School me on gas regulators please.

[Homestar]

Hopefully someone here will know as I haven’t been able to get any useful information from Google on this one.

I have a 5 burner BBQ - around 15 years old, full thick stainless steel Aussie made unit so it’s still as good as the day it was made but the regulator has gone to god. Simple I thought, so I bought a new one from Bunnings that said it suited 5 and 6 burner BBQ’s. Well it’s useless and doesn’t supply nearly enough gas to run more than one burner going full bore - these are the old style cast units, not the drilled bits of pipe they use these days.

I took it back and swapped it thinking it was faulty which they were happy to do, but same thing. I then pulled the reg off my partners modern 5 burner which runs that unit well only to find the same thing.

My guess is that these older units used much more gas - which is fine by me as it used to be able to get really hot quickly, then I could turn it down to minimum to cook with - the modern one needs to be on max the whole time to cook a snag.

So, can anyone tell me where I can get a regulator that will work or what the go is with the modern ones compared to what used to be on there? I don’t want to just order regulators randomly and see if they work.

TIA.

[Aaron IIA]

Does your old regulator state its supply pressure? Is this different to the supply pressure of the new regulator? Are either of the regulators adjustable? They used to have a removable centre cap which allowed you to adjust the pressure.

Maybe you could drill out the jets in the burners to allow better use of the lower pressure gas.

Aaron.

[350RRC]

I've got a CIG oxy and acetylene adjustable reg set.............. one might work. [biggrin]

I'd swap both for a good radiator. [thumbsupbig]

Is this a beefeater BBQ? Have one of those I rebuilt. Has the original hose and reg. Can have a squiz at the specs.

DL

[350RRC]

Is your BBQ running on (jetted for) natural gas or lpg?

There should be a sticker saying which near the hose. Different regs for each gas.

DL

[Dorian]

Domestic gas needs to be at 2.75 Kpa. Not a great idea to use an Oxy or LPG Tradesmans reg as I think they start at 100Kpa, although things would get hot pretty fast. I know it wasn't a serious suggestion.

Has the old unit ascended yet, or is it still in purgatory. If you can get the energy rating off it then you might have a chance of getting a good match, if it's old it's probably in BTU, otherwise it's in MJoules / hour (or minutes, I forget) , but energy rating is directly related to flow. The laws on what hardware stores can sell may have changed in the last few years, to reflect the level of expert advice offered.
Have you tried a BBQ store instead of Bunnings.
There is a changeover of regulator type needed at a certain energy rating.

You may need to go to a 2 stage regulator. Not recommending this unit, but like this one. LPG DUAL STAGE GAS REGULATOR Suits Most Brand Caravans And Campers | eBay (https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/222264655672?hash=item33c0017f38:g:XGsAAOSwgVJcC0a M&frcectupt=true).

Your local gas fitter will have a better grasp on how much, but they will need to know how much energy your Barbie chews thru.

Regards Glen

[Homestar]

Does your old regulator state its supply pressure? Is this different to the supply pressure of the new regulator? Are either of the regulators adjustable? They used to have a removable centre cap which allowed you to adjust the pressure.

Maybe you could drill out the jets in the burners to allow better use of the lower pressure gas.

Aaron.

Old reg has gone to god - I didn’t think I’d need it. Not keen on drilling out the jets as it used to work great as it was - just need a new reg that works like the old one. Old
one had a screw cap in to adjust - not that I ever needed to, but new ones have a crimped cap over them - I even pried that off and adjusted it up as far as it would go but it didn’t do
much.


I've got a CIG oxy and acetylene adjustable reg set.............. one might work. [biggrin]

I'd swap both for a good radiator. [thumbsupbig]

Is this a beefeater BBQ? Have one of those I rebuilt. Has the original hose and reg. Can have a squiz at the specs.

DL

Rad is sitting here waiting for lockdown to end. 😁. Unit is an Esperance 5 - from what is now Illusion Gas fires - they used to make a great BBQ.


Is your BBQ running on (jetted for) natural gas or lpg?

There should be a sticker saying which near the hose. Different regs for each gas.

DL

Jetted for LPG which it’s always run. I do have the natural gas kit for it - reg and jets to suit but never used.


Domestic gas needs to be at 2.75 Kpa. Not a great idea to use an Oxy or LPG Tradesmans reg as I think they start at 100Kpa, although things would get hot pretty fast. I know it wasn't a serious suggestion.

Has the old unit ascended yet, or is it still in purgatory. If you can get the energy rating off it then you might have a chance of getting a good match, if it's old it's probably in BTU, otherwise it's in MJoules / hour (or minutes, I forget) , but energy rating is directly related to flow. The laws on what hardware stores can sell may have changed in the last few years, to reflect the level of expert advice offered.
Have you tried a BBQ store instead of Bunnings.
There is a changeover of regulator type needed at a certain energy rating.

