Natural Gas vs. Propane.


 
Where I live, propane out numbers NG 10-1. I have a much harder time selling a NG than a propane,
however, I can usually buy NG's cheaper, but with patience can resell them higher.
 
My father got tired of lugging propane and running short so he converted his gasser to NG.

We had a port on the side of the house and a 15' hose with a quick disconnect. It was really quite handy.

I've thought about converting my Silver B, but it's nice to be able to wheel it around the yard as needed.

As far as cooking quality, if the conversion is done correctly, you won't know the difference.

YMMV
 
Its a personal preference For me propane is more convenient because I can move my grill around if I want or need to. I don't have a large patio so if I have a gathering I will usually move the grill's out to the yard to make more seating. However I do have to get the tanks refilled when they run out. I usually try to keep one full tank on hand at all times so if one runs out I can swap with the full tank. Yes, I have forgotten to fill a spare and ran out of propane during a cook. At that point it's hurry up and get the charcoal lit, or finish cooking in the kitchen.

Now if I had a built in BBQ, or an island that didn't move I would like it to be hooked into the house gas. That way I would never have worries about running out, and would no longer have to haul tanks around to get them filled or exchanged. I know people with natural gas grill's and there's no difference in the cook IMO. So decide what you would prefer and go with it.
 
I actually have two propane grills and one ng. Cooking, there is very little difference if any between them. Price also is comparable. If you have a gas bib on your patio I would defiantly go natural gas. No tanks to run out of gas in the middle of a cook, no hauling tanks around to get filled or exchanged. If you don't have a gas bib than you need to think it through because it's very expensive to have one put in. Depending on the run it runs about $450 and up. Guys who play with explosive gasses don't come cheap. If you grill a lot all year you would recover the cost fairly quickly. if your an occasional griller I would stick with propane and if you need to move the grill around also.
Another thought is we use our NG grill as an outside oven during the summer to keep the heat out of the house and yes you can bake in a propane grill but if your using it a lot belter have a spare full tank around because you will use a lot of propane.
 
So it sounds like if you want to use NG, then you should be able to connect it via a hose from the house, or install a gas bib?
 
Basically they cook the same. Propane is a bit more inconvenient to have to refill bottles. But, if you plan on moving your grill around, then propane is the way to go. Having a line tapped in for NG is pretty expensive unless you know someone or have the knowledge and tools to do it yourself.

If you are going to put your grill in the corner of your deck and don't plan to ever move it elsewhere, check into having a NG line plumbed into it. If not, go with the propane.

You would either have to buy a grill designed to use NG or convert your existing grill if you switched. The easiest way to convert is get a hold of a NG manifold and replace your existing LP manifold with it. A fairly simple process. The big issue is running the NG line.
 
Arun, as others have said its one of those personal choice's and do you want to make the investment of $450 or higher to run the gas line there was a post here awhile back I think they wanted $800 to run the line would not hurt if you are thinking about doing it to ask someone for a quote.

Myself have 3 tanks and I brew beer so I get multi use out of the propane tanks and having a fixed hookup at one spot would not work for me. I am fortunate I have an Ace about 2.5 miles away who refills tanks think I pay about $13 bucks so its cheaper than doing an exchange.

I am pretty diligent about when 2 become empty I take them down to Ace but I also have a Performer so even if I ran out of propane no big deal and its my go to grill on the weekends however my wife uses the 1000 during the week so hell to pay if no gas.

I might use 5-6 tanks a year now the kids are gone so its just 2 of us and of course company but that comes to about $78 per year. The payback lets say you are fortunate to get someone to do it for $450 would be close to 6 years not including the natural gas cost which is cheap.

When I lived at Cape Cod many years ago I had natural gas was fortunate the house I bought had the hookup and left the grill, yes I loved it no running around for propane tanks did forget to turn it off one night as I grilled year round woke up one morning it had snowed a foot looking over the backyard to admire the view and of course the grill had no snow on it, but you could do the same thing with propane and drain the tank.
 
Yah, I put a brand new tank on my Q100 a couple weeks ago. I used it that day and left it on to burn off the crud. Well, I forgot to turn it off. Good thing it was on a propane tank or my NG bill would have been astronomical as I didn't realize it for over a week. LOL.

