High pressure stove vs. low pressure

[mike4947]

Sorry but a stove will only use the amount of propane it was designed for.
Since the normal low pressure regulators supply between 80K and 200K BTU's there's no restriction. Especially when you are talking about stoves with a total BTU value for 2 or three burners of less than 20K BTUs.
Of course if you want to be a moron and try hooking up a low pressure stove to a high pressure line without an internal regulator all you get is flames about 3-4 feet in height; not more BTU's as the stove's burners can not handle the increase in pressure.
Hook it to a direct tank line and hope you have insurance as the several hundred PSI will create havic once it finds an ignition source.

[AustinBoston]

Of course if you want to be a moron and try hooking up a low pressure stove to a high pressure line without an internal regulator all you get is flames about 3-4 feet in height; not more BTU's as the stove's burners can not handle the increase in pressure.

Up to this point, I could agree with what you have said, but this is total nonsense.  The BTU's may be spread over 3 feet, but there's going to be many times more BTU's going through the burner than would come out with low pressure.  They may not be very useful, and the burning of the propane may not be very efficient, but there's a lot more BTU's produced.

Austin

[flyfisherman]

Sorry but a stove will only use the amount of propane it was designed for.

No one is disputing this ... in fact, I've already said as much. What I'm taking issue with are a couple of statements you made on previous posts for this thread.

~ " you don't need higher pressure to get BTU'S"

~ "having a high pressure line does not mean more power"

The L/P gas regulator is the heart of the system. No regulator makes the stove useless. L/P regulators are set to a certain psig (set point) and that in turn delivers a level of Btu's downstream to the appliance; and that appliance (in this case a stove) can only operate to the level of Btu's provided by the regulator. It does not take an engineering degree to understand that a regulator set at 0.4 psig (11" W.C.) vs. another regulator set at 10 psig, as to which one will provide the most Btu's!  This quibbling about stove Btu capacity/efficiency is putting the cart before the horse.

[mike4947]

Austin, I should have said "usable BTU's". Not many folks would cook over 3-4 foot yellow flames or have a awning left.
I've personally seen several moronic attempts at getting more power by removing internal low pressure regulators from stove/BBQs that use the small cylinders and hook directly to a high pressure line.
Someone could have made a fortune selling eyebrow pencils...LOL
 
Regulators set the pressure, internal orifices set the BTU's.
I guess you've never retrofitted a stove/BBQ with a different oriffice. A very small holed one for high pressure and a quite larger opening one for use with low pressure. Both are designed to allow the flow that will produce the same BTU's that the burners are designed for. Most appliances sold to the public have the orrifice integrated with the burner so there is no real way to swap them out.

[rjk]

My 2 cents...

A high pressure system does have more POTENTIAL to generate more BTUs, but POTENTAIL BTUs is not what a stove actually produces. The amount of BTUs is regulated by the amount of gas feed to the stove (by the orifice). A 10k BTU high pressure stove will boil a pot of water in the same amount of time as a 10k BTU low pressure stove.

You don't need higher pressure to get more BTUs - True, you just need a low pressure stove that is rated for more BTUs
Having high pressure does not mean more power - True, a high pressure stove that outputs 4k BTUs will have less power than a low pressure stove that generates 10k BTUs.

If you need more than 200k BTUs (?), yes, you will need a high pressure system...but that would be one heck of a stove  

[AustinBoston]

If you need more than 200k BTUs (?), yes, you will need a high pressure system...but that would be one heck of a stove  

"Blast furnace" is what comes to mind.  The home I grew up in had a 200,000 btu natural gas furnace.  It was massive overkill.  Probably generated enough heat for half the neighborhood.  Despite urging from a lot of people, my father was never able to bring himself to replace it.

The strange thing about it was, my father liked the house cool...he'd have kept it at 60