Lite Cylinder Product Review
By: Pam Melton
Now here’s a topic that just twinkles your toes – propane! Just kidding, no but seriously….propane is one of those things that has always confounded me. In our house, the husband grills, and I cook. Invariably, over the years, I’ve had to step up and relieve my busy baby in the grilling department. When hubby does want to make room for flexing his grilling muscle, I always get that question, “Honey, do we have plenty of propane?”. Now, have you seen the typical propane tank? If you ask me to close my eyes and pick up a gallon milk jug and render a judgment on how full it is, I can do that…but a propane tank?! Come on, I have no flippin’ idea and never have. In the world of me, there are enough questions that my husband asks for which I have no way of knowing the answer, we really don’t need a product that creates another one of those questions. And it really pisses me off every time I think there’s enough and we run out before the food is ready. Again, I’m not looking for more aggravation in life. Hubby helping to make dinner happen is supposed to be happy time!
Enter a product that I discovered through Twitter® (of all places) – Lite Cylinder®. (You may have noticed their ad on the site.) Anywho, they gave us a cylinder to review (thanks a bunch Lite Cylinder®), and I am sold! Their propane tanks are made of a plastic composite which allows you to see the propane level in the tank. No more guess work! Additionally, the plastic makes the tank lighter and rust-proof. Since we’re not always good about covering our stuff, and we’re known to grill and whatnot on the boat, that whole rust thing is a handy feature.
The way this works is you buy the empty tank and you get it refilled at any place that dispenses propane. Now at first I thought, “that’ll be a pain in the butt”, but it actually wasn’t. A lot of U-Haul locations do it, and they even have a little program that saves you a buck every time you fill up. I also found it at several other regular shopping stops of mine. I guess I never noticed ‘cause I never had any reason to look.
Being lighte r weight, I found the tank very easy to maneuver. Also, since it’s made out of plastic, the handles are more comfortable. There’s really no difference in the hook up process-so that’s pretty much a wash. Overall, the major benefit is being able to see how much propane you have. Now that I’m a Big Easy addict, having propane ranks right up there with having toilet paper. I dig this product a bunch – and in the overall scheme of things, it’s a cheaper way to do propane.
The average price of buying your first 20 lb propane tank is $59 versus $90 for a Lite Cylinder® plus the cost of the initial fill. I was able to get it filled up for $17.50, so the total initial layout is gonna be around $100. If each refill of the Lite Cylinder® runs around $17.50 versus an average $21.99 to exchange the metal tank, at 12 months, the metal variety has cost $323.87, and the Lite Cylinder® has cost $317.50. At the 18th month, you’re looking at $352.50 for the Lite Cylinder® versus $455.81 for the metal. In the world of me, now we’re talking serious bucks – gotta save a penny everywhere I can. The tanks are rated for 15 years, which means a ton of propane for us – we probably do 10 to 15 tanks a year. There’s a label on the tank stating that the cylinder has to be re-certified every 5 years.* Now, I don’t know how much of a pain that’s going to be, so for now, it's gonna cost the Lite Cylinder® a half a fingernail.
I’m gonna give the Lite Cylinder® line of propane tanks 4-1/2 fingernails.
My Big Easy and I are gonna go cook something, hubby'll just have to wait his turn.
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*The word from Lite Cylinder® on re-certification: "Lite Cylinders® are manufactured under special Permit # SP 14562 and are subject to visual and proof pressure test each 5 years from the date of mfg. This prequalification can be preformed by any company holding a RIN permit to do proof pressure testing from the DOT. Most industrial welding distributors can do this testing , while most propane companies can only do visual retesting." Yep - this is worth half a fingernail.
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