Using Propane in a Natural Gas Stovetop

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Weedygarden

Weedygarden

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I got a used natural gas stove for free on Craigslist. I am wondering how difficult it is to convert it to propane, or can I just get the connectors to hook it up to propane?

I want to set it up to be a freestanding place to cook outdoors, potentially for a BOL, cabin, van, canning or for a summer kitchen.
 
Propane requires orifices with smaller holes. So in some stove the orifices(jets) have to be replaced, while some stoves are made to just require adjustments instead. Years ago I delivered appliances and changed countless stoves over from one gas to the other. But stoves are different so you have to get the brand and model number and investigate. Your propane company can change it over for you.
 
hiwall said:
Your propane company can change it over for you.
Click to expand...

Yes. Your propane co will assist you in anything they can do to get your usage up.
I use propane for quite a few appliances, but I have yet to meet a propane company that I haven't had to bump heads with.
 
My new LP stove was factory setup for Natural gas. The jets for LP were screwed into part of the metal from on the back of the new stove. Weedy G, yours might have the jets included too. As I recall I also had to readjust the air intake (I don't know the proper term). Big box had a sale with free delivery and free disposable of the old stove.

Our old stove, you could always smell a little stink from the burning gas. Our first gas stove so I thought this was normal. 10 years later the oven stopped working. I crawled in there and started troubling shooting. Heat shielded over the top igniter was melted!? What would cause excessive heat? And the wife stopped using the auto oven clean cycle because the kitchen cabinet drawers on both sides of the oven was having the vacuum formed plastic wrapping.

New Stove doesn't have that "stink" smell. A light bulb went off in my brain. Bet you a days wage the old stove had never been converted from Natural to LP!!! If I had kept the old stove I could have checked, house contractor is no longer in business, waste of time. I still would have like to confirm my suspicions!
 
"Bet you a days wage the old stove had never been converted from Natural to LP!!!"
Very doubtful. The top burners would have been very easily seen blow torches!

A sizable difference in the working pressure between LP gas and natural. LP has more pressure.
 
hiwall said:
"Bet you a days wage the old stove had never been converted from Natural to LP!!!"
Very doubtful. The top burners would have been very easily seen blow torches!

A sizable difference in the working pressure between LP gas and natural. LP has more pressure.
Click to expand...

Take your word at it. Where do I send the $1?

Wonder what cause the aluminum heat shield to melt?
 
The owners manual should tell you the proper orifice for NG and propane. With the different sized burners it might mean that you just move a couple of the current ones to different burners and that will take care of one or two burners. Mine came with spares so look at the back and under the top.

I'd buy the proper size orifices but if push comes to shove you can solder the old orifices and drill them the proper size.
 
Converting to LP - all orifices to 11 drill sizes smaller. If the range has a regulator you can switch it to LP by flipping over a plug in the regulator tower, to 11" water column (marked on the plug as LP stamped on top when in the LP position.
Or you can remove the range regulator and use the reg. on the LP tank.
I recall peening the spuds closed and drilling out to 11 drill sizes smaller than Nat.
Sometimes ranges will have a fixed orifice for LP. Just tighten the spud all the way back on the burner valve.
The air shutter can be adjusted for a slight yellow tip on a full flame, and success in ignition.
 
The Lazy L said:
Ha! HA! HA! What good is a heat shield if it doesn't get hot! :)
Click to expand...
It could have been just slightly out of place causing it to absorb too much heat. Or the flame could have been a little too high. Or the propane regulator on the tank was maybe allowing slightly higher pressure in the house line. Or a poor design or design flaw of the stove. Or some kind of combination of these possibilities. While gas stoves are very simple there still could be many causes.
 
get the conversion kit for your appliance. No big deal. Change a spring or do something else likeflip and doodad to raise pressure at the regulator and change the orifices. We do it all the time for customers. The directions are easy
 
OK I found the conversion kit you need to switch to propane.
This is not a do it yourself project.
If the conversion is not done correctly there is a chance of fire and explosion.
The kit can be bought directly from Sears for $51.04
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/part-number/8286320/0022/664.html?pathTaken=partSearch&q=8286320

You may also need to have 120v power where you are going to put the stove.
I'm thinking the oven requires 120v to activate a valve to turn on the gas.
 
backlash said:
OK I found the conversion kit you need to switch to propane.
This is not a do it yourself project.
If the conversion is not done correctly there is a chance of fire and explosion.
The kit can be bought directly from Sears for $51.04
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/part-number/8286320/0022/664.html?pathTaken=partSearch&q=8286320

You may also need to have 120v power where you are going to put the stove.
I'm thinking the oven requires 120v to activate a valve to turn on the gas.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I am one of those people who tries to do things myself. Propane, natural gas and electricity are things I tend to be very careful with and will see who I can find to do this for me.

I will order this kit and see who might be able to do this for me locally. My cousin's son, who lives in South Dakota, studied this very thing in trade school, but I am not likely to see him anytime soon.
 
backlash said:
You may also need to have 120v power where you are going to put the stove.
I'm thinking the oven requires 120v to activate a valve to turn on the gas.
Click to expand...
This is just a stove top, no oven involved. I looked at my original post and I did say stove, but it is not. I will now rethink this and look for one of those.

I would love to have a whole stove set up for propane, but wanted a portable stove top that I could use for things like canning in the garage in the summer, or BOL. Having a stove would be better.
 
Our Magic Chef has a gas controller that is accessed by pulling out the drawer and there is a screw on top of it that changes it from natural gas to propane, that sure made things simple. Due to an issue with the oven computer control we don't use the oven, that may be bad contacts on a connector to the oven control panel so meanwhile we've been using a convection oven that's in the combination microwave, vent fan, convection oven that's above the stove. I really wish the stove had the old pilot light system of operating the oven as hot surface ignitors can be a real pain because they are so reliant on a computer to make the oven operate at a set temperature.
 
When we bought this current house last year, upon doing the inspection I discovered one of the burners on the new gas range burned only on one side. I let it slide on my inspection because I figured it could be easily fixed. Once we took possession of the house I looked at the burner and discovered the orifice had been cross threaded at the factory and was sitting crooked. I removed it and forced it to thread in correctly. Solved the issue in about ten minutes. In this stove the orifices for the burners were in a vertical position while every one I had seen in the past were horizontal.
 
viking said:
Our Magic Chef has a gas controller that is accessed by pulling out the drawer and there is a screw on top of it that changes it from natural gas to propane, that sure made things simple. Due to an issue with the oven computer control we don't use the oven, that may be bad contacts on a connector to the oven control panel so meanwhile we've been using a convection oven that's in the combination microwave, vent fan, convection oven that's above the stove. I really wish the stove had the old pilot light system of operating the oven as hot surface ignitors can be a real pain because they are so reliant on a computer to make the oven operate at a set temperature.
Click to expand...


I wish ours had a pilot light too. Our "glow plug" won't turn off. We have to trip the breaker until it cools down. We are looking at new stoves now.
 
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