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In my area, natural gas is not available. Therefore, for a kitchen cooktop, my options are electric or propane. I have heard propane doesn’t get “hot” enough. Does anyone have experience cooking with propane, and if so, were they able to fuel high btu burners (15,000 BTU and higher for frying)?
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I can't tell you the btu's of the stoves that I've used, never bothered to look at the numbers. But I can tell you that the stove in a 14*56 mobile home I own has kept me and the house from freezing up in winter storms a time or two. I learned when I was a kid 70 miles out on the ranch that if the power goes out you better have a back up heat source, preferably one you could cook on.
Don't worry about not having enough heat and if you haven't cooked on a gas stove, you're in for a pleasant surprise. I wouldn't own an electric stove longer than it would take to trade it for a propane one. The only other option I would look at is a stove that burns both propane and wood.
*I routinely use a propane cooking stove. It is a standard household 4-burner & oven stove. It cooks just fine. If you are buying a new one you just need to be sure it is set up for propane and not commercial natural gas.As for heating with it I wouldn't do that on a bet. Like any other flame it generates carbon monoxide. Unless you take extra care to make sure you have adequate ventilation a cook stove can kill you. If you need backup heat get an external vented propane heater.
*FredBYour absolutely right about using a propane stove for heating. It is dangerous. But when the choice is freezing or turning on the stove, I opt for heat. Just make sure you have ventilation.
*"Your absolutely right about using a propane stove for heating. It is dangerous. But when the choice is freezing or turning on the stove, I opt for heat. Just make sure you have ventilation."It could be dangerous.Gas appliances are most likely going to produce CO when the components are cold/cool: as they heat up, the CO production usually drops.They don't necessarily produce CO at low temps, however.Last winter I heated my house for a couple of days with a standard gas oven.Of course, I had tweaked it's performance to burn as cleanly as possible and I was regularly using $800 worth of CO testing equipment to make sure the air was staying within acceptable quality. (never went above 9ppm)I would not have done it without a CO meter: a consumer CO detector with an LED readout would be acceptable, in my opinion, IF there were only healthy adults present.Ventilation is, of course, a good idea, but a CO detector would be better.
*I have encountered natural gas/propane cooktops that didn't put out as much heat when using propane. Even when correctly adjusted for propane (I ordered up the instructions from the manufacturer and double-checked the settings). Still more heat than electric and vastly more responsive than electric. While I have observed that in some cases, it doesn't have to happen. Propane has 2.5 times more BTUs/cubic feet than natural gas. And I have a propane burner (like for lobster/corn boiling and chili cook-offs) that puts out 150,000 BTU/hour. Most stovetops burners put out 8,000 or 10,000 BTU/hour. Actually they consume that much, about 1/3 of it goes into the pot. But increasingly, cooktops are available with one or two of the four burners being 15,000 to 30,000 BTU/hour. If one of those runs a little cooler on propane, you will still have LOTS of heat.So go hit the appliance stores and look for a propane-capable cooktop with high output burners. -David
*I use propane stove every day and never miss the new electric it replaced. The oven won't work when the powers out but the burners do. Some new models wont fire up without electric so if this is important be sure to ask.
*Tosh, All cooktops can burn either natural gas or propane. All come readily equipped to burn natural gas and have a kit to be installed if it's to run off of propane.Easy to do.All cooktop BTU ratings are based off of natural gas. You lose about 10% when running off of propane.A 15K BTU rated burner will pump out about 13.5K BTUs when running off of propane. You lose a bit when looking for the fast boil, but when looking to slow-simmer sauces at a low-BTU setting, I suppose you can look on the bright side and say propane helps you there.We've been cooking with propane for 6 years. I installed a 75 gallon tank outside just for the cooktop. Works great, no worries.
*Thanks for the input. How long does a 75 gallon tank of propane last typically?
*Seemingly forever...We cook all our meals and have a 6-burner Viking...it's used daily. I'd venture we burn about 20+/- gallons a year. Our oven is electric, it'd be substantially more if the oven was propane.I bought a "reconditioned" propane tank from the propane company for about $40 or so. I roughed in the copper tubing (50' roll of half-inch Type L) from the proposed tank location to the cooktop. When they came out to deliver the tank, they fitted all of the connections from the tank to the cooktop. No labor charge, only a charge for the fittings.
