Questions on propane stove and dryer...

[missydog1]

There's more fire (and explosion danger) with a gas range than electric, something to perhaps consider with a child in the house. I had a gas range at my last house, but I don't miss the open flame at all. But then I'm not a fan of propane. (Natural gas is great but not available.)

[terracore]

At a different stage in my life I was a professional. Cook that is. There is nothing like cooking with gas. Gas contains a lot of moisture so your oven meats always turn out moist. (it complicates things with baking bread etc at times, but there are ways to work with that). And on the stove top... nothing better than almost instantly changing the temp on a saute pan or skillet.

Until I can afford it, I can only dream of having a gas range.

One downside with propane (versus natural gas) is when somebody forgets to turn an oven / burner off, and many hours or overnight later, an empty tank has to be refilled at great expense before ALL the gas appliances in the house can be used again. At least gas dryers and hot water heaters shut themselves off.

[cajunman1973]

Just thought I would share a little technical information for those who would be interested.

What does it mean to convert an appliance from natural gas to propane?

Answer: Natural gas is a lower pressure gas and propane is a higher pressure gas. Because of the differences in the supply pressure, the hole at the end of the line that produces the flame,(referred to as an orifice)size is different. The higher the pressure, the smaller the hole size and vise versa. So, if you connect propane to a natural gas converted appliance your going to have a very large flame because the orifice is large and will allow a large amount of propane to escape.

So how is an appliance converted?

Answer: Most gas appliances are shipped with extra (orifices) that can be switched to accommodate for the type of gas supply. All gas appliances will have a label that discloses which orifice was installed at the factory.
The changing of these orifices should be left up to a professional however, if the homeowner feels he/she has a good understanding of the process, it could be done very easily. Just make sure all of the orifices for all burners on the gas appliances are replaced or(converted).

[MarkP]

I have a Bosch on-demand water heater that draws 170,000 btuh. I run it on one of the ubiquitous 5 gal lp tanks. It lasts me a month or so and uses, as far as I can tell, all of the gas in the tank. I had been concerned that the tank might frost up but it doesn't. I also have a small gas range with oven from an RV. I run it off its own tank and it lasts for months. I have had the water heater tank run out while someone was in the shower a couple of times, which was a PITA but I had a spare tank ready so no disaster. Each appliance has its own 5 gal tank, tank mounted regulator, and separate appliance mounted regulator. The tank mounted regulators are the standard ones you can buy at Hilo Propane with a few feet of red rubber 3/8" hose. I did not hard plumb anything. I get by with very small hose probably because the lines are so short and each appliance has a dedicated tank and regulator. I wish that the tanks were located outside for safety but that would make them easy to steal.