My wife wanted a gas grill. Yesterday, we went to the local Big 'n Large, and bought a shiny Char-Broil "Commercial" model, factory-equipped for propane, along with a natural gas conversion kit. Four hours of assembly later, it's all built and adapted.

Our house had a gas line preinstalled out back. I was having a hell of a time getting the damn thing open (there was an end-cap on the pipe and it was painted shut) so I made my builder send out his plumber.

Plumber-dude managed to get the thing open and then we looked at what it would take to connect the grill. The line from my house is 1/2" with a female connector on the end. The bbq grill has a male "quick connect" connector on the end of its hose, and also came with a quick connect to female 3/8" regular connector (not flared).

According to the manual for the natural gas adapter kit, the grill is all set for 0.5psi gas, which was the residental standard through 1998. After that, some residences have 2 or even 5psi, and if that's you, then you need to get a regulator (not included). The plumber dude agreed that I need to get one. He also said that I should buy a 1/2" nipple, a 1/2"-to-3/8" bell reducer, and a 3/8" nipple.

I called around to various local plumbing supply shops and nobody has NG regulators. That means I'm ordering online and we're cooking in the kitchen.

My questions for the crowd concerns this whole regulator business. How do I easily figure out whether or not I need the regulator? Or, should I just pony up and get one, since it's a safety thing? And then, which kind should I get? PlumbingSupply.com, for example, offers these things both with and without a "vent limit", but without giving any useful advice about which I should choose. (Maxitrol seems to imply that I don't want a vent limiter for an outdoor setup.) Also, is $60 a reasonable amount to pay for one of these things? Seems a bit high.

Any advice would be much appreciated.