If you were a business, would you fill the propane bottle back to previous levels if no customers complained?

Home Despot (not a typo) already got used to that revenue stream, giving you more propane would only cut into executive bonuses.

Saw that the other day on MSNBC. I don't use the cylinder exchange programs, but take my tanks to a local U-Haul center to have it filled. Still cheaper and it is my tank.

Something I did notice this weekend - typically I always do the oil changes in my 2 vehicles, but for the past year had been using a local place. This weekend I did the oil changes and found the that oil now is sold in containers that have a "new and improved spout for easier pouring" and is packaged as one gallon rather than 5 quarts. Of course, the gallon price is what you used to pay for 5 quarts. 5 quarts is pretty typical for most passenger cars and I have never had a vehicle that took 4 quarts of oil or less. So now I have to buy the 1 gallon container for $13 and one quart for $3. WTF? Just another way to screw you.

@trademarked67: Typo - the one gallon container was $11, not $13.

These bastards never stop...

Yet another reason why I prefer a natural gas grill to propane. I was tired of running out and having to go fill the tank - now I just light the grill and use the time saved to enjoy some cold suds!

Given I use propane to power the torch I use to melt glass, yes, I would be pissed off to find out I was being shorted. Somehow I think the same people who aren't upset would be angry to find out they were getting .9 gallons instead of a full gallon at the pump for their cars.

Incidentally I get my 100 lb torch tank filled at my welding dealer, the bbq tank goes to a reputable independent hardware store.

There's pretty much no regulation on propane (aside from safety concerns, of course), so it's not much of a shock that they're pulling this. Even worse when you use it as a household fuel source (cooking/heating) as the difference in prices between suppliers can be staggering (several dollars per gallon).

@Blueskylaw: Somebody else said something about fuel costs being "absorbed" into daily operations nowadays, so you're right--they'd have to now be willing to lose money if they were to give it back.

You know if the price starts rising again they'll cut it down to 12-13 gallons per fill.

@Blueskylaw: It's crap like this that makes people hate business in general. It's criminal, plain and simple. Consumers expect a full tank of propane. They are no longer getting the full tank. This is a breach of contract at a minimum. What arse came up with this brilliant idea should be exposed.

I just checked the two tanks I have. When one is empty I get it filled and swap to the full one so there is no running out.

Both are from Blue Rhino. One is labeled as having 17 pounds from sometime last year and one is labeled as 15 pounds from sometime this year. I never would have noticed without seeing this information. Now the tank won't last as long requiring an extra trip every now and then.

Yes, Mr. Home Depot, I didn't complain because you hid the change. How about labeling it with $/pound along with the total charge?

That's why we need more Hank Hill and less M. F. Thatherton in our propane and propane accessories.

This is why I go to a station that fills my propane tank while I wait--you pay by the litre, kg, or m^3 (can't remember which, but underfilling means I pay that much less--they may as well fill'er up). Why would you buy it prefilled?

We just went on Saturday to have tanks filled, and I noticed that the last tank that my wife had grabbed at swap in a rush was labeled 15 lbs. Boy was I upset. We normally get our tanks filled at a BJ's Wholesale but we were having a party and needed a tank fast. We won't be using the swap again. I think I may buy a 3rd tank, to make sure we always have an emergence spare. Especially considering the swap tank was 22, for 15 lbs, and the BJ's fill Was 11.50 for 18.

How funny that I saw this article today! Just yesterday I had to change a tank on my grill. I have a spring loaded gauge that you hang the tank on to show how full the tank is. When I hooked it up, it was only 4/5 full! And we're just supposed to sit back and accept that this is the way it is?! I guess I just won't use Blue Rhino to swap tanks anymore. I always did like charcoal better!

@trademarked67:

I wish I could get those here, assuming they are charging you less than they did for 5 quarts. My corolla uses 4 quarts and as such I end up having to combine containers each change. Sure, after 4 oil changes the 5th's free, but what a pain.

@shepd:

People buy it filled with those cylinder exchanges because they're more convenient. All sorts of stores have the exchanges, they're open at all hours as opposed to getting to a refill place when they're open.

It's an expensive way to go. Fortunately, I only use one cylinder every three years. Prefer charcoal.

@Applekid: Stupid Thatherton.

I only run a 100 lb tank in my house for my propane stove. The tank is from home depot, and only costs me $200 every year. The small local company comes out and fills her up for us and we get the stamp for how many gallons we paid for. I'd bring my little cook tank to their business in town any day of the week.

I don't trust those cylinder exchanges.

Last week I decided I would get my tanks filled instead of exchanging them. It was surprisingly hard to find someplace that would fill them. Every place I checked had converted to an exchange program.

I ended up at a Flying J truck stop. $2.799 a gallon and a 20# tank holds about 4 gallons. They even filled my Blue Rhino tank for me.

Some U-haul locations also fill tanks.

@zentec:

There's three propane gas stations that I know of near me, and one is a 24 hour one. The nearest cylinder exchange place is actually a further away drive than the 24 hour station. This in in a city with a population of ~200k. Maybe propane is just more popular here. Some places here do sell conversion kits to convert your car to run on propane or LNG, although they aren't very popular except with taxi cabs.

@trademarked67: Walmart is the retailer that sells the 5 quart jugs. Others might also, but they are the one that always has 5 quart jugs. Most auto parts stores have gallon jugs.

@shepd: Free oil. haha. That is hilarious.

When your oil is on sale, buy a years worth.

@Applekid: Hank certainly didn't leave Jeans West for a scandal like this.

Gas stations, equipment rental places, hardware stores. Always cheaper to refill than swap out.

I guess I don't understand.....