I guess I should start just turning off the grill after a cook and doing a longer warm up to burn off the old stuff before I put more food back on it.
 
Bruce said:
Yah, I put a brand new tank on my Q100 a couple weeks ago. I used it that day and left it on to burn off the crud. Well, I forgot to turn it off. Good thing it was on a propane tank or my NG bill would have been astronomical as I didn't realize it for over a week. LOL.

I guess I should start just turning off the grill after a cook and doing a longer warm up to burn off the old stuff before I put more food back on it.
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Bruce it used to be Weber and others told people to burn it off after the cook now they do not recommend that. I fire it up when I am cooking for 15 minutes then I brush the grates much less chance in the old days when you burned it off after the cook to leave the thing on all night long.

When you burn it off after the cook especially with company a few glasses of wine a few IPA's forget about the damn thing running. :wsm:
 
My thinking exactly. I am gonna start changing that up beginning tonight with my scheduled cheese burners.
 
Again for the record when properly done a NG grill and LP will cook exactly the same (assuming the same grill). As for huge prices to run a line I think that is just greed on the part of the trade person. Yes gas CAN be dangerous but just like a loaded gun only if mishandled. The materials to run a gas line are dirt cheap. Just walk into a home center and price out black iron pipe. It costs pennies. Now too there are simpler and easier materials to work with i.e. CSST, plastic and copper. So I honestly believe a trade person will pull the "it's dangerous" card to get much higher prices than say putting in a water line.
For some grills using LP is the only way to go i.e. my Weber Q320. It's meant to be a portable compact grill. Perfect for being my garage queen :D While I could VERY easily make it into a NG unit there is no real point in doing so unless it was getting a permanent spot on my deck.
I will say too that trying to "guess" how much gas is in a tank before a long cook (say some 3 hour spare ribs or a brisket) and than being heartbroken when you realize the grill ran out midway through and you didn't know.................NG is priceless. Because those gauges are never accurate not even a little bit. So I am firmly in the NG camp (except as where noted for the Q).
 
Actually $470 does not seem bad to me it depends where you are in the country.

In ATL all the trades guys are so busy with all the construction I doubt you could get anyone to show up for 200 or 300 bucks they probably would not even return your call till winter.
 
The nice thing is that when we got our NG grill we didn't really notice any increase in our gas bill and we do use it a lot.
 
Rich we are deregulated down here I am locked in for the next 2 years from April so a little less paying under 41 cents a therm.

So it would cost nothing to run the grill.
 
Not sure what that actually means as far as cost, but I just got refill on my home propane at $1.05 a gallon. I think that is about the lowest I have ever gotten a fill since I lived here the last ten years. I wish I could get my 20lb propane tanks filled for that. It would cost me about $4.00 to fill a tank.

I would look into tapping into it if my Genesis 1000 was in a better location and more stationairy. I could run it to my Q100 soon to be Q200 on the back deck, but I don't use enough gas in that grill to justify it. If the back deck was bigger, I could put my 1000 out there.
 
Natural Gas all the way. I paid around $700 for a plumber three years ago to add 26 ft of piping and etc to provide the grill hookup. Then I found a Weber 1000 NG to use for parts to convert my 1300 from propane to NG.

Having to get those tanks filled was a pain. Plus you had to deal with replacing them after 12 years.
 
Not to mention the gasoline you use in the car to get them filled. You have to figure the cost of at least 1 gallon of gasoline into the mix to fill the tanks. Around here that is close to $3.00
 
Brian B Atlanta said:
Actually $470 does not seem bad to me it depends where you are in the country.

In ATL all the trades guys are so busy with all the construction I doubt you could get anyone to show up for 200 or 300 bucks they probably would not even return your call till winter.
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The $470 quote I got was for a guy who would not pull a permit and install a T fitting at the meter and run the line on the exterior of the house. Then I got a quote for $2,500 for a guy would pull a permit and install the fittings inside and run through the exterior wall of my house. The higher quote sounded more professional and legit, but I can buy a lot of gasoline, charcoal, and propane for that price. The more expensive plumber pointed to my Performer and said, "That's the best way to grill."
 
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