lease or buy propane tank

fabsroman · Nov 6, 2019

Speed3 said:
But if he owns the tank, he shouldn't be locked into Aero. He can shop around next year for lowest price (aka summer time).

Exactly. The first thing I am telling these company reps is that I am installing my own propane tank so I am not stuck with any single propane provider. Over the summer, I will find the cheapest provider there is and use them to fill the tank again. Will do that each and every summer. The cheapest one per gallon will get my business.

TapRackBang · Nov 6, 2019

I've been calling around the last couple of weeks and the shenanigans are shameful. This industry is almost as bad as car dealers. :sad20:

Lowest will-call price is Thrifty at a $1.20/gallon delivered.

Highest is Suburban at $3.89/gallon plus $14.35 "administrative fee". When I asked the sales rep what makes Suburban service so valuable I should pay three times the price plus an outrageous per-delivery extra fee, she had no answer. Didn't even try. They must have a lot of suckers for customers, or only want commercial business. :shrug:

Highest per-delivery BS "fee" is Amerigas at $24.99! Nucking Futs!

The best deal for automated delivery is shaping-up to be Corbin Fuel at 1.55/gallon and no delivery fees. Locally-owned, family-run too, so they claim.

Still have a few more to call. I'm keeping a spreadsheet. No rush for me as both my tanks are full, and now I have a gauge!

PJDiesel · Nov 6, 2019

fabsroman · Nov 6, 2019

PJDiesel said:
Suburban are notoriously crooks. I find Dixie Land and Sharp Energy to be the best as far as reliability and price (together).

Thrifty is cheap, no doubt about it. Getting them to actually show up might be more of a challenge.

That is what I was reading about Thrifty. They were cheap on the tank install too, but Lord only knows when they would get around to it. My wife looked at the reviews for Thrifty and told me, "No way, no how."

The tank that is there is owned by Suburban. The yearly rental was $10 and the initial fill was $1.59 per gallon, which sounded great. That is until I read through the contract and started doing some internet research. The $1.59 was for the initial fill only. After that, Suburban would have us by the cajones. Suburban wants $2,000 to install a tank, and that is before the propane fill. Looks like Aero might be the big winner if I can ever get its service manager for Westminster to give me a call back.

TapRackBang · Nov 6, 2019

I have Aero now, which is why I'm shopping around. $2.8x on the recent fill, plus $8.95 BS "fee".

They are nice people, and do have their billing and customer web portal buttoned-down (i.e. useful), but they are expensive.

Thrifty is will-call only. They don't have any autofill plans.

adit · Nov 6, 2019

You can sign up here for the commodity price updates via email. Plug in your address there on the right side and confirm the email. It's the easy way to watch the price trends.

https://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=propane&months=12

Fabs, get the used tank. As long as they aren't physically compromised these tanks will last forever.

Also keep in mind that the summer isn't always the cheapest time to fill. You have to watch the spot pricing, and check the suppliers when the prices dip.

It's also a lot cheaper to get 200 or 400 gallon refills than a 70 gallon top-off. Everyone should keep that in mind when sizing their tank.

lease or buy propane tank

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