CO2 prices...

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sok454

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Are ridiculous in my town. Called 2 places and so far they both do exchanges and want 75-100 for first 5lb bottle...then 25-30 to refill. WTF.
 
Airgas here wanted $90 for a full 5lb bottle, that part is not that far off. Although you can buy an empty for much less and just have it filled. And most places here (Chicago) are now charging $20 for 5lb exchange. The place I go to also will refill a 10lb cylinder for $20, 20 lb for $25.
 
I went by a marine and industrial store a couple weekends ago and got an exchange for $11!
 
Local guy said the fire place goes about 7.50-8.00 for 5lb. So that's cool. Glad I checked around!
 
My local beer dist charges $7 for a 5lb bottle. You could try welding supply shops too.
 
Going to call the extinguisher place today. Now just need to order a tank. If I don't buy a keezer set up from a guy that already has a tank.
 
8.50 for a 5lb and 15 for a 10lb.

That's good on the 5#, but a bit high on the 10#... At least compared with what I end up paying. Got a 20# tank filled for $17, last year. Once my 5# tank is empty, I'll be getting it, and my 2.5# tank filled at another fire extinguisher place not far from where I live now (it's in Derry, NH).

With so many fire extinguisher places around, I would hope people could find one within a decent travel distance from them. I think it would really suck if I had to pay what the LHBS normally want to exchange tanks. Especially with how they typically make you buy the tank from them in order to get a better rate (still HW robbery IMO).
 
My local Airgas gave me a refill on a 5# tank for just under $22. First time I've used them. I have another option thats a little out of my way for just under $18. A few dollars more for convenience is worth it to me, though.
 
I pay $35.80 (service is called 5 pound beverage gas refill) with tax here http://www.nutechfire.com/. They are only place that will even talk to me. They are quite familiar with using CO2 for keg and soda dispensing and had lots of advise for me since I was new to CO2 dispensing. They probably get everyone who is not buying 50 pounds or more on an exchange or bulk program from air liquid. From mom and pop shops and small restaurants to people dispensing from commercial kegs at home. I think I'm the first one they have gotten who is force carbing my own beer.

I remain on the look out for better prices, but I don't think I don't think I will go through it quickly enough to care much about the price. I'd pay the same for a decent case of beer here so I call it a win.
 
I pay $35.80 (service is called 5 pound beverage gas refill) with tax here http://www.nutechfire.com/. They are only place that will even talk to me. They are quite familiar with using CO2 for keg and soda dispensing and had lots of advise for me since I was new to CO2 dispensing. They probably get everyone who is not buying 50 pounds or more on an exchange or bulk program from air liquid. From mom and pop shops and small restaurants to people dispensing from commercial kegs at home. I think I'm the first one they have gotten who is force carbing my own beer.

I remain on the look out for better prices, but I don't think I don't think I will go through it quickly enough to care much about the price. I'd pay the same for a decent case of beer here so I call it a win.

Do they at least use lube at those prices?? :eek:
 
I pay $0.247 per pound. But I know a guy who knows a guy...

EDIT: When you buy this stuff you're primarily paying for the labor for the guy to fill the bottle. Some say exchanges cost more because the company has to maintain inventory, but their filling efficiency is higher. Some say having you bottle filled is more expensive because they have to stop what they're doing to fill your bottle. Who knows?
 
I just paid $17.50 at Airgas close to work.
A week ago I paid $11 in Astoria Oregon ( sad story why I need another tank ).
Week before I paid $17 in Portland Oregon when I exchanged one for my brother.
 
I just paid $17.50 at Airgas close to work.
A week ago I paid $11 in Astoria Oregon ( sad story why I need another tank ).
Week before I paid $17 in Portland Oregon when I exchanged one for my brother.

For what size cylinder?

