Weber Q low heat since low pressure conversion

[Macrosill]

I have converted my Weber Q to utilize the low pressure propane quick connect at the back of my trailer. The original regulator from the Weber has been removed during the conversion process.

The grill gets very hot with the little green bottles and the original regulator. Ever since I did the conversion the heat output is much lower.

I have read of a few others experiencing the same thing but never found discussion of a cause or fix.

I suspected the propane pressure on the trailer was low so I made a manometer and tested the grill at the propane nozzle. I get 12 inches of water column when only the grill is on, at the grill. I get 11 inches of water when all 3 burners of the interior stove and the grill are on, at the grill. So I know the trailer propane regulator is functioning properly.

I have searched but can not find what the output of the weber regulator is. I fond reference to 1psi but that is not confirmed. It certainly would explain the low heat output I am experiencing.

11 inches of water column = .39 psi aprox.
1 psi = 27 inches of water column aprox.

Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions or explanations?

As it sits now I am going to have to reinstall the weber regulator and either go back to the 1lb bottles or bring an extra 20lb bottle with adapter hose.

[rsdata]

check out this thread which answers ur connection problem

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...on-187172.html

[nomad297]

You may have sufficient pressure, but you may not have sufficient flow. With your grill being at the rear of your trailer and the main regulator on the tanks at the front of the trailer, it is quite possible that the pipe/tubing/hose isn’t large enough to provide the flow you need at the end of that 10’ Long 1/4” ID hose you have connected to your Weber Q.

Bruce

[nomad297]

Here’s a cut and paste of a post of mine from a couple of days ago. It may help to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

Something that nobody seems to consider when experiencing problems or differences in performance with connecting a grill to their RV’s reduced pressure system versus a standard higher pressure system provided by a bottle or tank is the distance from the source regulator to the grill and the sizes of the connections for the grill and the inside diameter of the hose used to connect the grill to the system. Every factory-installed RV quick-connect I have seen is set up to connect a hose with a 1/4” inside diameter. Using a 10’ long 1/4” ID hose is usually going to be fine for most grills with a low BTU requirement, as long as your hose doesn’t extend your system’s longest run — one of the main factors in gas system sizing is the longest run from the main regulator to the farthest fixture — so, if your connection to the system is close to the tanks, it probably won’t change this distance, but if your grill connection is at the rear of your RV, and the tanks/main regulator are at the front, you will definitely be extending the long run measurement that was used to calculate the sizing of the system.

You may think that 10’ of hose added to the system is nothing and it shouldn’t make a difference, and you may be right, but it is possible that you won’t get the gas flow you need for the BTU demand of your grill. Regardless of where your connection to the system is, with the difference in performance that you have described, you might want to try changing your connection and hose size to 3/8” or 1/2” inside diameter instead of the 1/4” inside diameter connection and hose you (probably) have now.

When I was using a Weber Q 2200 with 12,000 BTU demand, it worked fine with the 1/4” ID factory quick-connect and a 10’ Hose, but when I changed over to a Weber Spirit II E-310 with a 30,000 BTU demand, there wasn’t enough gas being delivered to it and the flames were weak. I changed everything over to 3/8” ID with a 12’ Hose, and it works just like it should. The connection to the system on my Windjammer is the first tee in the system after the main regulator, so using a 12’ hose did not increase the longest run of the system. If my connection was at the rear of my trailer, I probably would have changed all of the factory stuff over to 1/2” ID instead of 3/8” just to be sure I was getting as much as I possibly could, since the largest pipe in the system is 1/2” black steel.

This is something you should consider.

Bruce

[Macrosill]

Thanks for the replies. I put the weber regulator back on and tested the pressure again. I got 12 inches of water column. I also got taller flames and 540 degrees. Then it dawned on me. If the pressure is the same it has to be a lower volume.

Based on your replies and confirming the pressure it has to be a volume issue.

