Genesis II - Should I run a pipe for natural gas?


 
S

Stone

TVWBB Super Fan
I’m about to get a Genesis II. My house has natural gas, but there’s no pipe out to the grilling area. Are the benefits of natural gas worth the cost of running a pipe out?
 
Stone said:
I’m about to get a Genesis II. My house has natural gas, but there’s no pipe out to the grilling area. Are the benefits of natural gas worth the cost of running a pipe out?
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Propane is more versatile. You might go through 3 or 4 tanks a year at most. If you move or sell the grill propane has more options.

If running out of gas bothers you go natural gas.
 
I am debating this same issue. They are currently in the process of running NG out to my neighborhood and I plan to hook up. That is the house and all the appliances and furnace. However, I am debating if I want to have them pipe a line out to the deck while they are doing the rest of the work to change over the rest of the house. At first, I was not going to bother, because I like to be able to wheel my grill in and out of the garage for cooks. But I just sold my LP Weber Flame 27000 outdoor fire pit and found a NG one. I didn't use the LP one a whole lot, but it would be nice to have one that runs on NG and is connected on my deck. Then I figure I could hook my grill up to the line when I wanted to use it. My driveway is only about 10 feet from my deck.

When I get them to come in and do the estimate for the conversion to NG, I will ask them how much to run a line to the deck....If it is too expensive, I wont do it and I will just resell the NG Weber Flame. I only paid $50 for it.
 
Several years ago I bought an above ground pool and laid down for the heater, which runs on natural gas. It was expensive enough to run the electric out to the pool for the pump, but it had to be done. After I got a couple quotes for running a gas line out there I sold the heater!
 
What is the cost to run the line?

How many 20Lb tank refills or exchanges would you have to buy to recover the line installation?

Resale might make it worthwhile, but only to a buyer that appreciates the value of the NG connection for a grill.

NG for hot water or furnace is well worth the cost IMO, but I'm not sure about grilling.

It is convenient not having to sherpa propane tanks around...
 
Yah, I don't think I would have a line run unless it was part of hooking the whole house up....I am hoping that doing at the same time will be a small additional fee instead of having them come out on a special job just for the additional line.
 
Stone said:
I’m about to get a Genesis II. My house has natural gas, but there’s no pipe out to the grilling area. Are the benefits of natural gas worth the cost of running a pipe out?
Click to expand...
Natural gas costs a fraction of what propane does and the convenience is great. The job can be very simple or very complicated, so it may or may not be worth the cost of hiring a contractor. If it's something you're capable of doing, it's definitely worth your labor and materials.
 
I bought my current home because it had a NG stub at the back yard. And having cooked with NG grills for the past 19 years, I’d never own a home without one now.

And when we poured our current patio, we have two NG stubs run below the patio. One for a NG grill, which will also house a jet burner for outdoor woking/frying and a 8’ fire table.

The convenience of never having to store tanks and get refills outweighs the cost to me. I hated having to get propane and lug around tanks.

And you can always do a nice burn off on your cook to keep your grates clean. All without worrying you’re burning up your tank.

If the cost is reasonable to you then do it. IMO it adds nice resale value too.
 
Bruce said:
I am debating this same issue. They are currently in the process of running NG out to my neighborhood and I plan to hook up. That is the house and all the appliances and furnace. However, I am debating if I want to have them pipe a line out to the deck while they are doing the rest of the work to change over the rest of the house. At first, I was not going to bother, because I like to be able to wheel my grill in and out of the garage for cooks. But I just sold my LP Weber Flame 27000 outdoor fire pit and found a NG one. I didn't use the LP one a whole lot, but it would be nice to have one that runs on NG and is connected on my deck. Then I figure I could hook my grill up to the line when I wanted to use it. My driveway is only about 10 feet from my deck.

When I get them to come in and do the estimate for the conversion to NG, I will ask them how much to run a line to the deck....If it is too expensive, I wont do it and I will just resell the NG Weber Flame. I only paid $50 for it.
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If you ever don't want that NG one don't you dare sell it without giving me a call. I just missed one (LP one but at this point I don't care). Someone not far posted one and I lost it because of an urgent family issue :(
My other thought was to maybe just buy a ventless gas fireplace and build it onto my deck. But if a Weber flame came up I would be all over it.
Now to the other original question. DEFINITELY go NG. Screw the portability. A 12' gas hose gives all the portability one needs for a "permanent grill". The ability to never be bothered with tank changes is priceless IMO
 
Tanks can be a hassle if you use your grill quite a bit.
However, if you are the forgetful type I would stick to propane
if you think might not remember to shut down after a burn-off.
 
Well, in my case, I don't put my grill on the deck. Wife won't let me. I like to wheel it in the garage between cooks anyway. So, I would have to have a quick connect on it to use it with a NG hookup. Then I could switch the Weber Flame over to the connection as well.