*Right before Christmas my brother and I went shopping for a new cooktop for my mother. When looking at gas tops, we had a choice between propane and natural gas. The ones we saw no longer had a kit for conversion. You could order either propane, or natural gas. They were entirely different stove tops. The ranges were the same set up as the stove tops - an either or situation.James DuHamel
*Hands down propane over electric. If you plan on using propane for other appliances like a furnace increase the size of your tank to hundreds of gallons. Costs per gallon usually go down when you lease a larger tank.Please ignore the heating the home with a stove "advice."
*I have a house in the city and one in the country. I have identical Dacor cook tops in them, except one is natural gas and one is propane. They had to be ordered for the specific kind of gas, but I can tell no difference in performance whatsoever. These are dual fuel cooktops with two gas burners. On the propane model 5 gallons lasts nearly a year.
*Tosh,Be it natural or propane the calculations and ratings on burners is based on natural gas @ 1000 BTU per cu/ft, Propane @ 2500 BTU/CuFt and Butane @ 3010 BTU/CuFt. In my 40 years experience I have never deducted 10% BTU capacity for propane. (Sorry, Mongo.)Conversion of heating appliances is accomplished by comparison of charts for each gas and the bore on the orfice(s) and subseqently reboring the orfices to the corresponding Wire gauge Size to give the burner the same BTU output, no matter the gas.Conversion problems usually center around control valves---some are convertible, others are not. It varies with manufacturer and model. Be advised that when converting from one gas to another the burners must be "tweaked" for a maximum clean output. (Heed Bob's message on CO. PLease no yellow in any gas flame.)I've sold, installed, serviced, heated and cooked with both natural and propane......both are great and very hot. In most areas natural gas is the least expensive per cu/ft, but rural/remote areas will use propane.I currently cook on a 5-star commercial cooktop that was installed on propane and converted to natural when the city main was extended 2 years ago. I changed orfices, flipped the regulator and control button, "tweaked" the burner flames. I could not tell the difference...25,000 BTU is 25,000 BTU be it propane or natural. French Toast burns just as quick on one as the other.................Iron Helix
*We have a 4 burner dacor, purchased for LPG, and it puts out plenty of heat. We have to use a diffuser plate for simmering. At the time of my purchase I was told that the law would no longer allow an appliance to be converted, so mine came from the factory. Don't know if that is still true, or really ever was for that matter. One thing I know for sure: You will throw rocks at electic once you try gas.
*Interesting...The 10% reduction is a figure that was given to me by a Viking tech rep a few years ago and confirmed by the propane company.The high-end showroom sales staff still counsels buyers that they'll "lose a little output" when running off of propane instead of natural gas.Regardless...cook away.
*The stove we have now has been through 3 moves. Each time we went from natural gas to propane or vice-versa. There's a round thingy in there somewhere that has to be flipped over to convert it. My stove is 15 years old, so I can't say wether or not the new ones can be converted. I'd ask a serviceman, not a dealer. You're more likely to get a straight answer. But I will tell you that our stove really kicks butt on propane. With natural gas, the broiler puts out a wimpy flame about 1 to 1.5" long. Takes forever to broil anything. On propane, the flames cover half the top of the oven. You can burn things to a crisp in no time. And SWMBO frequently does...........(-:
*Tosh:If initial cost isn't a big factor, consider an electric induction cooktop, beats the heck out of either gas/propane (have propane at cabin) or electric resistance. Instant response, nothing hotter than the pan, boils a cup of hot water faster from cold start than microwave or gas. Only drawback is you need to use magnetic pots/pans which includes 11/0 stainless and others. Safe enough for pancakes, etc (no boiling fudge, etc.) that the 3 & 6 year old grandkids use it - you can put your hand on the glass top right after cooking an egg, etc.
