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Propane thru a natural gas range ?

J

jCarroll

Well-known Member
Location
mid-Ohio
WE bought a 10 yr old Thermador dual fuel range (gas burners, electric oven) - out of a remodeling job, so it was disconnected. This is a hi end appliance, and service calls are expensive.

Oh - I heat my bearing races in the oven, so this is tractor related.

It will go in our propane house. What I want to do is to connect it, and check it out before I start buying parts like the propane orifice.

Will it function well enough as-is (now on natural gas) on propane to let me see that it works? Which orifice has the larger hole - propane or natural gas?

Any experience to share with this range?
 
Look behind range, you may find 4 orifice's for lp gas. Remove nat gas orifices & install lp orifice's. Also you will need to flip regulator spring cover. If you need more help email me.
Barry
 
On ours, we flipped the regulator as above, and adjusted the air feed to regulate the flame properly. If you don"t know what you"re doing, I highly recommend you get a professional - won"t take long, probably won"t cost much, and you don"t risk an improperly adjusted unit.
 
Our local propane distributor will convert appliances. I pd them $69. a few years ago to convert a Nat gas dryer to lp.
 
propane uses the smaller hole orifices because it runs at higher pressure than ng. you need to turn the cap on the regulator over so LP is up. this permits the higher pressure for LP gas to go through. if you try this on lp without changing orifices the flames will be much larger than they should be. the orifices need to be changed, air adjustment changed, and your low flame/simmer adjusted. there should small screws behind the control knobs or the front bezel to get to the low flame and simmer screws.
 
(quoted from post at 09:56:08 09/13/12) propane uses the smaller hole orifices because it runs at higher pressure than ng. you need to turn the cap on the regulator over so LP is up. this permits the higher pressure for LP gas to go through. if you try this on lp without changing orifices the flames will be much larger than they should be. the orifices need to be changed, air adjustment changed, and your low flame/simmer adjusted. there should small screws behind the control knobs or the front bezel to get to the low flame and simmer screws.
Click to expand...
n addition to propane running about 1.5 times higher pressure, it has 2.5 times the heating (BTU) content per unit volume, BOTH resulting in need for smaller orifice (jet) for propane vs natural gas.
 
Well, most ranges can be adjusted by adjusting or replacing the orifices and inverting the cap on the pressure regulator. However, a lot of higher end ranges cannot be adjusted; they have to be ordered from the factory for either LP or Natural gas. Don't know if this is the case for the Thermador, but it is for Wolf and Viking.
Best to check with a Thermador dealer.
If that's the case you can order the parts but it might get a little pricey.

Chuck the appliance salesman.
 
As others have said the propane uses a smaller orifice, and differnent regulator settings than the natural gas. This being the case, the answer to your question is NO, you can't test it on propane when it's set up for NG. My dryer was mistakenly set up for NG when it was supposed to be set up for propane. The result was that the first time it fired for me to dry cloths was flames shooting out underneath it. I had turned it on and walked away. Had I not smelled something and gone back to look I would have probably lost my new house. So, again, NO, don't try to test on Propane when it's set up for NG as the result will be a much larger fire/ball of fire than the unit is designed to handle, and may damage it to where it can't be used.
 
I found a small apartment size Roper stove to use for canning and back up stove if the power goes out. It was set up for NG which we don't have. The valves on the burner are adjustable to close them down to use with propane. I did find a regulator you can put on your incoming line propane line to reduce the pressure to make it safe for a NG unit. I believe they were around $50.
 
Most LP appliances work on 10 to 11 in w.c. of manifold pressure. NG work at 3.5 to 5 in w.c.. 1 psi is 27.68 in w.c. to put things in perspective.

The LP orifice is indeed smaller.

LP gas has a BTU rating of 2500 BTU per cubic feet where NG is 1000 BTU per cubic feet. This is the test standard ratings for these 2 gases. Actually very slightly.

Some appliances are equipped with a flip flop gas valve as others have mentioned. A single screw in the center can be removed, flippd around and changing the gas pressure from one type to the other. This would only take care of the gas pressure, not the orifice.

I am a combustion engineer for a gas heater manufacture. We test run all heaters on LP gas. We only have to run the heaters for 20 seconds. If we kept a NG running on LP for any longer than this it will melt the blower wheel.

A 40,000 BTU burner set up for NG will burn at 60,000 BTU if connected to LP.

A 225,000 BTU burner set up for NG will burn at 331,000 BTU if connected to LP.

Please find someone who can work on gas appliances to check this one out for you.
 
Your supplier should come out and adjust and replace andthing that is needed. My brother inlaw worked for PG&E and he carried small drills with wood handles to open up the orifice when needed.
Call them and ask questions that what they are for.
Walt
 
My propane supplier does NOT touch end use devices.

The propane conversion kit is not available through my usual parts sources - local houses, and internet sites.

Thermodor has the kit for $140.60 + shipping.

I only want to operate the burners long enough to see that they light - lines open and ignitor works.

Looks like this is headed for Goodwill.

Thx for your responses - and your safety concerns.
 
I had 30+ years ago converted from NG to P when I moved to the country. The guy that delivered my P was a long time country boy and already knew the difference in orfice size requirements...smaller as others have noted due to differences in properties of fuel.

I had a NG range and some NG Dearborn space heaters that he converted and all he did was change out the orfices. Did it as a favor when he filled my P tank the first time.

Other thing I had to get used to was 3/4" black pipe for NG in town and 5/8 copper tubing in the country with the P. Tank is 50 or so ft from the house and runs 2 hot water heaters, space heaters to heat the house and gas range.....nice light blue/dark blue flame.

Oh and this guy was the same one that showed me how to run my cutting torch on P rather than Acetylene which was cheaper and didn't require a trip to town to get it......same thing, different tips; i.e. orfices different.

HTH,
Mark
 
We had a new stove delivered when I was little. We had lp. Ma put a roast in the new oven and turned her on low (is was set for natural gas). Smelled something burning in short order. It was our lunch. She grabbed that roaster and tossed it out the door into the porch. It burned clear through that rug by the steps. We chuckled uncomfortably every time we saw that rug.

Get the right orafice.
 
Here is a video of a couple of guys converting a NG furnace to LP. Its about an 8 minute video, but te theory still applies, so if you watch it, you will get a sense of what you are up against, which really doesn't seem like much. I would not be giving your new find up to the salvation army so fast. If I were you, I would watch the video and then call my local repair man, and have him do it for a few bucks, which is far cheaper tan purchasing a new one, guess, why you and the better half purchased it in the first place. And the only reason that I would be calling the repair man and having him do it, is because I don't have a conversion chart available to size an LP oriface from a NG, or know where I would get one.

Don't despare, watch the video, call the repair guy, pay him a few bucks, and then enjoy.

Good luck.

Mark
Part one of two, but will give you an idea
 
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