LPG or Natural Gas Cookers

bazobeleza

bazobeleza

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I am need to replace my elderly cooker, I'm not short of space and I like to do a lot of cooking and entertaining on board, so four burners, oven and grill are a minimum requirement.

I had a look in Mailspeeds 08 catalogue, anyway, when I came round, I decided that there was no way I was going to spend over 1500 quid on a cooker. stainless steel, gold plated or otherwise.

So I looked at caravan offerings on this line, pretty rubbish the lot of them.

My questions are these :-

Some domestic cookers and hobs offer an LPG alternative but not all. So what is the difference in LPG and Natural Gas, which I believe to be just another form of lpg. Is it just a question of jet size? Can a non lpg cooker be used with LPG? Are there any gas engineers out there that know the answer? Can a cooker be rejetted to suit LPG. How do they manage on the continent where LPG is the norm?

The answers could save me a packet as there are some nice domestic cookers out there that are a whole lot cheaper than the marine industries offerings

In anticipation and growing hunger.
 
I am not a gas engineer but did own a business making bespoke kitchens for more years than I care to remember and did have accounts with most of the major built in appliance manufacturers (if that qualifies me as an expert).
many of the built ins offer an LPG option either in the installation pack or as an option but built in domestic cookers are expensive also. The best option for gas (inc LPG) was always Stoves although they have now been bought out by a group and some models may be re-badged. The odd thing is that the Europeans generally cook with electric and we Brits are unique in our preference for gas ovens. LPG = Liquid Petroleum Gas and is not another form of Natural Gas so the jet size is different as is pressure and heat output.
 
I had a good quality domestic (natural gas ) stove in London - took it to Wales, halfway up a mountain and miles from any gas main.
The company sent me 5 new gas jets, free, which I fitted myself , bought a Calor Gas bottle and reducer - no problems.

Lots of people have LPG out in the sticks - choose your stove then contact the manufacturer. You will find that most have the alternative jets, not just the ones that the dealers say.

Good luck
 
[ QUOTE ]
So what is the difference in LPG and Natural Gas,

[/ QUOTE ] Natural gas is basically methane, CH4, while LPG is either propane, C3H8, or butane, C4H10.

They are all members of the alkane series: methane, ethane, propane, butane, pentane ,hexane, heptane, octane etc. etc. so are related in that respect.

If you apply a little of your schooldays chemistry (I left school in 1961 and can still remember it! I think) and write out the equations for their combustion

CH4 + 2 O2 --> CO2 + 2 H2O

C3H8 + 5 O2 --> 3CO2 + 4 H2O

2 C4H10 + 13 O2 --> 8 CO2 + 10 H2O

You can see therefore that as you progress from methane to propane and butane a larger air to gas ratio will be required and hence a difference in burner design, at least in jet size. A natural gas burner running on butane will tend to be smokey while a butane burner running on methane will tend to have an unstable flame.


Also a marine gas cooker will have flame failure devices on all burners. Who would risk a gas stove on board without? Domestic cookers do not.

Apologies for any mistakes I've spent almost the entire day in hospital and I feel shagged
 
Excellent advice all, thanks.

So I now know I need to find a domestic cooker with flames failure devices on all burners, that can be jetted for lpg and doesnt cost as much as new sailing dinghy.

again many thanks. VicS, excellent synopsis on the chemistry, I assumed that as nat gas came from the ground it was just the vapours of the oil underneath, didnt realise it good old marsh gas, cheers.
 
You also have trouble compressing natural gas into a small container .. Where as LPG .. Liquid Petrolum Gas does .. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
A couple of LIBS ago, when we were looking at cookers et al, for the new build, was much impressed by the the 3/4 size domestic style (4 burners/oven /grill) available for use on the canal boats, pricewise significantly cheaper than the marine equivalent.....BUT suppliers would not sell me one ,cos we were a sea going vessel.......might be worth looking at the canal boat suppliers? HTH
 
Cheers Tony
just looked at the a canal boat supplier, they have a perfect stainless 4 burner oven and grill for a third of the price of mailspeed obviously its a domestic as opposed to marine but it does have FFD on all burners and is LPG model. I don't need it gimbled and I can fashion good deep fiddles from Stainless rod.

this forum rocks, just saved about a grand.. now about that commission!
 
[ QUOTE ]
just saved about a grand

[/ QUOTE ] Dont forget to bargain, Dominic Littlewood style!
 
I have bought a little 'Domino' domestic hob which came with two pairs of jets. One for natural gas and one for LPG.

Someone made a good point about flame failure though. Although I am sure some domestic units do incorporate this.
 
Most town gas cookers can be converted to LPG just by changing the jets.

Lpg requires larger holes in the jets than town gas.

The surprising thing is that the jets on many gas cookers are actually Amel carburator jets.

I sucessfully converted a town gas cooker to calor gas about 15 years ago without any problems. The new jets were purchased from a caravan dealer in Elgin.

Most gas cookers can easily be converted to lpg and in many cases the convertion jets are actually supplied with the cooker.

Glad to hear that you have now resolved your problem.

Iain
 
Just a quick warning - NG is lighter than air, so leaks escape to the atmosphere. LPG (propane) is heavier and therefore tends to pool in boats, creating an explosion hazard. Make sure you have the proper failsafes and a propane alarm.

I always wondered which was easier to come by in Europe and around the world - anyone with experience?
 
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