Welding Tips and Tricks

what size propane bottle should I buy??
I found some 100 lb ers for $50 each
what should a guy pay to get them filled?
thanks,
John

John, a 100# bottle should hold about 25 gallons if I have the math right, so figure that against your local price/gallon. That price may vary widely depending whether you have a propane dealer nearby, or have to go the the RV center or truck stop for a fill.

If you have your own 500# or 1000# for home heating, you *may*, depending on local regulations, be able to get a fill adapter installed and fill it yourself at your bulk price.

Steve S

A pair of 30#ers (common RV size) may be more convenient. They're much lighter, and you don't have to worry about running out in the middle of a project when you have two.

I have these on my RV, and the last time I filled one (7.5 gallons), before winter set in and the price jumped, it was under $30. Prices always tend to be lower on the Gulf coast, though, and I have no idea what prices are in Alaska.

Steve S

John
I would go with the 100#ers. We use them for cutting and I use them for heating my garage. I like the fact they last longer than gas grill tanks. However the smaller tanks will be more portable. My wife hates it when I run out in the garage and come raid the gas grill. I pay $50 for a 100# tank fill but I also get business pricing so am not sure what the street price is.

AKweldshop wrote:what size propane bottle should I buy??
I found some 100 lb ers for $50 each
what should a guy pay to get them filled?
thanks,
John

Depends what you want them for?

I use 5, 20, 43.5, 100 pound cylinders.

The 43.5 lb aluminum forklift tank is nice for the cutting torch, but the 20 lb tanks are more handy - have four of those.

$50 is a decent price on 100 lb tanks around here. Filling price depends on the time of year.

Ok I'm not gonna be doing much portable stuff...
I'm probably gonna replace my 345 cu ft acetylene bottle with this 100 lb propane tank.
That 345 acetylene costs $190 to fill, so I should be saving money by paying $50 --$75 on a profane refill.
How fast does a man go through propane compared to acetylene????
John

AKweldshop wrote:Ok I'm not gonna be doing much portable stuff...
I'm probably gonna replace my 345 cu ft acetylene bottle with this 100 lb propane tank.
That 345 acetylene costs $190 to fill, so I should be saving money by paying $50 --$75 on a profane refill.
How fast does a man go through propane compared to acetylene????
John

There are a lot of calculations you can do to figure this, but I'd bet it's not fast enough that you will care

Try this: http://apps.harrisproductsgroup.com/gascost/

They note that the cutting oxygen is roughly the same, only the preheating flame differs.

I ran some numbers - taking into account the different mixture rates, btu's and such.

After you have used an equivalent amount of propane/oxygen to do an equivalent amount of work as your $190 345 cu.ft. acetylene tank would allow - I see a $100 savings if oxygen is at $20 per 100 cu.ft. and 100 lb propane is $75.

The link I posted roughly agrees with this number.

Our bottle sizes are metric - but the most useful for general use cutting etc is 19kg ( very close to your 43.5 lb ) - it's manageable to cart around & lasts pretty well - I use the 47kg for the large heating torch in the shop & on a small crucible furnace used when casting brass parts & a rivet oven - cutting with propane is OK once you get used to it - not as nice as acetylene - slow to pre-heat & not as clean a cut - you also use more oxygen - but still save over acetylene prices by a good margin - in the future though I want to build a bigger HHO generator & try it out running from an inverter power source as an alternative for heating - I made a few smaller ones a couple of years back when there was a craze for them here after a resurgence of Stan Meyer related stuff due to a sudden rise in fuel prices - not sure how it will work out - but there was a commercial unit sold years back that likely would be popular now if they'd priced it right.

Well in Ontario its costing us about $90 per fill on our 100lbs'rs we use 2 for heating the fab shop on a 50k btu heater. depending where we go it is about $78 at one place(and we get a special rate for getting filled every week) and $90 at another.

And they are telling us there is a shortage and that's why it costs so much.

Oddjob83 wrote:Well in Ontario its costing us about $90 per fill on our 100lbs'rs we use 2 for heating the fab shop on a 50k btu heater. depending where we go it is about $78 at one place(and we get a special rate for getting filled every week) and $90 at another.

And they are telling us there is a shortage and that's why it costs so much.

Yeah just like sitting in line because of "scarce oil" in 1975. I wonder if they masturbate when they see it published or just laugh hysterically ? Bought 100 lbs for the kitchen fri. $67

Our local distributor tells me that it is the cold and conditions. Guess they don't want to go out in cold and get us our fuels