Propane costs

Someone shared a recent news story on Yahoo about propane which revealed that LP distributors starting filling tanks to only 15 lbs, down from 17 lbs, rather than increase prices last summer when it was nuts.  Sure enough, I checked my two tanks and I have one of each. 

Now, with their costs down 40%, they've not dropped prices at retail at all, and we're still getting low-fill tank exchanges.  All this made me call around, and an ACE hardware refills for $16.99 to 4.6 gallons (they say, or 19-plus lbs).  Even if they only hit 17 or 18 lbs, it is still better than 15 lbs for $18 and feeling screwed. 

People may want to look into refilling options nearby to see if it makes sense. 

I got burned once on a tank exchange and had to bring a recipe to prove I got it from them. The tank was to old and they would not take it. Once it was exchanged, I started getting them filled instead of exchanged. I asked them (Ace Hardware also) if they short filed because of the prices, and they did not. I now have 3 bottles in rotation for brewing and happily take them to Ace Hardware for refills.

Cheers
Preston

I ran out of propane right in the middle of a boil one time. My next batch was brewed with natural gas. I have never been happier. I did have to modify one of my burners though, to get it to work with the lower pressure gas; but now everything works great. Barring an extreme catastrophe, I will never run out of gas again.

Darin

lol... Yeah Natural Gas is sweet, if you can use it without damaging your stove. That wort cooks itself onto the paint so well that in a bit of a drunken brew cleanup I scratched the paint right off the stove with a brillo pad. I only use it to keep my water pot heated now, and stick to the propane outside. I guess if I could tap into the gas line that would be ideal. I could brew outside, make a drunken mess and not get bitched at!

I use Blue Rhino tanks, but I only exchange when they get all rusty and unsafe.  Otherwise I go to the local hardware store and they fill it right in front of me.

Yeah, I brew outside. My water heater is conveniently located in an outside closet, near a big cement pad where I brew. I just tapped into the natural gas that feeds my water heater. Technically, according to the gas pressure, the pipe size and hose length, I shouldn't have enough gas flow to run both burners. But that is definitely not the case.

Darin

dhaenerbrewer said:

Yeah, I brew outside. My water heater is conveniently located in an outside closet, near a big cement pad where I brew. I just tapped into the natural gas that feeds my water heater. Technically, according to the gas pressure, the pipe size and hose length, I shouldn't have enough gas flow to run both burners. But that is definitely not the case.

Darin

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That's awesome Darin... How hard was it to figure out... Just out of curiousity?

It wasn't too hard. The biggest frustration was the many tripe to the hardware store to get different parts. I didn't plan very well.

Darin

yeah, I guess that's to be expected. It seems like any time I work on something I end up making numerous trips to the store!lol.
Maybe one day I'll tackle the swich to natural gas. For now, I just have to make sure I've got enough propane for the boil, even if it means filling a tank that's not empty...  :-[