The Five Pound Rip Off

Ever wonder if you're getting a good deal on a propane tank? As you're getting prepared for your summer grillin' chillin' BBQ season, you may want to take an additional, perhaps inconvenient yet money-saving step, and head over to the nearest propane filling station to get your money's worth of propane.

First let's do the math. A propane tank designed for your gas grill has a capacity of 4.7 gallons or 20 LBS of propane. However, when you buy your propane tank at one of the large chain hardware stores, you’ll get tanks that are only filled with 15 LBS of propane. Apparently they cite it as “safety precaution” not to fill their tanks to capacity when they are stored so close together in cages at their stores.

However that doesn’t excuse that they charge upward of what you would pay for a 20 LBS tank filled to capacity. So if you don’t have a tank, make the purchase at one of these stores your first and your last one and subsequently get them filled at the source.

Let’s assume your propane station is a 30 minute trip you normally wouldn’t take. Think of it this way. In return you get five hours of propane time back out of your grill! Yep, with all burners turned on high, a 20 pound propane tank will fuel your fire for about 20 hours. Get your five pounds back!