Dave, I have done that more than once. Leave the grill on for a burn off and forget about it. However, since I have all my grills with SS grates, I don't really do post cook burn offs any more. I rarely do any kind of burn off, but sometimes I will fire it up early and clean it off good before a cook so I think I would be OK. I wonder how much NG a Genesis 3 burner would consume in a 12 hour period on high???
 
LMichaels said:
If you ever don't want that NG one don't you dare sell it without giving me a call. I just missed one (LP one but at this point I don't care). Someone not far posted one and I lost it because of an urgent family issue :(
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Larry, I will let you know if the NG Weber Flame 27000 hits the market.
 
Bruce said:
I wonder how much NG a Genesis 3 burner would consume in a 12 hour period on high???
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Shouldn't be too hard to figure out...a Silver is rated @ 48,000BTU/h with all 3 burners going, so that would be 48k x 12hrs=576,000BTU. I am billed by the therm and a therm=100,000BTU. A therm costs $1.25143, so 576,000/100,000 x $1.25143 = $7.21 for 5.76 therms. Also, I am charged a "customer charge" of $.16438 per day by SoCalGas, but that is a fixed rate whether I use gas or not.

By comparison, my last month's bill was for 7 therms.

I'll skip the math and just tell you that the same 12 hour burn off would consume more than a tank of propane (a standard sized 20-pound propane cylinder holds approximately 430,000 BTUs of liquid propane).

I'm still on my first cup of coffee. :)
 
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Got to jump in on this one. When we bought this house it had a NG bib on the patio. I found a like new two year old E/W E320 down in Phoenix and bought it for half of what it cost new and have never looked back, that was about 6-7 years ago. Ng is the bottle that never runs out in the middle of a cook and cost much less to operate than propane and no bottles to lug around.
Also being in my 70s lugging those bottles seemed to get heavier every year.
 
Ed Pinnell said:
Shouldn't be too hard to figure out...a Silver is rated @ 48,000BTU/h with all 3 burners going, so that would be 48k x 12hrs=576,000BTU. I am billed by the therm and a therm=100,000BTU. A therm costs $1.25143, so 576,000/100,000 x $1.25143 = $7.21 for 5.76 therms. Also, I am charged a "customer charge" of $.16438 per day by SoCalGas, but that is a fixed rate whether I use gas or not.

By comparison, my last month's bill was for 7 therms.

I'll skip the math and just tell you that the same 12 hour burn off would consume more than a tank of propane (a standard sized 20-pound propane cylinder holds approximately 430,000 BTUs of liquid propane).

I'm still on my first cup of coffee.
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OK, so what you are saying is that I would better off wasting off an entire tank of LP rather than running my grill for 12 hrs straight on NG?
 
Ed Pinnell said:
Shouldn't be too hard to figure out...a Silver is rated @ 48,000BTU/h with all 3 burners going, so that would be 48k x 12hrs=576,000BTU. I am billed by the therm and a therm=100,000BTU. A therm costs $1.25143, so 576,000/100,000 x $1.25143 = $7.21 for 5.76 therms. Also, I am charged a "customer charge" of $.16438 per day by SoCalGas, but that is a fixed rate whether I use gas or not.

By comparison, my last month's bill was for 7 therms.

I'll skip the math and just tell you that the same 12 hour burn off would consume more than a tank of propane (a standard sized 20-pound propane cylinder holds approximately 430,000 BTUs of liquid propane).

I'm still on my first cup of coffee. :)
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purely an observation on my part; our NG gas bill is down $28 a month (first full month not using our Summit S670 NG cooker) which is around 50% less gas consumed than the prior period last year (Jul 18 2021 thru Aug 18 2021). we have been and are using the E6 exclusively in this time frame. i don't believe I am even using $28 a month in coal, but I might be 50-70% of that number based on my run rate (of which i'll have to take better notes on now).

now mind you, the S670 with all 6 burners can burn some NG, and quite easily. this puts us on a new trend for around 17 therms a month in summer which is lower than our winter season in which NG heats our house. previous NG gas cooking therms were running 29-34 therms a month consumed in summer. (gross therms consumed in a billing cycle).
 
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Bruce said:
OK, so what you are saying is that I would better off wasting off an entire tank of LP rather than running my grill for 12 hrs straight on NG?
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Just the opposite. It will cost you over 6 times as much for the propane (based on 15lb for $20, the current exchange rate in my area).*

* based on my numbers here in California. YMMV
 
If you can find out how much a Therm costs in your area, multiply that times 5.76. That is your cost for NG.

You will burn about 27lbs of propane in 12 hours, so almost 7 gallons of propane. A tank holds 20lbs, or 5 gallons, so each gallon weighs 4lbs. If you buy gas by the gallon, multiply that times 7. If you buy it by the lb, multiply that times 27.

Roughly. ;)
 
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