I checked my hose. It is a 5/16" hose. But the fittings are still 1/4" I am guessing that the hoses off the tanks at the front are 1/4". It looks like the black pipe under the trailer is 1/2"


It seems my options are:
1. Upgrade to a 1/2" hose with 1/2" fittings and hope it works.
2. Stick with the 1lb bottles
3. Carry an extra propane tank with an adapter hose.

Option 1 is expensive, about 100 bucks as I would need the hose and an additional make and female quick disconnect fitting.

Option 2 is expensive over time as I have to keep buying those 1lb bottles.

Option 3 is cheap as I already have the adapter hose and tank laying around here but it is a pain to lug an extra tank.

[Artspe]

Turn on all burners than turn off one at a time. Do the remaining burners flames get obviously larger each time a burner gets turned off???
If that happens, you need a larger supply line. If it doesn’t make a difference how many burners are on, you probably need to drill out the orifices.

[Macrosill]

Originally Posted by Artspe

Turn on all burners than turn off one at a time. Do the remaining burners flames get obviously larger each time a burner gets turned off???
If that happens, you need a larger supply line. If it doesn’t make a difference how many burners are on, you probably need to drill out the orifices.

Thanks for the suggestion but there is only 1 burner on my Q.

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by Macrosill

It seems my options are:
1. Upgrade to a 1/2" hose with 1/2" fittings and hope it works.

You don’t have to experiment that way and hope it works and waste the money on something that might not work. Set up your manometer with a tee between the end of your hose and the gas control valve of your grill, as close to the control valve as possible. When you get the pressure back onto the system and your water column is stable, open up the gas control valve for your grill all of the way. Pay attention to how much the water column drops when you do this — you don’t want that column to drop more than about 1/2”. If it does drop more than this, you have a flow/volume problem. Work your way towards the tanks. Make a cheap rig to enable you to hookup your grill’s control valve at the next, and probably larger connection that you could use to install a larger quick-connect. Test the water column drop again at this point. Do this until you get to a place where the drop is 1/2” or less. Once you get to this point, install a quick-connect with the same ID as the pipe you are connecting to and get a hose with the same ID. This should get you close, if not, right where you want to be, but keep in mind that the longer your hose is, the greater the pressure drop at the end of it will be.

Bruce

[gasman6674]

FYI
1/2" black pipe @ 11" wc will flow at
20 ft 200,000 btu
30 ft 161,000 btu
40 ft 137,000 btu

This does not take into consideration other appliances tees, elbows and the hose from the regulator to the rigid pipe.

Hope this helps

[myredracer]

We run our Weber off the quick connect which is at the very rear of our 29' TT. We have a rear kitchen TT and the HWH, stove and fridge are all at the rear. We also run a single burner propane cooktop off the same quick connect simultaneously (with an adapter from one to two quick disconnects). The hose for the Weber is 3/8" and for the cooktop is 1/4" and both are 20'. There are a couple of iron pipe fittings on the pipe that goes up to the tanks and for each appliance and quick connect, there is an individual length of 1/4" copper tubing. The tubing for the quick connect is only about 18" long.

We never use the stove, but the HWH, fridge, Weber and the single burner cooktop can sometimes all be drawing propane simultaneously off the 1/2" iron pipe which is around 30' overall, plus the rubber hose up to the regulators.

NO issues with inadequate flow and heat output. Also used to have a Coleman Roadtrip and no problem with that off the quick connect either. The thing about the Weber is that it doesn't crank out heat like the Coleman does. The Weber needs to have the lid closed for pre-heating it and for cooking. But it does an amazing job of BBQ-inq. When we first replaced the Roadtrip with the Weber, we were disappointed. With the Roadtrip, you can cook pancakes on it and use pots and frying pans, which you just can't with the Weber which is why we got a separate single burner cooktop.

^^^ Point is, you shouldn't have a flow/pressure/heat problem if all is well. If we do have a problem of any kind, it's only when it's windy.