You may need to go to a 2 stage regulator. Not recommending this unit, but like this one. LPG DUAL STAGE GAS REGULATOR Suits Most Brand Caravans And Campers | eBay (https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/222264655672?hash=item33c0017f38:g:XGsAAOSwgVJcC0a M&frcectupt=true).

Your local gas fitter will have a better grasp on how much, but they will need to know how much energy your Barbie chews thru.

Regards Glen

Thanks - can’t go to any other store unfortunately due to
lockdown. Nearest BBQ store is over the 10KM limit and only doing click and collect. Old reg has gone unfortunately.

[V8Ian]

Gav, if the unit is still a current model, ring a retailer and ask what's on the reg. If it's no longer available, find one on Gumtree et al,and ask the same the question.

[DoubleChevron]

Hopefully someone here will know as I haven’t been able to get any useful information from Google on this one.

I have a 5 burner BBQ - around 15 years old, full thick stainless steel Aussie made unit so it’s still as good as the day it was made but the regulator has gone to god. Simple I thought, so I bought a new one from Bunnings that said it suited 5 and 6 burner BBQ’s. Well it’s useless and doesn’t supply nearly enough gas to run more than one burner going full bore - these are the old style cast units, not the drilled bits of pipe they use these days.

I took it back and swapped it thinking it was faulty which they were happy to do, but same thing. I then pulled the reg off my partners modern 5 burner which runs that unit well only to find the same thing.

My guess is that these older units used much more gas - which is fine by me as it used to be able to get really hot quickly, then I could turn it down to minimum to cook with - the modern one needs to be on max the whole time to cook a snag.

So, can anyone tell me where I can get a regulator that will work or what the go is with the modern ones compared to what used to be on there? I don’t want to just order regulators randomly and see if they work.

TIA.

Where did you get your gas from? If you're not sure, put the bottle in your house, or try again on a warm day. I've had a bottle of gas here that just wouldn't burn when I used it in the middle of winter. I worked out it must have had autogas in it .... a really ****ty low quality autogas that was mostly butane. So it wouldn't boil off in the cold ballarat winter temperatures of a night.

All the LPG regulators should be the same pressure, it would be the gas jet that sets the amount of gas flowing wouldn't it ?

[Dorian]

All the LPG regulators should be the same pressure, it would be the gas jet that sets the amount of gas flowing wouldn't it ?

If the jets consume less gas than the Reg is rated for, yes, but regs come in different flow rates (or energy delivery).

Cheers Glen

[Homestar]

Gav, if the unit is still a current model, ring a retailer and ask what's on the reg. If it's no longer available, find one on Gumtree et al,and ask the same the question.

These units haven’t been made for nearly 10 years now unfortunately, but I do like the idea of trying to find a second hand one for reference.👍


Where did you get your gas from? If you're not sure, put the bottle in your house, or try again on a warm day. I've had a bottle of gas here that just wouldn't burn when I used it in the middle of winter. I worked out it must have had autogas in it .... a really ****ty low quality autogas that was mostly butane. So it wouldn't boil off in the cold ballarat winter temperatures of a night.

All the LPG regulators should be the same pressure, it would be the gas jet that sets the amount of gas flowing wouldn't it ?

Gad was the same bottle between old and new reg. It’s only when the diaphragm in the old one started leaking and caught fire one day I thought I’d replace it. 😇😁

[d2dave]

I have lost count the amount of times I have replaced regulators on BBQ's and caravans.

Unless something has changed very recently, all regulators that you get from Bunnings, BBQ's galore etc should work.

And if any changes were made it would have to be publicised on the packaging as there are thousands of older BBQ's out there.

So I suspect you might have a problem elsewhere. A blocked hose maybe?

[Homestar]

Thanks mate - that was one of my first thoughts but I replaced the hose at the same time. I’ve also pulled all the jets and cleaned them up - it just seems like it’s not getting the volume of gas required - with only 1 burner lit it there’s a full flame that I had before and would expect but by the time I light 3 burners they are all like they’re on the lowest setting and if I light all 5 then even a small bit of wind will start blowing them out.

I’m a bit stumped.

[Aaron IIA]

If it can handle one burner properly, then I would suggest that the supply pressure is correct. Your problem seems to be a limited maximum supply volume. Of the two regulators that I have here, the older unit is rated at 2.5kg/h, 2.75kPa and the newer unit is rated at 2.0kg/h, 2.75kPa. I do notice that flame intensity is slightly reduced when all four gas burners are running on the 2.0kg/h regulator. What is your regulator rated at?

Aaron

[Tote]

Sounds a bit like those restrictors that they started fitting in motel showers in the 90s (that I may have a collection of after removing them)[biggrin]

Regards,
Tote