Gas BBQ adaptors, U.S. to German barbeques etc.

BBQers, Gas experts, Pyromaniacs,

We recently moved here from San Francisco and brought our American propane gas BBQ grill with us. With the nice weather, and a party planned around the corner, we need to get our grill working. Anyone know of a safe way to adapt the fittings of our American system to the tanks used in German grills? Is there a store or business that might be helpful?

Thanks,
PB

Hi PB,
I don't know where you live, so I can't recommend a store, but check out the places where you either buy grills, the tanks, or both.
Good luck!

My brother-in-law had a friend that works at factory machine shop custom make me a hose...works great !

Guess that's not much help, is it?

Toss the gas grill and get some charcoal. Tastes so much better that way anyway. Ah, bar-b-que time! Loveit.

you might try Toom, OBI, or Praktiker to see if they have an adapter for you.
I miss my gas grill, had a small one for my balcony.

Go to a gas station with all the extras and get a one time use grill with charcoal. Solves your problem for today. The other problem of using gas, well, you just have bad taste.

We had an American gas grill and got an adapter on base for it to use German bottles. I'd try OBI as they seem to have everything.

We brought with us to Germany a nice gas grill. Unfortunately, it's sat unused on the balcony ever since. I've, finally, decided to use it and see what happens. In the States, we used it almost daily for a large portion of the year.

Anyway, as many of you may know, there's the U.S. standard for gas grills and then the Euro standard. I could do the switch in an hour in the States. However, here I've been to Kusterman, OBI, Suckfüll, Hornbach and more. No one seems to have the brass reducer that I need and I can't get anyone to tell me exactly where to go. I just get vague statements of "go to a Wohnmobile laden." Not helping folks.

I've checked through the previous thread on BBQ and didn't see anything there.
Barbeque on the balcony

So, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

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Can't you just cut off your U.S. connector (from the rubber tubing) and attach an European?

If I knew how to do it without blowing up the building, I'd be happy to.

PF-5436 or 38

Just to make things a little trickier, there is more than one standard in Europe too.

Sorry if this sounds too simple. But you can turn the value off on your tank? This means to gas can escape. Then cut off the connector, connect the European and attach it tight with one of those clamps you can screw tight. The tubing is the same size here as back home. This should be cheap, safe and easy.

dead link.

http://www.fireboy-xintex.com/propane_detectors.html

http://www.cmr-limited.com/gas-system.html

Order it or go to a dive shop and see if they have a converter for you.

Are you still usimg the US bottle? Then you´ll have a ways to fill it up! You´ll have to buy a German bottle and chop the hose and connect it up that way. I bought a gas BBQ from a friend in Heidelberg and while US Forces were in Augsburg it was no problem to refill but they left and so did the refills. Best of luck. PM if you need a hand, I could show you my set-up.

This reminds me of one of my better "why day-to-day life in Germany totally sucks" moments a few years ago: We brought over a tiny little L.L. Bean gas grill of the sort that runs off little propane plumber's torch bottles. I went to a local hardware store to buy hardware for pretty much all of the aforementioned retrofitting (hose clamps, regulator, hose). I was feeling pretty chuffed that I could easily do a complete DIY when the surly "salesperson" hovering over my shoulder asked what I was buying these things for. I replied that I wanted to convert a U.S. gas grill, and (I'm not kidding) he started fishing stuff out of my shopping basket whilst grumbling "das ist nicht moeglisch in Deutschland". As I could do more damage than, say, destroying 85% of Frankfurt in a nightime bombing raid.

I guess I got the last laugh because the godforsaken place went out of business!

In the interim, I gave up and bought a euroweenie-ready Weber ... and later found a friend who could hook me up with some real small camping gas bottles from the Hanau PX.

Therefore, my suggestion would be to go to a place that sells euroweeenie-ready units, buy replacement parts there, and slip the gas hose onto the (just like car lug nuts and water pipe fittings ... English 1/2-3/4") nipple and you're good to go.

I don't want to be a kill-joy, but you need to make sure there's a regulator in between the burner element and the bottle ... otherwise if the tank pressure drops, the flame could lick up the hose and ignite whatever's left in the tank you've just cleverly twist-tied the hose onto.

Holy hand grenade, Batman!

I am using a German bottle. Had to leave the two US bottles I had with friends. Can't ship 'em.

I know where a dive shop is, I might have to go check there. There's one on Schleissheimer and one up north on Leopoldstrasse as well.

There's a Deutsche gas regulator on there. That's part of the hose process.

I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that we all know a regulator would fit directly to the tank (as they do here).

Actually, they do. It screw on to the tank and then the hose screws on to it. The one from the States is more of a powertool sort of quick-release attachment. Kind of completely opposite views of doing the same thing.

I figure since I have a German propane tank, I'd just use their regulator & hose and simply find a reducer to attach it to the grill. Seemed really simple and like something I could find at Ace Hardware for about $5 back home.

Type 907 tanks and a connector may be all that you need.

O.K. same problem different question...gas "expert" needed

I have removed the U.K. regulator from the pipe and have seen a German regulator that should fit, however, the UK regulator was push-fit and a good 2-3 cm long secured by a jubilee type clip, the German regulator has a screw thread that should fit nice and tightly into the hose BUT the thread is only about 1 cm in length. I'm not sure if this will provice the necessary tight fit even with a jubilee type clip.

Any thoughts or opinions. I wuold rather buy a new BBQ than risk a gas leak situation.

Ta

no-one out there???

Dude,

Buy a German gas regulator that hooks directly into the tank (either the small garden or big construction site versions) with a c. two-foot hose on it. Then use a hose clamp on the hose connection to the nipple for the burner elements that should have plenty of play.

Then, if for whatever reason flames start shooting out of the connection, the flame can't lick up the pipe, because you're protected by the regulator.

That's exactly how Weber does it.

Oh damn, I was supposed to ask my boyfriend how we converted ours. We did not do it ourselves, we took it somewhere and they did for like 25€.

I will ask him.

Thanks kitkat, we would appreciate it.

New to Munich from USA. Brought new gas BBQ knowing that I would have to convert but have not been able to get good information from locals on how to do it. Any suggestions would be helpful. I can not believe I am the first.

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Here is where we had ours done:

Gas-Technik Werner Behr

They are located in Munich just off the Frankfurter Ring on Riesenfeldstrasse (check the link for the exact address) between Schleissheimerstrasse and Lerchenau Str.
They have odd opening hours so you should probably try to call them first.

They had to fit a special part and it cost us around 30€ a couple of years ago.