Suggestions:

I would check inside the female quick connect. There's a tiny O-ring inside that can get messed up and reduce flow. Had that happen last season. Sometimes the gas would flow fine and sometimes not and sometimes not at all. Took a bit of head-scratching to figure it out.

3/8" hose is good but yes, the quick connect fittings are 1/4" and may or may not affect flow much. Consider using a 3/8" natural gas quick connect instead like below. We have one on our BBQ at home. They don't have a valve since the "thingy" on the end of the male piece opens the valve inside. I am thinking about getting one for our TT. I find the valve handle on the standard RV quick connects to be a bit annoying. We did have to replace the nat. gas quick connect once because it also had a O-ring inside go bad. The 3/8" dia. may help and could be worth a try.

How did you connect the hose to the Weber? Maybe you could change the fittings you installed so that you go immediately from the end of the small dia. Weber pipe (1/8" by memory??) up to 3/8". I used a 12" 3/8" dia. whip with quick connect on the end.

If everything you've tried isn't helping much, you *could* replace the 1/4" copper tubing with 3/8". There's always the possibility I guess that the tubing is kinked or even blocked inside?

Note that RV quick connects are RV-specific and you can't mix and match with other fittings like say for air compressors.

[dieselguy]

I bought a quick disconnect kit (Mr Heater F276190) and put the female end on the end of an 18" whip which connects directly to my 30# bottles. I made a bracket that holds the quick disconnect below the bottles similar to an OEM setup. I then bought a 12' extension hose with a male quick disconnect end that connects to the Mr Heater female quick disconnect and the other end's fitting connects directly to my Weber Q. Works flawlessly. The 18" whip has a connection end that screws directly on to any propane tank ... I am thinking of adding a tee atop the propane bottle so I don't have to occasionally unhook the OEM line from the changeover regulator. Before any sound the alarm ... all fittings and hoses are rated for pressures straight off the propane bottle.

[dward51]

One other thought is to check the connections on the side line for the quick disconnect. Reason I say this is, this is what I found inside my fridge compression fitting earlier this year. Yes the fridge worked and we had no idea there was a problem. It was crushed in place when the trailer was assembled as this is the same sort of chipboard the wood under the fridge was made from. I presume it fell through into the hose when they were snaking that hose up from the cabinet beneath to the back of the fridge at install. There were still chips like this in that void from where they drilled the hole.

For your situation, I would unhook each fitting from the main iron pipe on that run and check for possible obstructions (and also check that o ring like suggested above)

[RJHuser]

I had the same problem (low heat) when I modified my grill. My fix was to open the burner nozzle orifice. I used a #60 drill bit. By the charts, that increased the burner to 12,000 btu. If I were to do it again I would try a #58 bit and try, and if output still to low, go a #59 bit.

Rick

[Macrosill]

Thank you for all the replies and suggestions. I will keep testing and checking next week. Pouring out today and working the weekend.

Keep any recommendations coming.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by dward51

One other thought is to check the connections on the side line for the quick disconnect. Reason I say this is, this is what I found inside my fridge compression fitting earlier this year. Yes the fridge worked and we had no idea there was a problem. It was crushed in place when the trailer was assembled as this is the same sort of chipboard the wood under the fridge was made from. I presume it fell through into the hose when they were snaking that hose up from the cabinet beneath to the back of the fridge at install. There were still chips like this in that void from where they drilled the hole.

For your situation, I would unhook each fitting from the main iron pipe on that run and check for possible obstructions (and also check that o ring like suggested above)

If the OP used Teflon tape instead of Rector's No.5 Sealant, it's even possible that a piece of the tape is clogging a fitting. 11" w.c. is not enough to blow one out of the way.

He could redo each fitting using Rector's or by being careful to start the tape one or two threads from the tip.

Larry

[Hoogeven]

If you convert a barbecue from small high pressure bottle to low pressure RV connection, you have to change the orifices in the burners to a larger orifice to have comparable heat. Contact your barbecue manufacturer and they should be able to supply the correct orifices at a nominal cost.