*Gas stoves not only put out CO they also produce a lot of moisture. The pilotless stoves of today are a great improvement but in our Maine climate I'll take electric (especially induction type)any day. As far as control, it's what you get used to.PS. If you use it for heat try inverting an empty flower pot over the gas burner, and pay attention to above cautions.Phil D
*This is almost another thread...the consideration of propane vs. natural gas BTU's.This is very interesting!!!!Vikings use of 10% heat differential....could this be a burner design efficiency difference? I would ass-u-me most of their units are designed for natural with universal orfices for conversion. Thus the venturi design would be "maxed" based upon 4"w.c. as the pressure imput for the natural, but when converting to propane @ 11" w.c. pressure the efficiency drops.Purely conjecture over a mute point.....as Mongo said "it all cooks". Tosh..go find a great food scorcher......Iron Helix
*The Dacor cooktops are factory adjusted for the difference between natural gas and propane. The Dacor dosen’t lose Btu output. Most stoves and cook tops have kits for propane. And most kits reduce the Btu output. Based on shopping for a new stove or cooktop. We spoke to at least 6 dealers and the response was very similar.
*Here is the info on the new oven I just bought. first number is with natural gas, sencond is lp. Pretty decent stove for the money. Nice features Warming drawer on bottom, sealed burners, very easy to clean, convection oven, and pretty decent burner temps. Kenmore White-on-White 30 in. Gas Freestanding Range with Sealed Burners and Self-Clean Oven $1,199.99 Sears Item #02279012000Mfr. Model #79012 Burner Configuration All-purpose: 1-9,500/8,000 BTULow Output: 1-5,000/4,500 BTUHigh-Output: 1-14,200/11,000 BTUHigh-Output: 1 Large 12,000 BTU Nat./10,000 LP Bake Burner 18,000 BTU Nat./16,000 LPBroiler Burner 14,000 BTU Nat./13,500 LP
*Propane cooking stoves, furnaces and water heaters are the same as for natural gas except for the orifice and the regulator. The orifice is sized to deliver the same Btu's from propane as from natural gas. In the Colorado area it is frequently necessary to change the orifice on natural gas to account for the elevation differences. There are even arrangements to switch orifices readily for when necessary. Sizing tables are found in NFPA 54: National Fuel Gas Code for both NG and LPG (the proper term for most bottled gas. It is a mixture of mainly propane and butane)
*Finally a question the cookin carpenter can answer. I'm an exec chef in N. Michigan. Electric stoves as a rule heat up slow, use lots of power and burn the bottom of whatever you put on the stove top. Propane/nat gas are both better. If you are a baker elec ovens are often more even for cakes, bread etc. Many propane, gas stoves have hot spots. However you can get a gas cook top w/ an elec oven. Nat gas vs. propane no difference guaranteed. I just remodeled my restaurant and switched from propane to nat. gas, all that changes are the fittings. Same stove same btu's as long as the valves are the right size. The real question is what do you cook and how hot do you want it? BTU's- Buy a tiny kenmore get tiny output. Buy a wolf or vulcan get huge output. Some companies have less expensive models that have 3 smaller btu burners and one with higher output. My advice after cooking 20-30 thousand dinners don't buy electric if you like to cook. Talk to someone who sells them and tell e'm your lookin for lots o btu's if you want reference numbers go to a store that sells vulcan or wolf ask the btu output per burner, If memory serves it's about 10 to 15 thousand. P.S. people who have problems getting enough btu's to their stoves may not have the right service. Know the total btu's for everything in your house as well as the stove you want to add. Make sure the line they run is big enough. You should see the 2in. pipe that feeds nat. gas to my cook line. Good luck. Need any more info drop me a line.
Art - hope you see this - we'd like to get an induction cooktop. As far as we know, only Jenn-Air makes one now, & it has two induction & two conventional electric burners. Dealer said it's hard to find someone to service the induction burners. Any advice? Many thanks............
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In my area, natural gas is not available. Therefore, for a kitchen cooktop, my options are electric or propane. I have heard propane doesn't get "hot" enough. Does anyone have experience cooking with propane, and if so, were they able to fuel high btu burners (15,000 BTU and higher for frying)?