I'm planning to get a propane fridge as a backup. My propane co, which currently sells us a measly 10 gallons a year for cooking, refuses to install a larger tank (we have a 50 gallon tank). It would be a major production to switch companies (and they all have the same attitude around here). I'd like to buy a couple of extra tanks of the same size and have them hooked up "in series". Has anyone done this? Any ideas where I could get tanks that might be 1-2 yrs old (still fillable) and would not cost a fortune? So far I have found 100 lb (20 gall) tanks at Home Depot for $79. Who uses these tanks other than LP companies?

-- judy (wednesdayschild@hotmail.com), July 24, 1999

Answers

Judy, We have had the same experence as you. Our Gas co would not give us a 1000 gal tank so I switched co's. I called around and found someone that wanted a new customer. I told I would pay cash and wanted a summer fill up, but they must be able to give me a 1000 gal tank. They asked me why I wanted such a large tank (they like to reserve them for farmers). I told them I do not like buy in bulk. I live my life this way and that is what I want. I told them I pay my insurance only once a year, buy large quanitys of tp when its on sale and I do not want to have the LP tank truck in my yard once a month. It did the trick.... I now have a mini submarine tank in my back yard...FULL

Hope this helps you

PS... Many of the co's I called said they would be happy to install two or even three 500 gal tanks (and tie them together). They are not as selfish with the 500 gal tanks as the 1000 gal ones.

-- bulldog (sniffin@around.com), July 24, 1999.

The folks at out local propane/butane dealer fell all over themselves trying to help me with the purchase of a 1000 gal tank.

I would find it *extreemly* difficult to deal with someone who wants to question what I want a propane tank for. (The phrase "none of you dam business" keeps coming to mind.) Or have propane tanks now been vilified and put on the list of terrorists tools?

I get this picture of a terrorist organization trying to move a 1000 gal. propane tant into placr for their nefarios uses. Achmed say to Abdul "how are we gonna carry this 10,000 lb, 16 foot long tank in out backpacks?" We can only hope that the terrorists out there are this dumb.

-Greybear

-- Got Help?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), July 24, 1999.

The best way to get one of the big 1000 gallon propane tanks is to tell the gas company that you have all gas appliances and heat in your house. Then be prepared to pay about a buck per gallon of capacity. Of course that works up here in cold country. Down south in Greybear's neck of the woods you might find that unless you have an agricultural use (drying grain or tobacco for example), you are going to get a lot of questions for wanting a tank that large.

BTW, Greybear: Maybe Abdul and Achmed want to build a submarine out of that tank. Then they could go attack NYC's water supply aqueduct inlets. The NYC Water Dept Police thought that was going on when a flash flood took somebody's propane tank away from their cabin and into NYC's upstate water resevoir.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), July 24, 1999.

I've been hoping to convert my electric water heaters and stoves (two dwellings) to propane. Here in SW Oregon, some of the local propane companies want to know what appliances you'll be using; they then size the propane tank accordingly. When you tell them you want to also use a propane-fueled generator for y2k), but have no idea how much usage it'll get, so you'll need a bigger tank, they just go blank. Won't even consider giving you a larger tank. On top of all that, you have to agree to use two tanksful per year...if you don't need the second fill-up, they charge you for it, anyway. Such a deal!

They charge about $45-55 per year for the tanks; and propane is now selling at about 95 cents.

-- Norm Harrold (nharrold@tymewyse.com), July 24, 1999.

I know it may be a pain to shop around, but that is what you will have to do. I didn't realize things were SO different around the country. I had to fight with our propane dealer to BUY a 1000 gal tank and get it installed and once they did install it they wouldn't keep it full even though we had contracted to buy 1200 gal of fuel and paid for it. I went round and round with the office staff and finally got to the manager who said that we had more than enough fuel compared to the 500 gal customers even though we specifically told them to keep our tank at 80% (which is all they can safely fill it to). As it turns out it is the driver that wasn't doing his job and was giving me a hard time. (and still is). Since we own the tank, we are going with another company this year and our fuel is at .58 per gal.

Oh we do have a farm, but the tank is not used for the grain bins - it had a separate tank at one time. All of the houses in the small town near us have 500 gal tanks for their furnaces.

Propane tanks can be hooked together, but someone else will have to tell you how to do that. We had been thinking of getting a second 1000 gal tank if time and money permits.

Oh my tank cost $1200 installed.

-- Beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), July 25, 1999.