Regarding Steverhnm's suggestion to search for "CNG FILLING STATION SOUTH TEXAS" -- What I found so far were service stations for filling truck/car fuel tanks, not our propane-type of tanks. But I'll continue to call around and see if any of those listed in the search results can help. Thanks.
CNG refill source in Texas??
- Thread starter davjonLegend
- Start date
Agreed. Natural Gas is cheap, relatively safe (see discussion), a natural resource that is plentiful, and used throughout the country safely. It is the compression that drives the equation of "availability" that makes CNG for boats so hard to get. Liability certainly will keep self fill stations from allowing the home made fill adapters to be used. By the way, tanks for cars are generally "small" tanks - maybe not as small as boat tanks, but small. They also have small tanks used for fork lift trucks, etc. Unfortuantely, boats are just not a big enough user for a supply chain of fill stations to be built. I have no idea where the "tank exchange" outfits get their CNG. What we really need on this site is a sticky with locations where tank exchange can be done. By the way, does anyone have any old empty CNG tanks (in the southeast) they have removed from their boats in the conversion to LPG that they want to give away - I'll take them so I'll have something to exhange!
For boats, the use of CNG, even with the higher pressures required for the tanks is still safer by all measurable standards. Would you intentionally introduce an explosive gas that is heavier than air into a system that has low pressure piping, fittings, burners, valves, etc that is contained in a watertight enclosure unless you had to? I wouldn't but as stated, availability has driven the equation. I have no doubt that someday I'll probably have to convert to LPG, but I really don't want to, I'll be forced to do so. Right now I don't use that much CNG doing limited cruising.
Do you really have a "propane-type of tank?" Most tanks I have seen for CNG look more like SCUBA tanks than propane tanks?
Thank you, someone here gets the point, I dont know who would let a guy come to a filling station and let them fill cng in a scuba tank, its like letting people fill an empty milk jug for gas. its against the law. it clearly has to be red for gas ! and yellow for diesel. and so on for cng.
Frankie - no need to get snippy. I did not say they WERE SCUBA tanks, I said they looked more like SCUBA tanks than regular "propane type tanks". I don't know of any CNG tank that looks like a propane tank but maybe they do have one. CNG tanks are clearly marked as such, have threads that are "left handed" and are not SCUBA tanks. They look a lot like a SCUBA Tank and are similar in many respects, just regulated by a different government agency. I agree that liability issues probably limit if commercial cng stations can fill personal boat type CNG tanks brought in and rightly so, and I have no problem with that. I was only pointing out that LPG is not inherently safer than CNG, particularly in a boat.
The purpose of asking if anyone had any used CNG tanks was mostly "tounge in cheek." There are legitimate vendors that take empty CNG tanks, recertify them and hydro them if required (marking they due date of the next required Hydro) and then refill them for exchange. They will take an empty tank that is overdue for Hydro in exchange. The last time I checked it was about $80 or so for an exchange and in excess of $300 if you did not have one to exchange. There is about $1.50 worth of CNG in a typical tank (CNG is CHEAP) so I assume the rest of for "handling" and all they have to go through to fill the tanks legally. The high cost of a tank without an exchange is the cost of a new certified CNG tank and it "ain't cheap."
Yeah, i fill my tank for $1.50, lasts me a long time. Very happy with it. Glad it's not propane. Making a fill device was the only option i had in my opinion. If you are not comfortable filling your own tank, don't do it. It's a free country. At least it will be until some safety guy decides the government needs to control that part of my life too. . The several thousand bucks to convert to propane was out of the question. Not to mention how dangerous that stuff is in a confined space. I got news for you, the guys filling tanks for 80 bucks are filling them the same way i am....
This is correct. Our chandlery does exactly this. The cost has risen over the past 18 years from $12 to $30 for a tank swap. The reason is recertification of the tanks.
Stu -- Per my original question, I wish I could find a place for a tank swap here on the Texas Gulf coast, as you seem to have in SF.
I understand, they are becoming few and far between. Our chandlery was prepared to stop the swaps, but due to customer demand, they decided to continue. It took some time for them to get enough tanks recertified before they again had a regular supply. They fill them up right in their yard, and an earlier post is right, the CNG costs next to nothing.
Maybe it would be a good idea to start a sticky post where people can post locations where they can do a tank exchange?
Unless they have stopped: Bert Jabin's Boat Yard, 7310 Edgewood Rd, Annapolis, MD 21403 - (410) 268-9667
I know that doesn't help you along the Texas Gulf Coast but maybe we can start a trend.
Unless they have stopped: Bert Jabin's Boat Yard, 7310 Edgewood Rd, Annapolis, MD 21403 - (410) 268-9667
I know that doesn't help you along the Texas Gulf Coast but maybe we can start a trend.
Smokey73 -- Having a list of locations (name & city) still supplying portable CNG tanks would be a great benefit to us. Not sure how to create a "sticky post", but I think this forum thread may be as good a place as any.
BTW -- I re-checked, and my tank is a scuba-style (80 cu ft), not a propane-type as I said earlier.
Thanks again to everyone for the feedback.
BTW -- I re-checked, and my tank is a scuba-style (80 cu ft), not a propane-type as I said earlier.
Thanks again to everyone for the feedback.
