How To: Convert a propane grill to natural gas

Convert a propane grill to natural gas

Tim Carter, of AsktheBuilder.com, demonstrates the basics about converting your outdoor grill from propane to a natural gas grill. Propane grills have a hose that goes from the propane tank to the grill. Gas grills with have a fuel hose also. But this hose will run from the barbecue grill to your house.

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9 Comments

that wont work unless you change out the valves or drill out the orfices in the existing ones

not only would propane orfices be too large but the gas pressure in the valves would also have to be adjusted. Sounds unsafe to me AsktheBuilder.com

What a waste of time . the real problem as someone says id the size of the orifice. Get new job!!

propane usually is at 100 psi.natural gas is at 7 psi.propane orifices are smaller than natural gas orifices.they would need to be drilled out bigger to accomodate less gas pressure

Can any offer some advice to me on converting my grill. I called the maker and they say they don't make a conversion kit. Does that mean there's no way to do it?

So if I were to drill out the propane gas oriface to natural gas size, whit size drill would I use?

Thank You

Bad info, people can get hurt. I found it very unprofessional to give this type of advice.

This isn't bad advice, just incomplete. Propane (LP) in a tank is at a higher PSI than your home's natural gas (NG) pressure but that's why there is a REGULATOR on that hose you end up removing. He didn't show it but walk out to your LP-powered grill and you'll see that little UFO disk looking thing... that's the regulator. It gets removed because your home already has its own regulator outside next to your gas meter.
When you plumb the grill directly to your home's NG black pipe, in-line with a flexy gas hose, a valve and quick disconnect, you only need to worry about the orifice size. NG requires a larger diameter or the grill will not hit the target heat range when on High. Typically you drill the jets (orifices) starting with a 1/16" bit and see if the grill gets good-n-hot on High (i.e., is getting enough gas to hit that target heat zone). If it's not getting hot enough when on High, drill them out to 1/8". If still not hot enough, go to 3/16". BUT be careful because you can't undrill the hole size. ;-)

Just converted my propane Charbroil Performance series to Natural Gas. The BBQ doesn't "easily" convert regulator hose attached directly to burner unit. However I took off my burner delivery system w/ the valves and regulator attached and went to a hose specialist (Pirtek). They professionally fit the 3/8 in flare attachment to make it connect to the natural gas hose! They ended up charging me $12 for the install. It works great! Don't forget to check for leaks!

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