Residential Propane: Looking for Tips to Get the Best Price or Supplier

[NateW]

We recently moved into a house that is heated in part with propane (has a heat pump too) and has a buried 400 gallon propane tank. This is the first home we have owned that uses propane and I don't know much about shopping around for the best supplier. There are several where I live. The tank is leased from one of them. My initial thoughts are to simply use the supplier the previous owner used, which is the company that owns the tank, but thought I would seek the wisdom of the Forum first. Thanks.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

When I had propane I was stuck with the company that owned the tank unless I was willing for them to take it away. Depends on the terms of the contract, I’m sure.

Check and see if they have a deal to fill it at a reduced rate in the off season. Like cable companies, I had to call them annually and get them to reduce our rate increases a bit.

YMMV

 

[bltkmt]

In our area (southwest CT), it is a frustrating endeavor - prices are all over the map, and you really need to negotiate. Suppliers are not very forthcoming on pricing.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire23]

My previous home was heated by propane. I usually found the best deal by filling my 500lb. tank around the end of July or early August.

If I needed a refill in late February or early March, I would usually only buy 100 gallons or so to get me through until late spring when I could wait it out until prices were lower.

 

[braumeister]

We had a propane heated home about 20 years ago and the local supplier (who provided the tank) was unreliable and unpleasant to deal with.

I asked around and found a larger outfit who offered a deal. If I bought a new tank from them (not really that expensive) I would get a guaranteed low propane price for the next three years.

So I jumped at that -- bought a bigger tank than the one I had (500 gal vs 300). Told the local place to take their tank back because I didn't need it any more. The new company took care of hooking up the new tank and putting the old one out by the road for pickup. Easy all around.

So I think what you want to do is just call several suppliers and see what they will do for you. I typically bought in fall and winter. Prices didn't vary that much over the course of the year.

 

[Brat]

When we lived on Bainbridge Island our home was heated with propane. We owned a large buried tank. We called around for our first fill and found that some providers only filled tanks they owned unless we paid a huge premium. I concluded that their business model included tank rental. Ultimately we settled on Ferrellgass. They were fantastic.

 

[Happyras]

We had propane in our Snohomish home and had our service from Skagit Farm Supply. Extremely fair pricing, great service AND each year we received a dividend check as they were a coop. We kept on getting the checks each year for many years after we moved, hard to figure, but not taxable as it was considered a rebate on purchases in prior years.

Check on local coop supply's for the best price.

 

[Lakedog]

Every place I've lived with propane, I believe that rental tanks could only be filled by the company that owned them. You could buy a tank if you wanted it buried, but you could not bury a rental tank. My current home has a buried tank which I own but there are only a couple of sources for propane so not much price competition. One company has a sale every September where you can buy propane in advance but whatever you buy at sale prices must be delivered within 12 months.

 

[zinger1457]

As others have stated out here in AZ if you lease a tank you can only get it filled by the company leasing you the tank, need to verify how it works where you are. If you are forced to buy from the company you are leasing the tank from do everything you can to purchase the tank, otherwise they can charge you pretty much what they want to fill the tank and there isn't much you can do about it. I initially leased my tank until I found out they were charging me ~$1/gal more than friends who owned their tank, they also claimed they were charging me a higher rate because I wasn't using enough each year. You won't have those issues if you own a tank. Called the company I was leasing the tank from and they offered me a good deal to purchase the tank. If you have Ferrellgas where you are get on their monthly promotion email list, they send out some good discounts.

 

[NateW]

Thank you all for commenting. This really helps and gives me something to go on.

It's a buried tank. The house sales contract states the tank is leased from Suburban Propane. Suburban's web site notes that if you are leasing a tank owned by another company they will gladly fill it. Perhaps other companies will do the same due to a custom or a state law where I live.

I'll call some of the other companies first and see how forthcoming they are concerning tank owning vs. leasing propane pricing before I call Suburban.

Good tip about cooperatives. We do have Southern States as a supplier and I know they were a cooperative many years ago (and perhaps still are) when my parents purchased heating oil from them. I'll give them a call first.

 

[jimbee]

My previous home was heated by propane. I usually found the best deal by filling my 500lb. tank around the end of July or early August.

If I needed a refill in late February or early March, I would usually only buy 100 gallons or so to get me through until late spring when I could wait it out until prices were lower.

This is good advise. I don't have propane heat, but my mom does. Later summer is a good time to fill the tank, when demand for propane is lower.

 

[pb4uski]

Thank you all for commenting. This really helps and gives me something to go on.

It's a buried tank. The house sales contract states the tank is leased from Suburban Propane. Suburban's web site notes that if you are leasing a tank owned by another company they will gladly fill it. Perhaps other companies will do the same due to a custom or a state law where I live.

I'll call some of the other companies first and see how forthcoming they are concerning tank owning vs. leasing propane pricing before I call Suburban.

Good tip about cooperatives. We do have Southern States as a supplier and I know they were a cooperative many years ago (and perhaps still are) when my parents purchased heating oil from them. I'll give them a call first.

In our area, if the propane company owns the tank then they are the exclusive supplier... if you own the tank then you can shop around.

While I've never done it, my recollection is that if you change propane companies that there is sometimes a mechanism where the new company buys the tank from the old company so they don't have to come and take out the buried tank and have the new company put in a new buried tank.

We have two above ground 125 gal tanks in series and each holds 100 gal of propane since they only fill them to 80% of capacity... so 200 gal in total when both tanks are full.

Around here there are numerous "buying groups" where people join together and negotiate with various propane suppliers for the next's season's worth of propane or fuel oil. Our group had changed suppliers to the supplier that we happened to have at the time and has had that same supplier since. The leader of our buying group recently told me that he expects that we'll be looking at a 20% increase in price... from $1.50 to ~$1.80. That's ok... our contract price in 2014-2015 was $1.99.