Gas Grill Safety Questions

I helped a friend put one together. We were having trouble getting it started, and I was leaning in to see if I could see what was wrong, when it started, with a nice big fireball. It horrified the spectators, as from their point of view, my entire head was suddenly engulfed in a big flame...but the only damage was that my eyebrows were about half as thick as they had been before. I'm just happy that this was long before the days of cell phone video cameras and YouTube. :-)

Anyway, consider this: how many news stories have you heard of people being seriously injured by these things? Probably almost none.

So, that probably means they are pretty safe. (Well, I suppose it could mean that they are do dangerous that it is no longer newsworthy when they kill someone! :-))

Reply to
Tim Smith
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Never heard of that one, around here NO ONE sells 10 pound tanks, they are ALL 20 pounders and most people put them on a deck. In fact, I wouldn't want to have my grill on the grass where I have to move it constantly to mow the lawn and get my feet wet when I am cooking on it.

Reply to
EXT

The flexible hose on our LP gas grill failed while in use and the full tank turned into a blow torch spewing a 6 foot flame against the back of our house 8 years ago. Even the firemen couldn't do anything with it except put water on it and let the tank burn itself out. The fire destroyed a bedroom, bathroom and burned off about half the roof. I now use a natural gas grill that has several remote shut offs.

Reply to
tom

Congratulations.

Not a grill but a car. My brother's car, a 1970 full-size Ford LTD, wouldn't start. It was in a one car garage he rented in Brooklyn. I tried it fix it, by checking if there was spark with one plug wire off, and by spraying ether (starting fluid) into the carburetor. Unfortunately, after getting nowhere with either of these techniques, I did both at the same time, while I had my head under the hood. BLAMMMMMM!!!!

Fortunately, I didn't move while this happened or I would have knocked my head on the hood and my neck on the metal edge of it. Not a lot of leeway, so I must not have moved at all.

But I looked at one valve cover, the one on my side, of the V-8 and it was ripped from the cylinder head. Of the 6 or 8 bolts holding the cover down, 3 or 4 were ripped sideways, to the inside as the top went up, so that the outer edge of the hole was broken out. And there were

2 or 3 places where the edge of the valve cover was lifted up between the bolts so the exploding gas could escape.

I guess the ether was sucked into the carb, the manifold and the cylinders, and then somehow pushed into the valve cover area, and when finally one of the right side cylinders ignited, it lit off the ether in the valve cover. I guess.

Couldn't buy a valve cover from the dealer, and no junk yards in NYCity, so I had to buy a pair of chrome covers at a speed shop. I only installed one, so it looked funny, but my brother doesn't care about stuff like that. I forget if I ever started the car or if he had to pay someone.

Exactly that. None.

;)

Reply to
mm

"tom" wrote

And that's one reason you're not supposed to store or use them within whatever (15, often) feet of a dwelling. Having said that, I think what happened to you is a pretty rare occurence.

nancy

Reply to
Nancy Young

The restoration company that restored our house said that ours was the third rebuild they had done that year as a result of a gas grill fire. The other 2 were a house and a Gazebo.

Reply to
tom

I can't add anything to the safety discussion other than to think quietly to myself that the danger factor feels kind of overblown. I've heard stories that start out "a friend of a friend of mine had a gas grill and ..." but I've never personally heard "I had a gas grill and...". But whatever. I will say that hands down, old fashioned charcoal (particularly if you get the hardwood charcoal, rather than the manufactured bagged stuff) tastes

100% better than gas-grilled food. Mmmmm.... ash and carbon. Yummy. :)

We had a gas grill, and got rid of it in favor of our trusty Weber. It's no more trouble than (once you factor in the hassle of making sure the propane tank is full - that extra stop at the hardware store is a pain in the ass, imho), and the slightly longer cooking time is totally worth it taste-wise. YMMV, of course. :)

Donna

Reply to
Donna

You can't say that anymore. Because that's exactly what he said. Unless you don't think Usenet is personal.

And most grills are kept pretty near the house. My little area is only 8 feet deep so that's as far as I can put it, unlesss I want it in the middle of the yard or on the sidewalk for the mailman to walk around. Actually, I now have a spare tank** and it's only 4 feet from the house, but it's not lit either.

**I bought an old tank for two dollars at a junkyard. The junkyard guy asked what I wanted it for. I said, to trade in at Home Depot for a new tank. He was just curious. Ten minutes later I was coming out of HD a half mile away. with the new tank and he was going into HD, for some other reason (no tank in his hand, although I guess he could have left one in the car until he was ready to pick up the new one and leave.)
Reply to
mm

Try again. Listed Propane fired cooking grills for use in structures are every bit as large and often larger than the portable outdoor units the OP was asking about. They are very commonly used in restaurants that have no natural gas supply. The ones used for the catering industry for cooking indoors are fitted with a cylinder holder for portable ten pound propane cylinders. That size is seldom found in any industry accept catering. The mere fact that you haven't seen the unit I'm talking about does not mean it does not exist. No I'm not talking about the table top units that are fueled by disposable cartridges.

-- Tom Horne

Well we aren't no thin blue heroes and yet we aren't no blackguards to. We're just working men and woman most remarkable like you.

Reply to
Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT

Yes I'm aware that ten pound propane tanks are not commonly available. The only place that they are commonly used is in the catering and plumbing industries. They are used in laboratory listed movable gas fired cooking appliances in order to limit the amount of propane that is available to feed any failure of the appliance.

-- Tom Horne

Well we aren't no thin blue heroes and yet we aren't no blackguards to. We're just working men and woman most remarkable like you.

Reply to
Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT

Great, but what do they have to do with the OP's request about outdoor grill safety? Nothing.

In my kitchen, I have a propane powered range supplied by two 100 pounds tanks. Big deal, that has nothing to do with outdoor grills.

