Can my home's large propane tank feed an outdoor fire pit?
Here's the Asheville wrinkle: much of the city — Montford, West Asheville, North Asheville — sits on the natural-gas main, so a large propane tank is less common inside the loop than out in the county. But if your home is one that runs on LP, yes: we can tap that tank and run an outdoor-rated line to a fire pit.
First question — are you actually on propane?
Because the Asheville mains reach so many neighborhoods, plenty of homeowners assume they have a propane tank when they're really on natural gas — or the reverse, on a wooded lot just past the network. It changes the whole job. If you're on the main, we tap the meter, not a tank. If you're on LP — common on the ridges and older homes off the network — your tank becomes the feed, set for LP orifices and pressure. Our showroom sits right on Emma Rd, so a tech can swing by and confirm which you've got before anything is quoted.
Sizing the load before we cut in
A fire pit is a hungry appliance — a full square burner like the Napoleon Uptown we carry runs 60,000 BTUs of LP, and that's on top of whatever your furnace and range pull on a cold night, with Asheville evenings dropping into the 20s well into spring. We check the tank capacity, the regulator, and whether the existing line can carry the extra or needs its own branch. Distance from tank to patio drives pipe size too. Get it wrong and the flame runs lazy and sooty; get it right and it lights clean every time.
Licensed, permitted, pressure-tested
Connecting to propane is licensed gas work in North Carolina — a hardscaper can build you a beautiful stone surround, but they can't legally make it burn. We can. Your propane supplier keeps the tank; we own the regulator, piping, shutoff, and appliance setup, pull the Buncombe County permit, bury the line to code, set it for LP, and meet the inspector before the first flame. Call (828) 545-0525 and we'll walk your yard.
Fireplace help in Asheville
We install and service fireplaces throughout Asheville and the rest of Buncombe County — we're headquartered right here.
Related questions
- How far can a fire pit be from the gas meter or propane tank?
- Should I get a natural gas or propane fire pit?
- My house doesn't have natural gas service — can I still get a permanently plumbed fire pit with a dedicated propane tank?
- How long will a 20 lb propane tank run a fire pit?
- Where do you hide the propane tank for a fire table?