Off-grid LPG gas cooker

[Gullible]

Well after numerous fails starts, good intentions and just plain crazy ideas, it we are finally designing our off-grid home.

The major components have been source, the one missing item is the cooker/oven. We would like gas to reduce the drain on our batteries, however most of the ovens we look at have an electric grill and we grill a lot.

Who out there has LPG ovens/cookers, what make and would you recommend it?

[AK83]

Could you not just get an oven/stove without grill(if possible), and get a separate griller?

I remember back in the day, I used to service a (fish)shop that didn't have gas, and used LPG(massive bottles).
Their grill(called a salamander too) ran on LPG.

do a search for LPG salamander(assuming you mean a salamander type grill and not a BBQ type grill/griddle).

I can imagine they'd all be commercial grade tho, and really they're the only type I know of.
Think of those mobile food van setups using LPG everything.

Could be an option for 'ya second hand/recoed or something.

[trout1105]

Webber Q[thumbsupbig]

[Bigbjorn]

Check out your local auction houses. Restaurants and fast food shops go broke monotonously regularly. There are at least two auctions weekly in Brisbane alone featuring catering equipment. Some have had little use.

[AK83]

I guess a question the OP may have not thought to also ask ... can a mains gas appliance be converted easily to LPG running?
Is it just a matter of hooking it up, and it'll run fine .. what's the difference(etc, etc)

[V8Ian]

I guess a question the OP may have not thought to also ask ... can a mains gas appliance be converted easily to LPG running?
Is it just a matter of hooking it up, and it'll run fine .. what's the difference(etc, etc)
Jet size, usually easy to change in commercial kit.

[W&KO]

I guess a question the OP may have not thought to also ask ... can a mains gas appliance be converted easily to LPG running?
Is it just a matter of hooking it up, and it'll run fine .. what's the difference(etc, etc)

Normally the manufacturer will have the jets for conversion and any other it’s required

[AK83]

Ah , OK jets.
I know very little about jets. The little I do know is that I pulled one out of my gas stove top hob(the wok burner) and drilled it 0.5mm larger to get some heat out of it. Before, it piddled out some heat .. after it right blasts the wok with a nice amount of heat.

[thumbsupbig]

So from a legal standpoint, getting a normal gas grill/salamander/toaster/whatever, enlarge the jet to run on LPG .. bobs you're uncle?

[W&KO]

Ah , OK jets.
I know very little about jets. The little I do know is that I pulled one out of my gas stove top hob(the wok burner) and drilled it 0.5mm larger to get some heat out of it. Before, it piddled out some heat .. after it right blasts the wok with a nice amount of heat.

[thumbsupbig]

So from a legal standpoint, getting a normal gas grill/salamander/toaster/whatever, enlarge the jet to run on LPG .. bobs you're uncle?

LOG would normally need smaller jets than the natural gas jets

Should than use a manometer to check pressure from LPG regular

[AK83]

righto! smaller for LPG(I did say I know nothing of this stuff) .. good to know now [thumbsupbig]

[Blknight.aus]

dont forget as you change the jet size you need to change the (and I forget the industry term) but lets go with aperture (the holes the gas flow venturis air in through ) and the spacing of the nozzle. as well as the pressure regulation of the gas.

(small stuff it doesnt really matter but if its a big unit with the changable nozzles , aperture slides and threaded seat guide its got the adjustments for a reason)

[loanrangie]

A commercial salamander will be overkill and chew thru the gas, a caravan style oven/grill might do the trick although maybe a bit small.

[PhilipA]

A friend bought a gas stove recently and it came with lpg jets included in a box in the oven.
I would think this is normal.
regards PhilipA

[Gullible]

unfortunately I do not get a say in the cooker department as I do not do the cooking.

I like the idea of the webber if I can get SWMBO into BBQing that would be great.

[big harold]

We have had a Westinghouse gas oven it has is all gas 4 burner cooktop, grill and oven.
Runs on 45Kg bottled gas.
Have owned it for 10 years no problems.
Mark

[roverrescue]

Gullible
To offer another newer than 10 year option
We set up an old cottage on the property to live in while doing main house Reno last year.
Me, wifey and 1 yo lived in the little cottage for 6 months
We needed an oven but the cottage has minimal power to it so we
Ended up getting a Belling gas oven/stove top.
It runs happily off a 9kg swap-n-go
It does have an electric grill BUT it runs from a standard GPO
I haven’t looked to check but from memory it was like 8A.

Steve

[p38arover]

We had an LPG stove/grill/oven on Norfolk Island (electric stoves were verboten) but for the life of me I can't remember the brand.

My wife liked it so much that, when we had our kitchen redone here in Oz, we had a Westinghouse gas cooktop installed.