The only grills I've seen for use with small tanks are the table top models and they are not what the OP asked about either.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I serve in Montgomery County Maryland. We have a dispatch for failure of a BBQ grill at least once a month during the summer. We also have a structural ignition from one of those failures about every third year. Some of the structures have suffered significant damage. We rigorously enforce the code separation of the unlisted portable grills from multiple dwellings but as with many other things there is no effective enforcement at single family detached homes. If you actually read the instructions that come with the portable grills you will see that they are not intended for use in or adjacent to a structure nor on combustible surfaces.

Look if you want one on your deck then pay a little more for a listed unit and have it installed by a licensed gas fitter.

-- Tom Horne

Well we aren't no th> "tom" wrote

Reply to
Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT

Could you explain this more please? What, exactly, is a gas fitter to do for a proplane grill installation?

First, you read the instructions. You wheel it up on the deck, you connect the tank, check for leaks, you fire it up. I'm j ust now sure what the gas fitter's job is here that I should pay $100 to have one come out.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Here's what I found from the National Fire Protection Association regarding gas grills. Basicly, they just say to keep it well away from the house, deck railings, underhangs, etc. I thought the choice of the term "deck railings" was interesting as it would seem to imply that having in on a wood deck itself is OK.

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The Consumer Products Safety Commission says they should be used 10ft away from the building and not under any overhang, car port, etc, which could catch fire. That would seem to leave the question of a deck open.

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It seems to me that both these agencies don't want to directly address the wood deck issue. Otherwise, given that this is where they are commonly used, you would think they would just openly address decks.

Tom cites how many times they get called out to grill fires each summer, but how often do they get called out to kitchen fires? He says they have fire damage to the structure about once every 3 years from a gas grill. Wonder how many kitchens are damaged in 3 years? Unless you look at this in perspective, it doesn't mean much.

Reply to
trader4

Kitchen is the leading room for fires

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on the annual NFPA fire statistics, it's evident that the kitchen is the highest hazard in homes and should be the primary focus in existing homes. NFPA's January 2005 report, "Home Cooking Fire Patterns and Trends," reveals that in the past 10 years, more than 15 percent of all residential fire deaths, more than 29 percent of all injuries and approximately 30 percent of all residential fires were the direct result of kitchen fires. This report indicates that in 2001, home-cooking fires resulted in 370 civilian deaths, 4,290 civilian injuries and resulted in $453 million in direct property damage. In 2001, there were 134,400 fires originating in the kitchen, of which 117,000 were cooking fires. And these statistics also point to an upward trend in kitchen fires.

Looks like about 900 fires per year from grills, but 134,000 from the kitchen. Of course, kitchen cooking is done much more often, but overall, the amount of grill fires is not all that high. I'd venture a guess that most come from stupidity, such as having the grill under the eaves, up against the house.

26% of all fires are cooking related, but here they do not break out grills
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This is interesting
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Operational deficiency, or misuse of material ignited, misuse of heat of ignition, accounts for 47% of grill fires.
Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I have to agree with Donna. Charcoal is the way to go tastewise. I can't see wasting that much money on a device that gives you inferior taste. Might as well cook it in your oven.

Reply to
Charles Pisano

Since you are stuck on the idea that portable propane grills that are intended to be used outdoors away from structures are the only type of propane grill in existence the answer is no. I can't explain to you why you might want a gas fitter to pipe a remote gas supply to a listed residential cooking appliance that happens to be a grill fired by propane. Just because you are not familiar with any other type then the portable variety doesn't mean that no other type exists.

Tom Horne

Well we aren't no thin blue heroes and yet we aren't no blackguards to. We're just working men and woman most remarkable like you.

Reply to
Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT

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You have hit on the very heart of the matter. Cooking has inherent hazards. To reduce those hazards the National Fuel Gas Code, which is adopted as law in many places, requires that gas fired cooking appliances that will be used in a structure be tested and listed by a testing laboratory. When you cook in your home you use a listed residential cooking appliance because it has been tested to be safe in normal use. In other words it will not set the house on fire or CO poison the occupants if they are in good repair and are used in accordance with the manufacturers instructions. No such testing has been done on the portable gas grills the OP was inquiring about. Unlisted cooking appliances such as portable gas grills, camping stoves, turkey fryers, charcoal grills, etc. are unsafe to use in, or in close proximity to, a structure. Using a portable gas grill as a substitute for a listed residential gas grill has only one virtue it is cheaper.

Cooking is the source of the heat of ignition in a significant portion of home fires. That much is true. But when a listed cooking appliance has a cooking fire develop on it there is no large supply of cooking gas, with no accessible shut off, at the appliance to make the situation into a gas fed structure fire or to be heated to the point were a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE) can be of such a magnitude to destroy the structure.

I didn't point out the occurrence of structure fires from portable gas grills in order to make them out to be some extremely frequent kind of hazard. What they are is a cooking fire with a large supply of cooking gas immediately adjacent to the fire. With a listed cooking appliance there is a remote shut off for the gas supply. With a portable gas grill used away from the structure anything short of a BLEVE will not effect your home.

-- Tom Horne

Reply to
Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT

You seem to be stuck on the idea that the only type of portable grill is for use indoors. Do you ever go to the store and look at he hundreds or brands and styles of outdoor grills offered for sale? The ones on wheels that can be readily moved. That was the type of grill question. You took the thread to indoor portable grills.

In any case, portable is just that. Portable, moveable, not tied down, easily moved, not stationary. To think a gas fitter is needed for either type of device fueled by a portable tank (be it 10 or 20 pounds) is absurd. Connecting it to a natural gas line brings in a new set of rules not requested by the original poster.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Snobishness aside, there are many things that can be done an a gas grill that cannot be done in the oven.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

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