While I'm sure BR's short fill is purely profit driven I'm guessing some of it is to offset the cost of people exchanging out of cert tanks.

We are all consumers Dave. As such we research our purchases in order to make intelligent decisions. As manager of my household I owe it to my property to make my dollar stretch as much as possible and obtain the best value for the cost.

Thank you for the posts!


Probably so but the problem is unless they tell you they are only giving you the 75% fill it "appears" the are pulling the wool over your eyes.

Absolutely. Selling ice cream in pint size containers but that only hold 14oz of ice cream, selling tanks that either aren't full or don't completely empty, that sort of thing is crap.

Take your expired tanks to HD and trade for a new full (75%) tank. Peal off the plastic label thing, and get it refilled at a gas station.

Lowes advertises 15 lb Blue Rhino tanks. They are 20 lb tanks, but they tell you up front that there are 15lbs of fuel in them.

For me, I think of someone like my wife (very intelligent but not involved with such things) maybe some years after I'm gone, or some single mom, someone's grandma etc, being taken advantage of because they are so unclear about this.
They take a standardized container, certified for safe transportation for a standardized size and contents, a container where you can't see those contents, where it's % full can't be easily ascertained,and intentionally don't fill it up. That pisses me off.

I have no problem with paying for the convenience of the exchange, so long as they make that clear - but they obfuscate the truth and HD etc should pressure them to make it right.

I'll shut up now :)

Wife....Mom....Grandma.......all females, Dave?

Don't males get equal consideration?

Or are you just making a statement about females?

Oops....:eek:

Oops. Wife,mother, daughters are brilliant, hard working and don't give a whit about stuff like this. It's the stuff my son I rant over ;)

Did you ever see that scene in the movie Baby Boom where the plumber tries to tell the Diane Keaton "power-mom" character why the well pump doesn't work and how he's gonna repair it? Keaton tells him "I don't care how it works or what you're gonna do, I just want to turn the faucet and have water come out." That's the women in my life. YMMV - but it works for us... so far!

I didn't know about the 3/4 fill until I read this thread. I thought the whole advantage for the Blue Rhino was the LP left in the tank when it is returned.

I take my tanks to a Farmer's Coop where they weigh it in front of you before adding any gas, and then weigh it again after it's full. I only pay for the gas that went in the tank, the exchange places are probably screwing you royal.

U get screwed in the cities unless u look out for your self.

Especially at the drive through!

(I decided not to put up the video)

I'll put it up...... :D

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Knxz4DLQzUs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

when we first got the houseboat a 20lbs tank was $2 in 75
it quickly jumped to $4 then 6 the 8 and now is about $20

I always have two tanks and only swap out when they quit

we use to use alloy tanks on the boat as steel ones rust too quickly for peace of mind
near salt water

I had a unique opportunity today. My wife swapped a 20 lb tank last Sunday and we cooked one meal out of it. I ran our other tank dry with the flame weeder this morning and took it to have it filled.

I weighed the tank before I took it in and though the tare weight stamped on it is 16.5 lb it weighed 16.2. Tare weight on the exchange tank was listed at 18 lbs.

Cost to fill was $15. I got 20.4 pounds of fuel at a cost of .74/lb or $3.12/gal.
Cost to exchange was $19.95. I weighed the exchange tank and it had 15.5 lbs of fuel at a cost of 1.29/lb or $5.47/gal.
The propane place is right across the street from the exchange place. Exchange place is open 7 days a week, fill place is only open Mon-Fri. You pay a LOT for the convenience of exchange.

THAT is great info!

The rest of the story.
My wife had an ancient 20 lb tank in her garage that we had to get rid off. It was about half full and WAY out of cert. In a phone call the propane place said it would cost $5 to empty and dispose of it.
I thought about just exchanging it, but when I was at the refill place they said since I was filling a tank they'd take the old one (and the 2-3 gallons of propane in it) off my hands for free.

CYA sticker added at local store:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1431292084.jpg

Hmmm

This is why I run my grills off NG. Been years since I've use propane.

.