I am about to buy a new gas grill and I can't decide weather to get propane or natural gas. Can anyone tell me which grill would be cheaper to run? I hate dealing with propane tanks and I am leaning twards going with natural gas. Any advice?

If you have a natural gas outlet for your grill already in place it is a no brainer.

If you're set up for natural gas it's a no brainer. It's not like your deciding on pecan vs mesquite. It doesn't impact flavor and you don't have to worry about running out of propane when you're cooking for 10 people.

I've had a naturals gas grill for 10 years and have never had to buy or haul a propane tank. Nuff said.

dang I wish I had natural gas as an option...

The only reason I would consider propane if I already had a gas tie point is portability. You can roll your propane grill around wherever you want. It sure is nice never having to swap tanks though. I think gas is cheaper than propane.

Natural gas is cheaper than propane. I had a nat gas grill for years and it was nice not messing with cylinders. Being a propane dealer, after it wore out I now have a propane grill...go figure. On a side note, we have added many extension lines for customers with bulk tanks to run their grills, thus eliminating the small cylinders.

I brecall propane burning hotter, can anyone confirm? That may affect your decision.

Plus natural gas is cheaper and has a higher btu value.

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I recall propane burning hotter, can anyone confirm? That may affect your decision.

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I did a quick web search for "propane burning hotter than natural gas" and found plenty. Of course, using that particular phrase is likely to be much better at finding pages that assert that it does burn hotter.

Interestingly enough was this page at http://www.wardburner.com/debunkingmyths.html:

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Myth # 1…. Propane burns hotter than Natural Gas. Well, this isn’t technically a myth because LP (propane) burns a tiny bit hotter, but the way some people have been taught is that is burns substantially hotter. Sorry, but it ain’t so. LP has a flame temperature of 3573°F while natural gas has a flame temperature of 3525°F. Forty-eight degrees hotter is hardly worth mentioning when we’re talking about thousands of degrees. So, where did this myth come from?


Propane is a much denser fuel than natural gas. A cubic foot of LP vapor has about 2500 BTU’s (British Thermal Units) while natural gas has about 1000 BTU’s per cubic foot. A molecule of LP gas has 3 carbon atoms and 8 hydrogen atoms. The lighter natural gas molecule has 1 carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms. Basically, each molecule of LP is heavier than a natural gas molecule. This is why LP orifices in burners are smaller than natural gas orifices…. it takes less volume of LP to equal the BTU’s of a given amount of natural gas. Since it takes two and a half times as much natural gas by volume to produce the same amount of heat as LP, the view that LP burns hotter took hold. Because of it’s denser nature, LP can be somewhat more dangerous. LP has a specific gravity of 1.52, while natural gas has a specific gravity of .64. Great, just what you want… a chemistry lesson. Think of plain ‘ole air as 1. This means that LP is about 50% heavier than air while natural gas is lighter than air. Because of its heaviness, LP can pool in kilns or in low spots on the ground if the air is still.

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P 2,500 btu. NG 1,030 btu