Has the 2200 Fixed Regulator Issues

My beloved Q120 we use for camping is showing it's age and our growing family has outgrown the grill space a bit.

We don't bother with the 1 lb. canisters, we connect via adapter hose to our 20 lber. which has worked fine with our older 120.

IF and I say IF we move to a 2200, does it suffer from the same heating issues the 220 was known for when using the hose and refillable cylinders???

Just wondering if those of you who own a new 2200 can chime in with your experiences thus far.

Cheers.

Bump...bump...bump

I bought a new to me Q200 and converted it to use a regular big propane tank. I don't know if this will help you or not.

saw this video and did it to mine...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFp9FyvCbuE

Bumping kind of an old thread, but I see this come up a lot. People seem to have trouble finding the single part that will get this done and put together several which will work, but which also increase the potential for leaks. Probably won't be any leaks if properly assembled, of course, but the simplest solution is your friend.

Amazon is also your friend. Here is the part needed, 3/8 male flare, 1/8 female pipe ...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006PKK3XI/tvwb-20



I just ordered this part plus this regulator from Amazon, will post pics of the fix this weekend.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000KKNZKC/tvwb-20



Add a little gas tape and you're good to go! I hope.

I did this mod to my Q200 today. I went to home depot and got the parts - LFA-182 (3/8 FL x 1/4 MIP) and LFA-734 (1/4 FIP x 1/8 FIP). I also got a Brinkman hose with regulator. I tried it first without any thread sealant and it leaked. I then used some yellow pipe thread sealant and the leaks were gone. I've read that teflon tape is not recommended for gas fittings, so be sure to use the proper thread sealant. I didn't try cooking anything on it yet, but it fired up and the flames do seem a little more lively and stronger.

There is tape made for gas fittings. It works great

OK, I did my conversion today and cooked on it tonight. Works great! Many thanks to Ira B, Canadian gas fitter who gave us this excellent instruction:

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?49713-Weber-Q-low-flame-or-no-flame&p=542185&viewfull=1#post542185



Since people seem to have trouble finding the single part that will get this done and put together several which will work, but which also increase the potential for leaks, here are my parts links again.

Amazon is also your friend. Here is the single adapter part needed, 3/8 male flare, 1/8 female pipe ...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006PKK3XI/tvwb-20



My parts arrived during the week and today I did the swap, here is the procedure with step by step photos.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000KKNZKC/tvwb-20



And gas tape is thicker and denser than plumbing PTFE tape. It is yellow, not white, and not expensive. I got a roll at Home Depot, but had I thought about it I could have added it to the Amazon order.

One thing to be careful of is to get the right regulator! The whole reason for doing this is because the regulator on the Q grills does not work that well with 20 pound tanks and a long, unregulated hose. So get a hose designed for a grill not for a turkey fryer or large flat griddle or something else. Mine was optimized for a grill. Sorry it is sideways, but you can see it is a grill hose on the box.



Remove the Q cooking grates and then the burner tube. I used a 3/8" socket wrench.



Then pull off the control knob and remove the lock nut holding the valve in place. A 5/8" socket fits the nut, but I just used a slip-joint pliers.



The valve is attached to the regulator which is attached to a metal heat shield bracket. Just push the valve back through the hole then swing the assembly down and the whole thing comes right out. The heat shield fits a slot, it is not fastened in place. Here is what you are left with.



Remove the heat shield with a 1/4" ratchet. Now you want to remove the regulator from the valve, and it is on there TIGHT! I put the valve body under my heel on the deck and loosened the regulator with a pliers. Be careful not to put pressure on the brass valve stem! Getting it started is tough, but once it breaks free you can twist it off with your hand. There is some red sealant on the threads, brush that off with a dry toothbrush. Here are the valve and regulator, separated. I put the regulator, small screws, and heat shield in a ziplock freezer bag in case I want to convert back for any reason.



Now you want to put some gas tape on the threads on the valve body. As Ira B cautioned, do this carefully so you don't have tape hanging into where the gas will flow, and wrap it around clockwise so it will not unravel or bunch up as you screw the fitting on. Here are my taped valve threads and the single adapter fitting. Really, if you cannot find this part at your hardware store, order it from Amazon, it is worth waiting for instead of the ungainly long series of parts I've seen others use. This is (a little) safer and a more elegant solution.



