Brews/Propane Refill

[rico567]

Yeah, I had a $12 refill place (Sunbelt Rentals), with a free refill for every 4 purchased. Went there this Spring, and it had gone up 100%....now $25 per. Cheaper to swap at the supemarket......haven't made up my mind whether I want to spend the $4 gasoline driving to U-Haul.....

 

[JuanKenobi]

Make sure you are "refilling" and not swapping. You'll save some serious bank doing this. Places like Pilot Truck stop(and others, lots of trucks and RVs have propane these days), Ace Hardware, Menards(swap but cheap using the self serve), etc all do refills for around 13 bucks a 20lb tank. I only swap my tanks when they start getting ugly....

I pay $30 to fill my tanks. Swapping at the supermarket is $40! During the summer I can tack my fills onto my work's account and pay by the gallon to get it a little cheaper, but it's still like $5/gallon.

 

[rico567]

I pay $30 to fill my tanks. Swapping at the supermarket is $40! During the summer I can tack my fills onto my work's account and pay by the gallon to get it a little cheaper, but it's still like $5/gallon.

Wow. This is getting out of hand. I either have to get serious about moving to electric brewing, or else running a propane line from my 1K gal. bulk tank to the garage.

 

[metaltim]

dang i'm in texas, a swap is about $18. a new full tank is $40ish..
can't believe some of yall are paying $40 to swap.

that 'pressure guage' thing linked from amazon is a waste.. why not just buy a 2nd tank.
If my tank runs out, i get my backup, fire it up, then put the empty tank in my car, so sometime during that next week, i'll swap on the way home from work. So I always know i have a full tank on hand.

 

[JuanKenobi]

Wow. This is getting out of hand. I either have to get serious about moving to electric brewing, or else running a propane line from my 1K gal. bulk tank to the garage.

Seriously. I pay $4.25/gal to fill my 350gal tank for the house.

 

[astropunk]

I must be conservative. Ive done 4 so far on a full 20# tank, and judging by the frost line on the cylinder, I still have 2 or 3 brews left. (Doing 5 gal batches, starting with about 6.5gals preboil)

I can also get a refill for about $15, or a tank swap for $20. I always go the refill route when I can, because I swear the tank swaps are not full tanks.

 

[greatschmaltez]

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?

 

[cklages]

I always go the refill route when I can, because I swear the tank swaps are not full tanks.

They are not...

They are between 15 and 17 lbs depending on the retailer. If you dig enough, it is in the literature for most of them. Safety concerns and all

BTW, if you want to know how much is in a tank, you could always just throw one on the old bathroom scale, and subtract the tare weight on the collar. Works much better than those gauges.

 

[cklages]

Ah I see you mentioned the old Blue Rhino. I would probably get those refilled elsewhere.

From the Blue Rhino website.

Inflationary pressures, including the volatile costs of steel, diesel fuel, and propane, have had a significant impact on the cylinder exchange industry. In 2008, to help control these rising costs, Blue Rhino followed the example of other consumer products companies with a product content change. We reduced the amount of propane in our tanks from 17 pounds to 15 pounds.
To ensure our consumers are properly notified, Blue Rhino clearly marks the amount of propane contained in our tanks, right on the package.

 

[astropunk]

LOL...safety concerns...riiiiiiiiiight.

They already have OPD valves in them to prevent over-fills. Anything less than full is strictly robbing customers of hard earned $$.

 

[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