[JDNSW]

Living off grid, I have a wood fired stove that heats the hot water and the house and cooks in winter. This is replaced in summer by caravan type LPG stove that has a gas grill. (The sun heats the water in summer)

(It is a Roden Rambler, but that is probably not relevant seeing that I bought it S/H 25 years ago)

I suggest that you might want to look at stoves designed for caravans - some of them are fairly big these days.

I also use an electric frypan for cooking, which seems to have little impact on the batteries. (neither do the toaster, electric kettle or microwave)

[V8Ian]

How many of what size batteries do you have, John?

[JDNSW]

How many of what size batteries do you have, John?

24 x 1100Ah lead-acid gel. 7kVA inverter, 21 x 260W panels.

[Tote]

I'd go with JDNSW's advice and seriously consider a slow combustion stove to provide hot water as well as cooking. Downside is that you need to keep it running to get said hot water but it will give you a very good oven and cooktop. You could then install a LPG cooktop if you wanted hotplates without lighting the stove. Plenty of everhots, Rayburns and AGAs on eBay.


Regards,
Tote

[JDNSW]

If you go that route, you need to know you will have an ongoing supply of fuel - I have over 400ha, mostly bush!

[DeanoH]

Crikey, youse city folk have a cloistered existence :)

Just go to any rural towns white goods store select your gas oven/stove/cooktop (which already has LPG jettting), give the local plumber a ring and you're cooking up a storm :)

Anyway, that's what we did. The only thing that runs on 240v is the oven light, display and the auto lighter. It can be lit with a match or piezo igniter if required. It's a modern Italian sounding name chrome and black stove without a fan forced oven. Griller is LPG.

I've still got the old free standing LPG stove in the shed, free to good home :) it's a Chef 'Concorde' which may give some idea of its age.

Deano :)

[350RRC]

If you go that route, you need to know you will have an ongoing supply of fuel - I have over 400ha, mostly bush!

I have 10 acres, 5 is bush plus a bit more around the rest.

Black & golden wattle is good, the other stuff ....... manna and swamp gum not so good.

I reckon I'd be sustainable with firewood where I am on this acreage. Will be planting more wattles though.

Taken me 8 years to be confident about this.

DL

[JDNSW]

I only use ironbark. Still cutting up the firebreak the RFS did round the house the last fire twelve years ago.

[Tins]

I hate to be a PITA... Nope, nobody will believe that statement....

So, simple question: How do you go off-grid while using LPG? Petrol? Diesel? The answer is that you can't. To go off-grid, you either need to go back to burning wood/peat/coal/dung, or you need to either freeze or go and herd goats.

Ask the Afghanis or Greeks what raw goat tastes like. They won't be able to tell you, as they used fire to cook goat.

Burning LPG is NOT going off-grid, and you need to understand it. You are merely moving "the grid" elsewhere..

Buy a Tesla. It's essentially the same thing, a lie. Well intentioned for sure, but a lie nevertheless.





'Ducks for cover'. Not really.

[roverrescue]

John,

Surely that is semantics at play.
If by “OffGrid” the OP meant they were not wanting to be connected to Australia’s Electricity 240VAC supply - well then he could have a nuclear reactor in his back shed and still call it off-grid.

If by “off-grid” you are meaning hippified planet saving environmentalist or hardcore Prepper well that’s different and perhaps a LPG bottle is a failing of that word off-grid.


Somehow I think OP meant the former type of off-grid.

S

[JDNSW]

"The Grid" in this context is the state or territory electricity grid and "off grid" simply means to not connect to this grid.

The concept is often extended to include not connecting to other grid-like services such as reticulated gas and water, very occasionally to include communications services such as telephone and internet (including mobile and satellite), and even more rarely to include other communal services such as education, health etc.

I cannot recall an example of it being extended to mean changing to a non-carbon emitting way of life, although people who go "off grid" will often be the same ones who try to reduce their emissions, and occasionally this is the motivation. The more usual motivation is cost, reliability, or perhaps the most common, being cranky with grid suppliers that are almost by definition an effective monopoly.

[Gullible]

Crikey, youse city folk have a cloistered existence :)

Just go to any rural towns white goods store select your gas oven/stove/cooktop (which already has LPG jettting), give the local plumber a ring and you're cooking up a storm :)

Anyway, that's what we did. The only thing that runs on 240v is the oven light, display and the auto lighter. It can be lit with a match or piezo igniter if required. It's a modern Italian sounding name chrome and black stove without a fan forced oven. Griller is LPG.

I've still got the old free standing LPG stove in the shed, free to good home :) it's a Chef 'Concorde' which may give some idea of its age.

Deano :)

Hi Deano,
Any chance of finding the name of the oven you have, the misses is very interested. :)

[DeanoH]

PM sent

Deano :)

[DiscoMick]

Another vote for Westinghouse here. We put in a big Westinghouse to our Maleny house last year. All gas. Big bottles that last a long time. Whole family loves the stove and oven. It wasn't cheap though - cost over $2k. I'm told it's made in Adelaide. Got it through The Good Guys.