If a person is paying by the gallon for something...

.... and someplace does not put as many gallons in it for some reason....

..... Wouldn't they be paying LESS since they got less gallons?

And why would a store which charges by the gallon purposely sell less gallons... wouldn't they be losing money?

@trademarked67: So instead of $15 for 5 quart-sized bottles, you paid $14 for 1-gallon and 1 quart. How exactly is saving you a dollar screwing you?

@coan_net: The thing is, places like Home Depot don't charge by the gallon-they charge by the tank. You bring an empty tank, they give you a full one. Or 'full' one, as it stands. Since the tank isn't really full and the price has remained the same, the cost per gallon effectively went up.

@coan_net:

Because with these exchanges you leave an empty container and take a "full one". You pay a flat charge for the new bottle.

Example: Here locally I think it's $18 for a new bottle when leaving the old one. So $18 for only 15lbs of propane when before this the bottle would have had 18lbs of propane. When propnae prices went up the companies lowered the fill amount to preserve profit margins. Now that the propane is cheaper they could go back to the original 18lb fill and the old profit amount or keep filling with 15lb at a higher profit.

@olderbudwizer: I'm running natural gas to my grill this summer (and replacing the burner with the built-in orifices, which Weber kindly supports and sells).

Natural gas is colder, though, and wetter. I use the charcoal grill for stuff like BBQ where it matters anyway.

@Dansc29625: I'll add outdoor equipment dealers to the nice list above! (Although in these parts, the gas stations are mostly switching to exchanges, the weasels!)

@shfd739: They should've never gone down to the 15 to begin with.

They should have at least told people they were doing that, and/or given them a discount (the discount would just be a nice bonus).

It's BS that some people are accepting one and not the other.

@shfd739: Go back to the old profit amount?!? Are you some kind of anti-capitalist socialist America hater or something?!?!?

I just avoid the trade-in your tank for a new one ripoff stores. I have 3 tanks and go to a location that fills the tanks on site. These tanks can hold up to 20 lbs. of propane. A fully (20 pounds) filled tank lasts me at least a month.

The really sad thing is that the "new" tanks you get are almost always in such crappy shape that you wouldn't want them anyway. I actually had WalMart refuse to accept the exact same tank they had given me just a few weeks earlier in exchange for my brand new tank (I didn't realize the side burner was on, and ended up wasting the entire tank). Home Depot took it, though.

@trademarked67: because the large container used to be 5 quarts and is now a gallon (4 quarts).

I just avoid the hassle and fill my tanks at about 1.75 to 2 dollars a gallon. Which means a 20lb tank since thats about 5 gallons costs me $10 to fill, not the almost $30 they charge for the prefilled.

@Cletus:
That's the best way to do it, even at @2.80 a gallon you only spend about $12-13. Half the exchange where I'm at.

The shrink ray is bad, but at least it has to be truthful. This is like if the gasoline industry decided to define a gallon of gas as 3 quarts without telling anyone. Except Weights and Measures would take notice, as they should would propane; but the government is too busy banning chimpanzees, securing the Canadian border, etc.

@morlo: The label on the tank says 15 lbs. I don't think it's a weights and measures issue. It's just that they know people assume a 20 lb tank would have 20 lbs in it and aren't going to read the label.

You don't take the fuel tank off of your car and swap it out for another one when you run out of gas, why would you do that with propane? I take my propane tanks to the local gas station and have them refilled. I pay for the propane by the gallon, so I only pay for exactly what I get, and I get MY tank back.

@ColoradoShark: My new Blue Rhino tank I bought today was 15lbs. The old one I turned in was 17. Man what a screw job.

@Don't take anything aaron8301 says seriously: Because no gas stations in my area sell propane. They only do tank exchanges. Just like every other hardware or grocery store.

I really had to go out of my way to find a truck stop that sold propane for my last refill.

Looks like the EXCHANGE PROGRAMS grew to overtake the REFILL PROGRAMS. Lots of refillers have switched over to being exchangers only. It really sucks when a fast and convenient feature (exchanges) MORPHS into a big rip-off. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL REFILLERS or they will cease to exist as you remember them. Say NO to exchangers. The real power is always in the consumers hands, but it takes effort.

Was reading these posts earlier. Looked up propane refillers. Went to one 3 miles away. Exchange $20. Next time near work at the storage facilty.

@layton59: There's a possibility of there being regulation or licensing issues. I'd think the certification would need to be more strict for places to actually refill tanks as opposed to just collecting and exchanging them which may be why they're going with the latter.

That's fraud.

This might actually be a job the government should do.

@ColoradoShark: It sounds like simple fraud to me. If I buy a "refilled tank", the tank should have in fact been refilled. A "partially refilled tank" has not been refilled.

Leave it to Home Depot to come up w/this logic...and from their PR guy talking to the AP no less. Genius. By that logic, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments were OK b/c the patients all died before their noses fell off, or the non-consent autopsies were alright b/c everyone was too dead to complain.

The cylinder exchange is convenient, but many RV / hardware stores will fill a permanent tank just as quick and w/a counter just like a gasoline pump.

I refilled a 15 pound blue-rino tank just this afternoon as a matter of fact. last time I swapped it was because our tank was starting to look really crummy so I swapped it, but when I was picking up the new tank it seemed light, so I asked the guy if I could feel a few other tanks in the cage. To my surprise, they all had different weights, some significantly lighter than others, and they were all the same size tanks. I found the fullest one and swapped for that, but that cost me $19.99.....when I had it filled, it cost me $10.40.

Most people haven't complained because they probably haven't noticed they're being short-changed. You can't tell you're being shorted on propane just by looking. You have to test the level with a cup of hot water.