Study Findings
When a consumer purchases a propane tank, they are being charged based on weight. If the weight stamped on the tank isn’t accurate, the price at the end of the process is inaccurate.
Most tank manufacturers will stamp the tare weight on the tank before it’s filled with propane and sold to consumers or retailers. Over time, a tank’s weight can fluctuate when it is repeatedly reused. This means when a tank is refilled, the tare weight is often not checked or the tank is not weighed correctly, making it possible to overfill or underfill the tank. This results in the consumer paying an inaccurate price and creates safety risks.
Out of the thousands of cylinders that were evaluated—both new and used—less than half of the new cylinders, and even fewer of the used cylinders, were in compliance with the existing DOT tare weight requirements. However, after December 28, 2022, almost all of the new cylinders and more of the used cylinders will be in compliance due to the updated DOT regulations.
Many direct sale refilling locations were evaluated throughout the country, and nearly 10% of those locations were improperly verifying the safe fill level of 20 pounds. Out of those refilling locations, most of them passed the overall requirements, but some still exceeded the safe fill level.
Many consumers return a cylinder still containing between 1 and 5 pounds of propane. This causes the consumer to lose money due to an inaccurate weight check.
