1 pound propane tank refill coupler

[slowz1k]

I use alot of the 16oz propane tanks for small space heaters and lanterns, and found that the cost was starting to add up at around $2.50 a tank.
My brother hooked me up with this coupler this past Christmas that should save me a bunch of cash. I'm only now getting a chance to try it out and thought I'd share with you guys.
I filled 7 1 pound tanks Thursday evening. Each tank takes only about 30 seconds to fill after sitting in the freezer for about 5 to 10 minutes. The coupler worked flawlessly and I highly recommend one to anyone who uses these small tanks.

[Demorian]

Excellent item, thanks for the heads up. Going to have to pick one up this week at Harbor Freight when I am up there.
Luckily I am such a pack rat I still have 25 of the empty 16oz tanks in the garage

[kenno]

I bought one of those valves a decade back. The instructions said nothing about chilling the smaller bottles so it never worked properly for me. Thanks for the heads-up!

[hubste5]

Anybody crunched the numbers on this? How many fills per tank? It has to be a huge savings, just wondering how much...

[kenno]

I would say, off the top of my head, 50%

[slowz1k]

The top of Kenno's head is pretty darn close.
I figure a refill on a 1 pound tank comes to around $1.17 a bottle using the local Lowes price of $17.49 for a 20lb tank with empty trade in (nets 15lbs of propane) before tax. (A 20lb tank with no trade in is $30.00)
Lowes 2-pack of 1 pound tanks are $5.38 before tax, or $2.69 per tank. $1.52 in savings per tank.

[slowz1k]

I'm bumping this thread due to some recent conversation in General Prep. This is an old thread, but I thought it might be good for any newcomers to see exactly what it is we're talking about. This would also be the perfect place for Echo2 to post pics of his propane filling station that he's making (Hint Hint) :D

[Echo2]

For me it's more the convenience of being able to keep the lanterns going...w/o having to have 5000 1 lb bottles laying around...:)