Brews/Propane Refill

[Acoma]

I've gotten 4 brews out of a tank that had been used for grilling and wasnt full. ~20 bucks for a swap out here. I knew those tanks werent full. What a rip off. Might switch to paying to refill it myself from now on. Thanks for the heads up. Someone should sue them for that one.

 

[Boondoggie]

I imagine a lot of the folks here not getting much out of their tanks are swapping them rather than having them filled.... I believe blue rhino says right on their label that it's only 14lbs in there...

I have two tanks, and fill one at my local ACE when it's empty for $13...

 

[rico567]

It would be nice to start a sticky with a list of chains that do the inexpensive fills. Now that Sunbelt Rentals has gone through the roof, I'm shopping. I know about U-Haul, but just found out that Menards does fills thanks to this thread.....

 

[ArtVandelay]

I was actually just roughly calculating this out because I'm brewing with a friend tomorrow and dont want to let him use all my propane for free.

With a 10 gallon batch and a 55K burner I calculated it out to approximately 5lb of propane used with the burner on full blast including heating HLT water, 90 min boil, and water heat up from mash tun

Even more roughtly, if you take the BTU of the burner in hours (in my case 55000) x figure out how many hours you are heating or maintaining boil for, and then divide by 22,000 (22000 BTU per lb propane) youll get pretty close to lbs of propane used

 

[logdrum]

I broken-down this weekend and bought another tank... But now I have 2 Blue Rhinos... Am I allowed to take these to ACE for refills or am I only limited to swaps at $18 per?

That tank can be filled anywhere. I bought one as a back up, but after I noticed the reduced weight have only refilled at the garden center around the corner for $20.00/20#.

 

[oregonparamedic]

Definitely go for the refill and not a swap out. I went from spending $28 a swap with blue rhino/amerigas and getting 3/4 filled tanks to $26 for 2 FULL tanks at the local feed store. The swappers are trying to play the safety game when in reality the tanks are BUILT for 20 gallons and it's another way to boost their profits.

 

[McMalty]

definitely just get a 2nd tank and refill the first one after if runs out and you switch to the second one

 

[tchuklobrau]

Im on my 4th brew with my tank.(i also heat strike water on my gas stove in the house) I have a 2nd(on my grill) for a spare. fill up on the reservation by me is 13.75. off the res a refill is 32 and a swap is 40