the preheat will take just a tad longer, but once you get the cut going, travel speed is so close you won't notice a difference. The cut also is as high of quality as the acetylene. We use propane on the cutting table but we still use o/a for all the hand torches. One day we will change all of them over. I use both at the house. I would take the acetylene tanks off the truck and finish them out at the house and when I run out I use propane to carry me over. I didn't like running with partial tanks on a truck if I could help it. I have noticed lately a few guys running everything off of propane. they are using propane to run their welders and cutting needs.