Short measure at propane tank exchange stations

There are 3 convenient propane places near me all owned by the same family. They have the lowest price, no club membership required and you can watch them fill your tank *completely*.

There are areas - particularly urban ones - where one's options for getting propane are very limited. The tank exchange may be all that's available. I live in a city where no one heats with propane, so there are no large-scale distributors of it. No gas stations that sell it - except for a few who offer the tank exchanges. I'm lucky enough to have in my vicinity a small hardware store that fills tanks, and also an RV repair shop that fills tanks - but in most of the city, the only option is a tank exchange. If all you're doing with the tank is using it for a gas grill or patio heater, I can see where it's not going to be a big enough deal to bother driving a distance to get a tank filled. Just grab one from the exchange and be done with it.

I forgot to mention that the hardware store charges a flat fee per fill, per tank. If you bring in a partially-filled tank you pay the same as if the tank were empty. The RV shop, on the other hand, charges for only the amount of propane that is pumped into the tank.

That's a no brainer, even for someone who can't read or work a calculator.

Steve

Around us, many of the U-Haul truck rental places sell propane (not an exchange; they fill your tank). It's metered (sold per pound or gallon; I can't remember), so you don't lose out if the tank isn't empty. The total price for a full tank is generally less than any exchange price I've seen.

Josh

You can live on $17/hr in CA???

Lots of people use it for barbecues (s'cuuuuuuuuz me, grills), for camping, emergency use, metal cutting, propane torches, lots of things.

Steve

Almost all rental joints refill bottles. And any rv joint can do it also.

why would you bring in one that wasn't empty?

Because they're after 5:00PM and on weekends.

Our fireplace is propane and we're seriously looking at a "dual-fuel" oven (it'll cost something like $1K to run the propane line around the house). Natural gas isn't available in the area.

Appartently, 20lb is how much a tank will hold if FULL of liquid propane. It can't be filled full, since some space is required for it to vaporize. Blue Rhino puts 15lb in a tank, but it can hold more.

I get propane at a store that uses a company called "Heritage Propane" that puts in 17lb (for about the same price).

" snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

so's any Ace Hardware.

? wrote

IMO, cooking with gas is worth it. Maybe it would be cheaper to put in a second tank for the range.

But the cost of packaging still went up and we're paying for the waste. Used to be, many products were sold in the "large economy size" for just that reason.

? wrote

The weight of that empty so-call 20 pound tank is . . . . . . . . . . . Wow, who'da thunk it.

That's very true... The cost of packaging and distribution can far exceed the cost of the actual contents. Makes you wonder why they resize packaging except that when you are shipping a million or more of each package, saving a few cents per item adds up quickly.

Not just any Ace Hardware sells propane. Most don't. The grocery stores do exchanges 24x7, though. I've always thought a second tank was a cheaper option, though.

I thought about that, too. The guy from the gas company didn't think it was a good idea, even though they'd be getting the additional rental. I thought about relocating the existing tank to the other side (run the trench the other way ;) where it would be easier to fill. He didn't think that was necessary either. We'll likely get him back out to give us a better estimate and talk it over again.