I twisted my adapter on by again putting the valve body under my heel on the edge of a deck stair and tightening it on with a wrench. Be careful not to put pressure on the brass valve stem! If you have a channel lock pliers you might want to use it to hold the valve body and wrench the fitting on. It should be tight but not gorilla tight. Here are the joined parts.



Now attach the regulator hose, no tape needed, but snug it up tight. Then insert the valve back into its bracket and reattach with the lock nut being careful to ensure that the control knob indexes properly when replaced. When you have it where you want it, snug the locking nut down tight. Reattach the burner by slipping it over the regulator and tightening the machine screw with your 5/8" ratchet again.

Now attach your tank and with the grill valve off, open the tank valve. Wait a few minutes and see if you can smell any gas. Then use a 50/50 dish soap and water solution and apply it to the valve, adapter and hose fitting (I used a sopping sponge, you can use a brush or spray bottle) and check carefully for leaks by watching to see if any bubbles form.

If not, open the grill valve and light it, checking to see that the burner is evenly lit and the flame ranges from high to low properly. You should be good to go! Here is my new setup!



Did a steak on it tonight, works great!

I did this same thing on a Q220 I got for my daughter. It works solid. Only issue is you cannot use (easily) as a portable grill any more. Otherwise a great conversion

LMichaels said:

I did this same thing on a Q220 I got for my daughter. It works solid. Only issue is you cannot use (easily) as a portable grill any more. Otherwise a great conversion

Click to expand...

I thought of that, but for my uses, this made sense, I won't be using it portable much, if at all. On the other hand, I do enjoy camping and if I end up doing that again when grandkids come, I think what I would do is buy a 1 gallon tank instead of going back to the bottle. You can use this setup as-is, and the smaller bottles are about 1/4 the size of the 20 lb tanks, so I think that is actually a better idea than the 1 lb bottles.

The only drawback to that plan is the 1 gallon bottles cost twice as much as the 20 lb cylinders. Still, being able to use this setup with both bottles might make it worthwhile.

Dang! There was at least one post on this forum about this, but I missed it. Since I bought the grill for use at my apartment and don't plan on using it for portable uses, had I known this before, I would probably not have bothered with the conversion.

How to refill one pound propane bottles from a 20 lb tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKCYIOnxwkg

Now that I did the conversion, and since I will use it a lot, I am not disappointed that I did it. But had I known this, I'd have bought a 20 lb tank and left the grill alone, refilling my two Ace Hardware small bottles.

Oh well, live and learn!

Is everyone who does this conversion to a standard regulator getting their grills to cook properly with food tasting good?

I've done this conversion twice, once on my Q220 a couple years ago, and now again on my Q120, and both times the food tastes horrible. With the Q220, I used all the Home Depot parts including the Brinkman regulator, and food tasted like propane, and the grill smelled like propane as well. There were no leaks, I checked multiple times. Tried two other brand regulators with the same outcome. I noticed the regulators all had 1.0 PSI output while the Q220 valve noted 1/2 PSI on it, so I thought the regulators were overpowering the valve and just ordered a new Q220 regulator assembly and all was good again.

My Q120 regulator went bad the other week using a 20 lb tank despite using a Mr. Heater propane filter, so I decided to try the modification again. This time I got the single fitting from Amazon and a grill regulator rated at 1/2 PSI, but now the food tastes sort of odd and bitter, and the grill struggles to get much over 500F. It took 15 minutes to get over 500 last night when it was over 90 degrees outside with no wind. It seems almost like a lean burn in some ways, though the flame is blue and even a bit larger than it used to be. When lit, the flames have a strange odor, not the normal propane odor, but kind of musty smelling. I've cleaned the grill inside and out with dish soap and water like normal, cleaned the burner tube, and still the smell.

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if my propane is bad in some way. The 20 lb tank has been filled a few times since I originally tried it on the Q220, and that tank works fine when connecting a bulk hose to either grill, and they both work fine with 1 lb bottles. I would love to get this modification to work, but with all my different attempts I'm really wondering why I get such poor results when everyone else raves about it?

never tasted any difference. One the one I did I used a Genesis regulator I had after a recent conversion to NG I did.

I have made the conversion myself and just noticed that the Q220 lights faster and gets hotter (of course it has been 90-100 degrees in Charlotte lately, so the real test is during the winter ). I would guess that your propane is bad, I would exchange your tank for a new one.

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like I need to get some new propane.