Propane to Natural Gas Burner Conversion ???

[CurtE]

What is the best way to convert propane burners to use Natural gas?

I have 2 Bayou Classic turkey fryers, one of the two piece cast iron and one of the smaller "banjo style" single piece cast iron burners. I have a natural gas line right next to where I brew.

I have access to anything I need; drills, hoses, flare connectors, needle valves, orifice selections etc. I understand gas flow, pressure, velocity, density, BTU/ft3, PV=nRT etc...

What I dont understand is combustion and how, drilling an orifice out or using a needle valve to drop the flow/pressure will work on my burners.

Can anyone tell me what to do that will work, or explain to me why I cant convert my burners?

Thanks in advance...
Curt E.

[Bugeater]

Natural gas will run at much lower pressure than propane. Your banjo burner will run at up to 30 PSI when running full blast. The max pressure you will get from your natural gas line will be in the neighborhood of 1/2 pound. As a result you will need to drill out the orifice. Once you do that you will never be able to go back to propane without buying a new orifice.

Personally, I don't recommend a do it yourself conversion. I would purchase a burner ready to go for natural gas. This is for safety reasons. Should you decide to risk it yourself, here is a link to how at least one person has done it. Scroll down to about the 6th comment. http://bbq.about.com/b/2005/11/30/natur ... fryers.htm

Wayne.

[Stewbacca]

Im with Bugeater on this one... I wouldnt risk it. Its much safer to just buy the burners made for natural gas. Im fairly handy, i can run all of the electrical for a house but the one thing i will always leave to professionals is anything related to gas. Im pretty fond of my limbs...

on another note, if you purchase the burners you will always have backup propane burners incase of emergency.

just my $0.02

[CurtE]

Thanks for the advice. Although I am adept at plumbing flammable gas systems...just not burners, I think getting a dedicated one is a good idea. I reckon as little info as there is out there and the fact that there are no commercial conversion kits for turkey fryers for sale...that ought to tell me something.

What is a good NG burner? Can any of y'all recommend one? How well can they be throttled? I have heard that those NG burners with the black cast ring with several brass jets coming out of them cant be throttled very well at all.

Thanks all...
Curt E.

[toddster]

I've done my fair share of burner conversions on the following boilers, furnaces, water heaters and gas grills. So let me make a few points if thats okay.
1. What's your gas pressure? A pipe can carry only so much gas and here in the midwest we get either 2 psi or 7 inches of water column of gas. Most of the homes here have a meter that will only do 250 cfm which is about 250,000 btus. Now lets say your house has a furnace that is 125,000 , water heater of 34,000 (not a tankless), gas stove 60,000 and a dryer 22,000 btu.
Not much left for the burner on a saturday in December.

2. It is true you will have to drill out the orifices and then you won't be able to use them with propane. (I might but then its not a good idea) trust me on this.

3. Propane is easier for the big btu's. I've done Nat Gas wok burners @ 275k btu's and they're moving gas.

4. I had a buddy that hooked his gas grill up to the house gas because he was tired of getting lp tanks. He forgot and left it on to burn off the grease only to notice two freaking weeks later he left it on.

5. Spent your money on a spare tank and your time on brewing better beer.

[Mylo]

I have done it with a grill I bought from Sam's. At the time, they only sold a LP Propane model. I found a chart online that detailed the recommened oriface size for the desired BTU output. I kept the BTUs the same as the factory spec. The hardest part was finding out the right size (and acquiring the micro drill bit). I also kept a fire extinguisher very handy for the first couple of BBQs. The burner (or grill) companies don't publish that info (for liability reasons). It sounds like you are comfortable with the risks, so - good luck to you. Say safe.


Mylo

[CurtE]

I am comfortable with the risks. I design and work with high pressure hydrogen and even worse...oxygen systems. I used to design residential gas furnace air handlers too. Just never burners per-se'. With the 5kpsi H2 and o2 systems we dont even say the word burn or...heck ...I cant even write it here I am sure I could do it safely after a bunch of time messing around with making it work safely...I think I'll take the advice and spend my time brewing. thanks all y'all.

Curt E.

[Henway]

It hasn't been specifically mentioned here, but I thought I'd tell you my experience.

First, get a CO monitor, because you're going to need it.
I brew in a dedicated room adjacent to my detached garage. I have a household stove hood over the brew and a 4x3 openable window within 6 feet of the burner.
I got this guy:
http://morebeer.com/view_product/17249/ ... atural_Gas

Hooked it up to my natural gas system and the flame was HUGE and VERY yellow. The CO detector went to over 200ppm. Almost any adjustment had lots of CO. Bad juju.

I then bought a pressure regulator and installed it inline. Now it is MUCH better. Getting the height between the burner and the boil vessel is critical. CO can spike to 100ppm for about 5 seconds when I turn it up to max, so I hardly ever turn it up that high. At what I consider 3/4 of full, CO is at 0. 3/4 full is only using about 1/4 of the total ON of the gas lever, so I need a steady hand to properly adjust, but it isn't much of a problem. Still, there's way too much capacity here.

The 21 is MORE THAN ENOUGH for my keggle, even boiling 14 gallons (with foam control!). If I did it again I'd either get an adjustable regulator or a smaller burner. Another possibility is to have 2 shutoff valves inline--one for adjusting the max pressure and one to fine tune the flame.