The wife was just griping about having to pay the propane tank rentals. I’ve never worked the math on rent versus buy, but I’ll bet some of you have. Would I be better off buying?

I bought mine.

Buy. If you rent you pay what that provider charges.

I bought mine on Craigslist. Gives me the option to shop around.

Do they have to be inspected and recertified like the smaller tanks? If so who pays for that if you buy?

Bought mine for the new house.

500 gallon buried. Think it was $2400. Filling was more of course.

I suppose I need to do my homework on rent vs buy. And I’d like the generator tank to be larger than what we now have.

We started to buy ours, but we heard natural gas lines were being installed in our area. So when the Zia gas line got to us we ditched propane, price of fuel dropped and no more rental.

I never knew they rented them. I bought mine And they are buried.

We rented a tank for around 25 years out north of McKinney and the rental ran around $80.00 a year...if my math isn't modern, that was approx 2 grand over the quarter century and they took care of everything...it was already there whenever we bought the place so we just swapped it into our name at that time...we got some kind of miniscule discount on propane for renting their tank but I don't know or recall how paltry it was... whenever we sold the place it was easy peasy no muss no fuss to leave the tank and its future to others...

Always bought mine.....................

We rented ours. It was over $2400 to buy it. With the rental comes replacement of any part that’s attached to the tank if it quits working or fails inspection. Rental fee which includes a yearly inspection that’s required runs $80. The price of fuel isn’t determined by owning or renting, and this tank will need replacing long before I would’ve broke even in 30 years.

Buy

Ours came with the house but the previous owner was renting so we did the same. After a couple of years we bought ours. The only benefit to me by buying it was to be able to shop gas prices. There are times during the year when you can save some money by shopping price.

Buy and Bury. Done.

Been a few women who have said that too.

I guess if you want to shop prices every time you fill up then it might be worth buying, but if you want to shop prices once a year most companies will buy the tank from the other company with little or no cost to you.

We were quoted $5000+ to buy & bury and then we owned it and if it ever failed inspection then we were responsible for repairs. My neighbor buried his, it’s constantly submerged and he’s always pumping water out of its hole. I really don’t understand why people want to own one of these

I have Natural Gas...........

A man that worked for a propane company as both a driver and piping installer on new homes told me he wouldn't have one buried. He said they cost twice as much and leaks are hard to find unless under water.

Some pros and cons are, if you own you can shop gas prices. They really don't need that much maintenance.

With some dealers if you rent, and it springs a leak, the lost gas is at their expense vs. yours. Plus any and all maintenance is at their expense.

There are pros to each side, just whatever melts your butter.

When I built my house, I rented it through Ferrell Gas. Which means they are the only ones who an fill it. Which means they can charge fifty cents a gallon more than their competitor. After two years I bought it from Ferrell Gas for a third of what it cost new.

You done good.

For me, the main justification was being able to bury it. I don't want to look at tank in my yard.

So besides a local gas dealer, where you can buy these from a wholesaler? manufacturer?

Rent mine and I've never had to ask for delivery. When they are around, if I can hold another 100 gallons, they leave it.
Driver came by and told me about a coming increase and thought he'd check, yep, left me 100. It's convenient for me and I know some that own that don't keep a close check and they have ran completely out and have spent several cold nights before they could get anyone out.
Had a tornado turn mine over at night once and they were there and hour after I called them and they fixed it pronto. I went out after it turned over and shut the gas off, didn't lose much, but they went ahead and changed the regulator cause they didn't like the way it looked, just to be safe.