Have I been ripped off? CO2 Refill

I know this has been beat to death.
I have 2 5 lbs CO2 cylinders and one 15 lb one.
I exchanged one 5 lb cylinder at Praxair in Duluth, MN.

The cost?
$17.98!!

Am I just being a cheap bastid (I know I am), or have I been ripped off?

jma99 said:

I know this has been beat to death.
I have 2 5 lbs CO2 cylinders and one 15 lb one.
I exchanged one 5 lb cylinder at Praxair in Duluth, MN.

The cost?
$17,98!!

Am I just being a cheap bastid (I know I am), or have I been ripped off?

Click to expand...

Seems expensive to me

I pay about $9 for a refill.

A had a 4lb and 5lb refilled for $13 and $15 respectively. I have a friend who was paying $25 for a 5lb refill elsewhere...obviously he switched.

Getzville? Cool!
I used to live in NT and worked at the Denny's in Getzville.

Wish I could find a $9 refill, seems like that is what I used to pay.

Yeah... I don't get the price of co2. A propane exchange at Wally World costs less than some of the 5lb refills I'm seeing. I mean, it's co2... we're not getting something that requires a drill rig.

jma99 said:

I know this has been beat to death.
I have 2 5 lbs CO2 cylinders and one 15 lb one.
I exchanged one 5 lb cylinder at Praxair in Duluth, MN.

The cost?
$17.98!!

Am I just being a cheap bastid (I know I am), or have I been ripped off?

Click to expand...

Its cheeper then what I just paid here.

My co2 expenses sky rocketed lately. Only thing I saw was there is a new "environmental hazard" fee. Apparently C02 is dangerous to the environment now.....


Um guys, where do you think the C02 came from before it was in the bottle?

Elfmaze said:

My co2 expenses sky rocketed lately. Only thing I saw was there is a new "environmental hazard" fee. Apparently C02 is dangerous to the environment now.....

Um guys, where do you think the C02 came from before it was in the bottle?

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Are you saying the government enacted a meaningless regulation that serves no purpose other than cost consumers more money? Impossible, that never happens!!!

Elfmaze said:

My co2 expenses sky rocketed lately. Only thing I saw was there is a new "environmental hazard" fee. Apparently C02 is dangerous to the environment now.....


Um guys, where do you think the C02 came from before it was in the bottle?

Click to expand...

Everyone stop breathing. Your harming the environment

Thats a stupid tax if you ask me. It'll be more so when i start to keg and needing some CO2

I think the last couple times I paid around $15. This was for an exchange, at a local bottle shop.
I did a refill once and it was only $10. But its hard to find places that do refills on the weekend or after 5pm and I can't take time off work to refill a CO2 tank. So the extra cost is just a convenience fee for me.

I pay $8 for a 5 lbs refill and $12 for a 10 lbs refill. Sounds like a little bit much.

Hmmm. My local Airgas quoted me about $28 to swap out a 5#. Another local welding shop charges me $15 to swap out a 5#.

Anyone know of a cheaper source for CO2 in the Olympia, WA area?

I pay 13 per refill. Swaps and Refills are the same price.
It was 10 a couple of years ago.

FYI I pay about $16 for a 5# refill.

A 20# tank would cost about $19 the lady says...

I am in the market for an upgrade. I will have plenty of room for a 20# tank once I rig my bottle up outside the kegerator.

$14 for a 5lbs refill, and $17 for a 20-lb swap. (and this is with the state discount).

Don't forget that when you do a swap, the hydrotesting fee is built into the price of the swap.

MC

I payed $27 for a 10lb fill at airgas last time. I paid less than that for a hydro test and fill at a place down the road. Needless to say I'm not going back to airgas

wilsojos said:

are you saying the government enacted a meaningless regulation that serves no purpose other than cost consumers more money? Impossible, that never happens!!!

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+1

I pay $24 for a 5 pound fill, it's the cheapest around me. However, a craft beer/ growler store just opened that's on my way home from work and they are going to offer a $10 tank exchange aft you pay them a one time fee of $50 to buy the tank from them. That works for me!

Local paint ball place refills mine for 2 bucks a pound.

For those that pay a fixed price for a full, have you ever weighed your "full" tank? My place fills my 10lb tank to 7-8lbs. When I called them out, they claim it's for temperature expansion. But 7lb, that's almost 50% room for expansion. Maybe that's reasonable, but logically seems excessive.

Any place that charges by weight and shorts you is breaking the law. Demand a prorated refund.

Yep - I'd steer clear of that place. As long as the tank is certified and it's not sitting in the back of a hot car , it will hold the weight it was designed to hold.

The reason they underfill is that they are reluctant to do a freeze dump of about 3 pounds of CO2 in order to chill the tank down enough to accept a full fill.

They do a flat fee to fill the tank, not charging by the lb so they aren't breaking the law I guess.

Something else to consider. You are mostly paying for the labor to fill the tank. Co2 is very cheap. That's why 10 lbs is only slightly more expensive than 5 lbs.

sfrisby said:

They do a flat fee to fill the tank, not charging by the lb so they aren't breaking the law I guess.

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This simply isn't true. You are paying for a full cylinder, not a partial fill.

sfrisby said:

They do a flat fee to fill the tank, not charging by the lb so they aren't breaking the law I guess.

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Ask Blue Rhino about their loss of a class action.

sfrisby said:

For those that pay a fixed price for a full, have you ever weighed your "full" tank? My place fills my 10lb tank to 7-8lbs. When I called them out, they claim it's for temperature expansion. But 7lb, that's almost 50% room for expansion. Maybe that's reasonable, but logically seems excessive.

Click to expand...

Though I agree this smells fishy, I'm sorry but I have to flip you some $#!+ on your math: 10 lb filled to 7 lbs = 70% and filled to 8 lbs = 80%. That leaves 30% and 20% for expansion respectively. A far cry from "almost 50%" which would be "almost" 5 lbs.

My thought process on my math was at 70%, that leaves 30% free space. That leaves 30/70= 43% expansion room for the 70% to take up 100% of the tank. But you are right, that isn't 50%.

In case anyone was curious, my LHBS guy told me he pays $20 for a 75lb tank of food grade CO2 delivered. There is a lot of profit to be made in filling cylinders for home brewers.

Demand it be filled to the stamped weight. There is already a buffer in there for thermal expansion, not to mention an over pressure relief valve.

If you want the best deal on a portable size CO2 cylinder, trade (not fill) out a 20 pound tank for $20 bucks at a HVAC supply house. Don't get attached to the tanks, they are just a tool