switching from natural to LP....some issues...help?

[little roastHer]

Has anyone had to switch from natural to LP fuel . .. manufacturer's conversion kit was installed, etc... even with a smaller copper pipe, we are told that this "copper pipe" can pull in enough btu's (115, 000)...I never watched the "gas tech" actually drill the jets and I trust he used a 55 drill bit as recommended by manufact...the tech did claim he did...

.our roasting times have been between 15 - 17 minutes (for the last 2 years we were roasting) but the switch has caused our roast times to drag out .... uhm....our first one went to almost 25 minutes!! and our first crack was real sublte and towards the end....the coffee taste...my son liked it..I didn't...bitter after taste and I used a Mex Kabuk bean since we had so much ...it was always mild to start with...but anyway.......we received a manometer to get an accurate "pressure" reading ...I hope this "friend" can help us...but I just wnated to put this out there for any of you who might have run into this at anytime..... ..do you think it is a "pressure" thing and it needs to be turned up or do you think the jet hole size is not adequately big enough....there are probably other variables that I am not considering because I really have no clue now...I just want to ROAST again the way I used to!!

 

[mdharris68]

my experience is in heating but your roaster works the same as a furnace. what could possibly be the problem is when converted from natural to lp, the pipe from lp regulator to gas valve on roaster is undersized. with lp you need to consider volume of gas as well as pressure. you may have the required gas pressure at the appliance but may not be able to deliver the volume of gas to reach the desirable btu input. make sense? your lp supplier can give you the correct copper tube size for the required btu input considering the length of pipe run. hope this helps you ask the right questions.