You may be able to go to the store in Astoria, fill out a credit application and open an account with them. Have your bottle filled at $11. You may be able to negotiate a better price. Regardless, they'll have history of that transaction on your account, and you'll then be charged that rate no matter what store you go to... just tell them to pull up your account. On your first transaction you may want to buy a bunch of crap so they'll be more flexible on your gas price.

On that note (and this goes for everyone) - you may want to consider purchasing a 50lb CO2 where you'll get the best gas price, and then trans-fill into smaller cylinders as needed. It would cost more up front, but may be a great alternative for clubs and whatnot. You'd need some fittings and hoses and whatnot, but being homebrewers I'm willing to bet ya'll can figure it out... or PM me.
 
The prices were for five pounds.
The place in Astoria is a company that isn't around here.
Actually all three were different companies.

I do need a second cylinder and want to get a larger cylinder, but I think twenty pounds is as large as I want to get.
I want to be able to make it disappear at my bar.
Nice clean looking wet bar with five taps and the liquor cabinet!
 
45_70sharps said:
The prices were for five pounds.
The place in Astoria is a company that isn't around here.
Actually all three were different companies.

I do need a second cylinder and want to get a larger cylinder, but I think twenty pounds is as large as I want to get.
I want to be able to make it disappear at my bar.
Nice clean looking wet bar with five taps and the liquor cabinet!

Ah. iPad thinking they were all Airgas.
 
A few weeks ago I bought a 20# aluminum cylinder via craigslist for $25. I called around today for prices....
Airgas $21.75 exchange
Norco Medical Supply $24 exchange
Firepro (fire safety shop) $90 to fill!!
I pointed out that the last one was more that 4x the price as airgas so they came down to $50. I guess they thought they were doing me a favor.
When I got to Airgas, the sales guy and I started BS'ing about brewing. He saw the 15.5 keg in the passenger seat of my car.... Anyway, he "forgot" to look for the hydro date which was good cuz the last date was in 1980! :eek:
On second thought, maybe the really expensive co2 works as a beer gnome repellant.
 
dizzyfun, as you guessed, Firepro was trying to grape you on that. Next time you go to fill, I'd do an exchange on it. The hydro date is for safety and such (not a scam). Especially when the last stamp is over 30 years old. Time to either get it tested (once empty) or exchange it for a good one.
 
I totally agree that it's not a scam. I ended up doing an exchange at Airgas but I wasn't charged the hydro fee. Last time I was there, 4 years ago, they charged me hydro for my 5# cylinder. I got a steel cylinder this time since that's all they had but he said the store owed me an aluminum one next time AND he even put it in writing.
 
I saw on the beverage elements page they have 7# and 4# tanks for dirt cheap... Anyone used these?
 
Do they at least use lube at those prices?? :eek:

Lol. Nope no lube. I live in the province of BC it stands for Bring Cash everything is costs 50% more here and 12% of that price was tax.

I did ask chris @ hopdawgs.ca (where i got the kegging equipment) if that was a normal price in the area. He said it was. as i understand it there is a gov fee of some kind, a fee for filling plus the cost of gas. So a 10 pound wouldnt be $70, prob more like $50.
 
dizzyfun, as you guessed, Firepro was trying to grape you on that. Next time you go to fill, I'd do an exchange on it. The hydro date is for safety and such (not a scam). Especially when the last stamp is over 30 years old. Time to either get it tested (once empty) or exchange it for a good one.

CO2 tanks have a five year test interval, due to the fact that it's a liquid inside of the cylinder and the oxygen molecules in the CO2. There a higher probability of rust accumulation inside of the cylinder, even if it looks perfectly fine on the outside. Given that an aluminum cylinder can't rust, you're probably in the clear. But when in doubt, don't screw around with compressed gases. Keep safety as your number one priority and get the bottle hydro'd. It shouldn't cost you more than twenty dollars. You may want to consider shipping it UPS to a hydro-tester. Don't give your bottle for a welding supplier or you'll probably never see it again... they just deal with too many bottles to keep up with a single cylinder. On another note, your local welding supplier should be able to refer you to a cylinder tester in your area like Western International. If you need help finding someone, PM me and I'll help you out.

