Twice a day for five days I’ve made my way across the eastern plateau and up a mesa to the really cool house of my distant neighbors T&S, to take care of their dogs and horses. One nice thing about that gig, it pays promptly. I was $100 ahead before the Monday morning water run to town, where I blew most of it on peace of mind.
Years ago I scrounged as many of these 30# propane bottles as I possibly could, maxing out at six. But the valves aren’t forever and the cost of valve replacement closely rivals the cost of a new bottle. I entered the winter with four. Four was fine when I only used them for the cookstove, but of course this winter’s big news is the new bedroom space heater. This basically leaves me with two bottles at the back of the cabin and two at the front, which presented the problem that any time I empty one I’m in a big rush to get it filled again. I don’t like big rushes, I don’t always have money for propane on any given week, and so I wanted at least one uncommitted spare. So I knew exactly where the lion’s share of that found money was going.
Blew all the rest on new plumbing spares. Do I know how to show myself a good time, or what?
Easy valve replacement: propane bottle exchange at grocery stores or whatever. If there isn’t any place in your small town, see if one of your weekender neighbors could change one out in the big city.
Little #20 bottles are exchanged. I’ve disposed of a defective bottle or two that way. Doesn’t work for bigger ones.
Do the valves in these have that float device in them?
Yeah, that’s been mandatory for many years, AFAIK for everything but the #100 tanks.
Probably a dumb question but if you are going to use them for heat why not pick up a couple hundred pounders. They are heavier but I have found that you can usually drag them like a sled especially on snow.
They were too difficult to lug around 10 years ago before I buggered up my shoulders – now they’d be a real problem. Plus I can usually scrape up the 20+ bucks it takes to fill a 7-gal tank. Coming up with the scratch for 25 gallons all at the same time is more problematic.
RE: exchange propane bottles – read the labeling closely. They’re 20 lb bottles filled to only 15 lbs, and sold at 20 lb pricing. You’re paying a premium for quick exchange instead of traveling to a refill point and waiting for the bottle to be filled.
I think that under-filling is generally true these days with those exchange bottles, but it’s still a cheap way to exchange a defective or out-of-date bottle for a good one.
Hmmm,
Sounds a little like a back and forth rip-off contest?
Stay alert?
Yeah. I worked at a place where I pumped propane among other duties and often heard complaints about not-full bottles at those exchange cages. On the other hand they will accept almost any empty in exchange regardless of condition, so sometimes it’s kind of a two-way swindle.
“Sounds a little like a back and forth rip-off contest?”
That sums it up nicely!
On one hand, I got fed up with the continuously increasing prices and the under-filling at the retail swap places. On the other hand, I also tired of the runaround at the place where I was having my bottles filled. If they suspected the tiniest thing wrong with your bottle, they would refuse to fill it and try to sell you a new one at an inflated price.
So finally I just gave up on propane altogether. I did a crazy-big plumbing job and switched to natural gas. (But that’s unfortunately not an option for most people, including Joel.)
Have you conceder getting a small garden wagon, strap 2 100# bottles to it and the just pulling the wagon around when needed https://images.craigslist.org/00m0m_aBUrXCoTqxa_600x450.jpg
I found a meet trick write the words ” torch only” on it and they won’t require the new valve type. Works for me.
That wagon scares me! The center of gravity is way too high, unless it were used on only paved level ground. (I don’t think the Gulch has much of that.) But there are back-saving carriers for 100# bottles that work like furniture movers. Here is one:
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200672760_200672760?isSearch=57223
A cheap boat winch could solve the problem of pulling the loaded carrier into the trailer.
But that still wouldn’t solve Joel’s issue of paying for that much gas at one time.
Ben, that cart is for 9″ diameter cylinders, and100# propane bottles are like 15″ in diameter.
Perhaps a refrigerator cart might work, though, the kind with the load-securing strap.
Recall that a “full” 100# tank weighs close to 200#. I could rassle them back in the day, but I’d not try it now.