jsb]

NG does not burn as hot as propane nor usually have as much pressure. The NG orifices will be larger than the propane ones as you need to burn more gas to compensate. Why plug the burners, I simply don't know, but I would want to un plug them. More flame, more heat. I will say a natural gas hookup is very convenient, but does loose a little in performance.

 

[cletusp]

Yeah un plug them. the orafices will need to be replaced. Its the ( brass usually ) fitting that screws into the venturi tube with the gas hose on the other side. when you convert to nat gas you have to drill this larger. the hole is way to big for propane now. OEM ones should be cheap.