I live in Minnesota, needed to get a set of tanks for my hobby
style fabrication work. I went shopping at all the major dealers
to see what the story was. And the stories were all over the map.

Most dealers had radically different plans depending on which
tank you talked about. Small tanks were purchse only, some were
lease only, some were rent only (demurage charge), and some had
options. Even more confusing, different dealers had different
policies for a given size of tank.

I did not find any dealers that would swap an owner tank, you had
to drop it off, get it filled, pick it up 2 days later. Plus you
were responsible for the testing when the date came up. They also
tended to hassle you if you brought in some "olde tanks from my
uncle" They would swap out an owned tank if it had their stamp
on it though.

Leases were the same set of weird deals. One place had a 5 year
lease for $100+ per tank. At the end of 5 years, you had to pay
another $100. Or just slightly less than $5 a month per tank. No
great deal there!

I finally wound up with a 2 year, renewable lease with a $100+
REFUNDABLE deposit on the 122/125 cu ft tanks. I have to bring
them back to the same place, they swap out the tanks, they do the
testing. Every two years they send me a form, do I want to renew?
Sure, no charge. The nice thing is that when I want to shut down
the shop, I just bring the tanks back and get my deposit back. No
need to try to sell them to someone else and make them go through
the hassle of owned tanks. I did this the last time I moved my
shop, sure was nice to not have to deal with trying to bring the
tanks with me.

Cheers.

Don wrote:

My grandfather generously gave me some extra large welding tanks to
replace my little tanks. I called around here and most places said
that I needed to have an origional receipt of sale before they would
fill them. Anyone know why this is and how to get around it. I am not
sure where they origionally came from but my grandpa has had them for
years. I am sure they are not stolen or anything. All I am going to do
is use them at home for farm projects.

The place I trade my small tanks in for had to have the origional sale
from the tank manufacturer. Another place said I could just make up a
receipt from my grandpa and they would have to send the tanks out to
get refilled. (They do not exchange tanks).

What would they do if the tank is expired and is there a way I can
tell on the tank the expiration date?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!