http://www.westernintl.com/services/cylinderTest_hydrotest.shtml

Just for fun - the result of improper hydro testing (you don't want this to happen in your living room):
open

open


Edit: Not sure why the images aren't appearing. Try these links:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2GQWK4E_D2EMDdLbkc1NWFvLWc
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2GQWK4E_D2Ec0p4UjRseXppUTg
 
I also suffer from the local places wanting to either gouge or short change me on 5 lb refills. Places either charged $25 to $30 bucks per refill or they had some crappy 100 lb tank in the backroom that never actually got me a full 5 lbs.

So I did something a little drastic, but it works very well for my situation. I switched to a paintball tank setup, and now get my tanks filled at Dicks Sporting Goods. 3.99 for 20 oz tanks, and every fifth fillup is free. It comes out to $2.55 per pound which would be $12.75 for a 5 lb equivalent.

A couple of notes about my situation:
1. I work right across the street from Dicks. No additional travel expenses.
2. Paintball setup has dual purpose when I break out the portable kegerator.
3. I typically let my kegs naturally carb. If I were force carbing swapping out of tanks would get a little annoying. Currently I can push between 4 and 6 kegs per tank.
4. I had access to 3 paintball tanks starting up. You can find them cheap on Craigslist. I now have a total of 4 tanks and try to keep one or two filled on reserve at all time.

Just another option for some people that might be close to a store that does paintball fillups.
 
CO2 tanks have a five year test interval, due to the fact that it's a liquid inside of the cylinder and the oxygen molecules in the CO2. There a higher probability of rust accumulation inside of the cylinder, even if it looks perfectly fine on the outside. Given that an aluminum cylinder can't rust, you're probably in the clear. But when in doubt, don't screw around with compressed gases. Keep safety as your number one priority and get the bottle hydro'd. It shouldn't cost you more than twenty dollars. You may want to consider shipping it UPS to a hydro-tester. Don't give your bottle for a welding supplier or you'll probably never see it again... they just deal with too many bottles to keep up with a single cylinder. On another note, your local welding supplier should be able to refer you to a cylinder tester in your area like Western International. If you need help finding someone, PM me and I'll help you out.

http://www.westernintl.com/services/cylinderTest_hydrotest.shtml

Just for fun - the result of improper hydro testing (you don't want this to happen in your living room):
open

open


Edit: Not sure why the images aren't appearing. Try these links:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2GQWK4E_D2EMDdLbkc1NWFvLWc
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2GQWK4E_D2Ec0p4UjRseXppUTg

Hydro dates are not something I take lightly. IMO, it's simply too dangerous to NOT get them tested and stamped again. IMO, you should have enough CO2 supply tanks to be able to send out at least one tank at a time, as needed. If there's not a place close enough to you, then I do agree about getting it shipped off to be tested/stamped.

BTW, I suspect that I'll maybe get one more filling for my 20# CO2 tank before it needs to get tested again. I've already gone over a year since it was filled the first time (almost 1-1/2 years). I also have enough CO2 tanks, with staggered hydro dates, so I'll be able to go long enough to not be an issue. IMO, having just one CO2 tank isn't advisable.

While rust isn't an issue for aluminum CO2 tanks, corrosion could be, and there are still other parts of the tank that could have issue/fail.

As for paintball tanks, I got mine from either Keg Connection (where I got my first one) or a paintball supply store (that also filled them). Recently I went to Dick's Sporting Goods and got the paintball bottles filled up. The store uses pure CO2 (nothing added, so no lubricants) to fill them up. I think there are enough Dick's around that most people will be within reasonable travel time/distance to one (at some point during the day/week at least). Get a few bottles and get them filled as needed. :D
 
The tank I exchanged my 30 year out of date tank for IS hydro'd. My point was just that since I talked homebrew with the guy at Airgas, he didn't charge me for the hydro service.
 
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