Upgrading my SQ14 to natural gas - tips?

[SixFoFalcon]

I want to use my house's natural gas service to power my burner. I really like the chassis of the SQ14 so that is what I intend to use. Has anyone upgraded the SQ14 to NG? I suspect I'll need a new burner and a new regulator--any tips on which ones to use?

 

[rico567]

Cases vary when performing a conversion from LP -> NG. Our kitchen cooktop was delivered set up for NG, and we have LP....but it was only a matter of consulting the manual and about ten minutes to perform the conversion, using the same burners. On the other hand, we use a tankless gas water heater, and the conversion to NG would involve burner, regulator, pilot orifice, and one other part I can't recall at the moment.....at considerable expense. I would just be very sure that all my components are compatible before using any such conversion. For example, the frame of the burner may have a specifically calculated distance between the burner and whatever sort of vessel is being heated. That distance for LP may be one thing (since LP's specific output is different from NG) and for NG, different. But since usually gas burners can be varied in their output, this may have no practical significance.

 

[Haasobrew]

I want to use my house's natural gas service to power my burner. I really like the chassis of the SQ14 so that is what I intend to use. Has anyone upgraded the SQ14 to NG? I suspect I'll need a new burner and a new regulator--any tips on which ones to use?

I am looking into doing this. I see this is an old post. Have you found answers to these questions?

 

[JuanMoore]

I am looking into doing this. I see this is an old post. Have you found answers to these questions?

The only thing you need to do to run that burner on NG is replace the orifice with the proper size, and add a needle valve in the line somewhere for flame control. You can also drill out the current orifice to the proper size instead of buying another one. The orifice is the brass piece that connects the hose to the burner casting.

 

[jCOSbrew]

By doing the conversion from High Pressure Propane to Low Pressure Natural Gas, do you limit the BTU output of this burner? Is it still adequate a for 5-10 gallon boil kettle?

 

[Haasobrew]

Any tips on where i can obtain the proper orifice and what size i should get for this particular application?
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/HURRICANE-NATURAL-GAS-CONVERSION-VALVE-P2214.aspx
I know it will be something like this but not sure if this one is the right one.

 

[JuanMoore]

By doing the conversion from High Pressure Propane to Low Pressure Natural Gas, do you limit the BTU output of this burner? Is it still adequate a for 5-10 gallon boil kettle?

It will reduce BTU output some. I don't know the exact #'s, but I think it's still be plenty of heat for a 5 gal batch. Might be painfully slow for a 10 gal batch though. A lot of the direct fired RIMS I see run on low pressure use the BG-12 (burner from the SQ-14) for the mash tun, and the larger 10" BG-14 burners for the BK and HLT. I'm on my phone now, but I think someone has posted the reduced BTU numbers for both burners if you run a search.

Any tips on where i can obtain the proper orifice and what size i should get for this particular application?
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/HURRICANE-NATURAL-GAS-CONVERSION-VALVE-P2214.aspx
I know it will be something like this but not sure if this one is the right one.

The williams kit is for the BG-14 burner, which has 1/4" NPT threading, and IIRC the BG-12 has 1/8" NPT threads. I think maybe bayou classic depot and/or tejas smokers sell the orifice you need. I think some people have drilled and tapped the casting to 1/4" and used the larger orifice too. The hole size is close to 1/8" IIRC, and if you decide to drill it out, you'll want to start small, test the flame, and keep going slightly larger until you get the flame just right. HBT member kladue has posted some good instructions for this somewhere in these forums. If I remember I'll search for them when I get home today.