NG to LP Conversion Laars Lite Heater

[beartoothweb]

I found a smokin deal on a Laars Lite 2 Mark IV 175k btu heater ($50 for it, a solar cover real, and some otehr stuff.) It passed a full inspection last year and has just had the maint done on it.

The only problem...it's NG, and we're all propane. For most appliances, I know you only need to do the orifices on them for the swap. Does anyone know if this is the case on these?

The manual shows a part number for a conversion "kit," but it's $750 as near as I could find. That seems just stupid. I can't imagine you'd actually have to replace all of the internals to make this happen. I can't find the parts list on the kit, but my assumption is burner, valve, and orifices.

This is an LLG175n. I don't really even understand why you'd have to have a different valve. It's a millivolt unit.

Hopefully, someone will know. Thanks!

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

Different valves for different fuels. Two different pressure requirements in the incoming gas. The only heater I know that only needs the orifice changed is the Pentair/StaRite MasterTemp/Max-E-Therm.

Scott

 

[beartoothweb]

Thanks. I did get an email back from a parts vendor also. To do the swap, it's $600 minimum. Pilot lite assembly (even on millivolt versions it seems), valve, and orifices have to be swapped. The kit can be had for $750. Seems unfortunate that they don't design them better, but I guess that this BTU range, there's too much gas flowing to keep it simple.

I think I'll be shopping for heat pumps now anyway to keep the long term costs down.