I need your guys opinion whether I should buy or rent gas cylinder. I just bought Hobart 140.

 

just get a lease on a tank from a local welding supply store.

that way you just need to exchange your tank instead of waiting for them to be filled.

all our local tanks are filled 50+ miles away so it is a 1-2 day turn around.

i have a 10 yr lease for $110 on a 330ish cu.ft. tank

 

Some places will only sell the samll tanks, and lease the big tanks. At least that's how it where I live.

 

Um not true, at least not where I live. If your bottle has a current hydro date and its CUSTOMER OWNED they swap the tank out for the exact same size (or bigger if they don't have the same size). Your best bet would be to look locally for someone selling a tank to fit your needs. I just paid 100 dollars for a FULL 150cu.ft. tank that's customer owned.

 

So you exchange tanks when you "own" them, and you don't get "your" tank back?

how is that not leasing a tank, minus the technicality that you OWN this one tank in there batch.?

your not getting your tank back so you don't own it. what if YOUR tank is damaged do they make you pay for a new one, or do they replace it?

get my drift. you may own a tank but your still leasing them.

 

Own the tanks. It is hard to buy 300s but they are worth it if you can find it. Most welding shops won't sell them. I have a 200, 120, and 300. I am looking for a couple more 300s. The last fill I did was an argon/helium mix and I upgraded my 120 up to a 200. I think I am going to do the same thing on my 120 of 75/25 for my MIG. My welding shop was cool enough to trade the 120 up to the 200 for the price of the fill.

As for rent or buy. Just buy. It doesn't matter if you have "your" cylinder or not. They are all the same. I just trade my cylinders in and get different ones everytime. Plus they handle the hydrotest and recertify. So you never have to worry about get your cylinders tested and the down time associated with that. How the hell do you damage a welding cylinder. I have seen cylinders that are as old as the early 1900s. Its not like you take it out in the yard and toss it around.

 

I would like to see someone who could just toss around the big ones, haha.

 

it must be different in our area. i don't think anyone owns tanks just leases them.

well w/e works for you buy, or lease.

 

Well what they do is exchange YOUR tank with another CUSTOMER OWNED tank. They have lease tanks and then OWNED tanks. So you might not be getting your exact bottle back but your getting the same size with the same contents. If you wanted to request that they just fill YOUR tank, you can wait around and have them do just that. We have WestAir, AiRGas and Praxair so its never an issue getting your tank filled.

 

We bought our tanks. Wouldn't suggest leasing (anything) that you don't have to. 300s are far less common then 250s. If you end up getting a bunch of tanks, I'd suggest 250s as you can always swap them out easily (privates). We had a bunch of 300s and we had to drop them off and pick them back up a couple days later. Pain in the ***. I can take 20 250 privates in and swap them same day pretty much anywhere in our area.

 

why don't you suggest leasing? it cost me $100 for 10 yrs and i pay $90 for a fill.

 

all our tanks are owned...you can always find cheap cheap tanks on craigslist

 

Simple. When you lease tanks, they know they've got you, so they jack your argon cost. Instead, we shopped around, bought our tanks from multiple vendors, and setup contract rates with the right company, so we've been paying $26.50 for a 250 argon private swap for the past 5 years. The tank was a one time cost of roughly ~$150 per tank.

 

it sounds like it just depends on whats available in your area. some people made good points about owning tanks but i personally only have/need one tank for home use but its a 300 that i have a 15 year lease on. i thought it was stupid to lease one at first too untill i added up the cost per month and it was only around 75 cents for the lease and only $60 for a fill.

 

airgas seems to screw the smaller business/home fabricator. over here in the northwest we have iws...way better service and unbeatable prices.

 

Airgas is all I'll use in this area. They actually treat me better than the other local welding shops.

 

I use airgas, I have bought 3 cylinders, and they swap them no questions asked every time.

 

Tell me about it. I have a 300 and it's a fukin PITA to get up and out of my basement and into my car, take it out of the car at the welding place and repeat, all by myself. It's not like the guys at the welding supply store offer to help you lift it into the car, they just place the full one on the loading dock and walk away haha