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Where to buy a propane tank for a gas grill?

techs

techs

Lifer
I have been given a couple of year old gas grill without the tank.
I see places like Blue Rhino will sell you a tank, as well as the propane.
Would I be better off buying an empty tank and having it filled at my local gas supplier? Where should I buy it and how much should I pay? Or should I buy the tank from Blue Rhino?

P.S. If I could return the Blue Rhino tank for credit at the end of the summer that would be a plus.
 
Blue Rhino is a huge ripoff, but its much more convenient.

Where I live you can get a Blue Rhino replacement at many places less than 5 minutes away. To get my own tank filled, I'd have to drive across town.

I can get my own tank filled for around $5 or a Blue Rhino swap is something like $15-20.
 
I think it depends upon how much propane you use.

I am a very casual user, so I am content to pay higher per unit prices with Amerigas; I don't use a full tank each year and I like option of being able to trade the old, rusted tank for a presumably newer one each couple years.

If you are a power user, getting your own tank (has to have appropriate connector for your grill) and refilling it yourself at propane center or even hardware store is going to be most economical.
 
Until you find you are a 'power griller', going thru tanks very quickly, I recommend buying a full tank from your cheapest exchange seller. Around here, its a particular albertsons which sells the exchange for $18. Not sure about the price for the tank included, but costco sells them for $27 iirc.

A scam amongst all these propane exchange/sellers is they aren't filling them up as much as they used to. Iirc, they are almost 15% less full than they were a few years ago. Its their way of raising prices, while the stores maintain the same price for an exchange.
 
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Leros said:
Blue Rhino is a huge ripoff, but its much more convenient.

Where I live you can get a Blue Rhino replacement at many places less than 5 minutes away. To get my own tank filled, I'd have to drive across town.

I can get my own tank filled for around $5 or a Blue Rhino swap is something like $15-20.
Click to expand...

Fortunately I have a large hardware store that will fill refill the tanks that's very convenient to me. However, they don't carry the empty tanks and I don't know what the best place to buy one would be, nor how much to pay.
I tried searching online at Home Depot and they only seem to have their Blue Rhino clone type service, and not just the empty tanks.
 
techs said:
Fortunately I have a large hardware store that will fill refill the tanks that's very convenient to me. However, they don't carry the empty tanks and I don't know what the best place to buy one would be, nor how much to pay.
I tried searching online at Home Depot and they only seem to have their Blue Rhino clone type service, and not just the empty tanks.
Click to expand...

I've bought two types of propane tanks at a this one place. Its industrial looking gas station and propane refill place. I've bought tanks for forklifts and for grills there.
 
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techs said:
Fortunately I have a large hardware store that will fill refill the tanks that's very convenient to me. However, they don't carry the empty tanks and I don't know what the best place to buy one would be, nor how much to pay.
I tried searching online at Home Depot and they only seem to have their Blue Rhino clone type service, and not just the empty tanks.
Click to expand...

I'm curious...how much does the hardware store charge to fill the tank?
 
In Northern VA, we have a service called Propane Taxi. They deliver - swap out empties or you can buy a spare tank. They charge the same as Home Depot but fill the tank to 20 lbs. Delivery is free as long as you don't need it next day. Regular delivery is 2nd day.

I've been using it since I moved here.

www.propanetaxi.com
 
Leros said:
Blue Rhino is a huge ripoff, but its much more convenient.

Where I live you can get a Blue Rhino replacement at many places less than 5 minutes away. To get my own tank filled, I'd have to drive across town.

I can get my own tank filled for around $5 or a Blue Rhino swap is something like $15-20.
Click to expand...

Damn...that's cheap. Here, the average price for a 5 gallon propane refill is $15.00
Not sure how much Blue Rhino charges. I''ve hauled bottles for refill for so long that the convenience just doesn't seem to be worth the cost.

Costco had new empty bottles the other day. I think they were $26.99 or thereabouts.
 
1. Blue Rhino is a ripoff on prices for a "new" tank, filled.
2. Blue Rhino is a ripoff because the "full" tanks that you exchange for aren't "full." Tanks are designed to hold 20 pounds when filled to 80% capacity (which is all they're supposed to be filled to.) Blue Rhino fills them to about 16 pounds.
3. Blue Rhino is a ripoff because once you exchange your good tank for one of theirs, you're locked in due to their proprietary valves.

Locally, last time I checked, Blue Rhino exchanges were $25. (for 16 pounds of propane.) Getting your old tank refilled was $12.50 for 20 pounds of propane.
 
DrPizza said:
1. Blue Rhino is a ripoff on prices for a "new" tank, filled.
2. Blue Rhino is a ripoff because the "full" tanks that you exchange for aren't "full." Tanks are designed to hold 20 pounds when filled to 80% capacity (which is all they're supposed to be filled to.) Blue Rhino fills them to about 16 pounds.
3. Blue Rhino is a ripoff because once you exchange your good tank for one of theirs, you're locked in due to their proprietary valves.

Locally, last time I checked, Blue Rhino exchanges were $25. (for 16 pounds of propane.) Getting your old tank refilled was $12.50 for 20 pounds of propane.
Click to expand...

the only place I could find around here to refill was uhaul, it almost came out to the $20 that blue rhino charges, somewhere around 17, but nice to know I got more propane for the price.

I remember there were more independents when were in scouts, got our propane filled cheap. Hard to find a gas station now who still does it.
 
I was pretty lucky when I bought my house, there were 2 100lb tanks the previous owner left behind. Full. One adapter and 3 years later they are finally empty. I should call about having them refilled/exchanged one of these days.

I havnt bought the 20lbs refills in a few years, but be warned, they started underfilling them. They claimed that after the latest LP price spike, they wanted to keep the cost to consumers the same so instead of rasing prices they reduced the fill. But, when prices dropped, they kept the same lower fill rate.
 
Leros said:
Blue Rhino is a huge ripoff, but its much more convenient.

Where I live you can get a Blue Rhino replacement at many places less than 5 minutes away. To get my own tank filled, I'd have to drive across town.

I can get my own tank filled for around $5 or a Blue Rhino swap is something like $15-20.
Click to expand...

Where the fuck do you fill a 20lb propane tank for $5 because that is below cost for everyone.
 
Soccerman06 said:
Where the fuck do you fill a 20lb propane tank for $5 because that is below cost for everyone.
Click to expand...

It this industrial place in the industrial part of town. They do forklift bottles for $15 and grill bottles for $5. However, its been a few years, maybe I'm remembering wrong.
 
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