Saving Money with a Natural Gas Barbecue
May 6, 2007 by Deborah Ng
Filed under Around the House, Doing it Yourself, Eco Simplicity, Frugal Gourmet, General
During the summer we use the barbecue grill a lot. It keeps the house cool, saving us money on air conditioning, and grilled food is healthier and tastier. It’s frustrating though, having to make last minute trips to the home improvement emporium to refill our tank. Plus, when you’re grilling as much as we do, you’re refilling every weekend. So yesterday we converted to natural gas.
My husband is handy around the house and knows a bit about plumbing, so it was an easy do-it-yourself project. He bought a natural gas conversion kit at Lowe’s and spent a couple of hours in the basement making the conversion. Now we can grill any time we want, without having to worry about topping off. Plus, we won’t have to pay for constant refills. Convenient and cheap, who can argue with that?
I’m happy with propane; our tanks last a few weeks, and I always keep a full spare available for those times when it runs out. It only takes a few minutes to swap tanks out, and I’ll just get the empty one refilled over the next few days. We use our grill year round.
Anyone have a link to this product?
Hi Blaine,
We weren’t unhappy with our tanks, but we felt it would save time and money if we converted to use our home’s natural gas line. It’s our opinion that it’s much more convenient and cost efficient.
Mitch –
We bought our conversion kit at Lowe’s. I think this is the one my husband picked up, but ours was cheaper. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=92925-451-4984619
Thanks for coming by!
Deb
We just purchased a new natural gas grill to replace our very old one. Readers should know that not all grill models can be converted to natural gas. And I would err on the side of safety — our old grill is not connected using a “quick connect” so we are going to hire a plumber to install one for future use, but mostly to make sure the gas line is still in good shape and that everything is properly installed. This is very important, but does add to the overall cost.
But I agree that it’s very convenient and easy to use. It avoids heating up the kitchen in the summer, and it’s extremely convenient all year if you have a power outage. We use it in all weather, and missed it this past winter when the old one finally had to be retired.