I was reminded today, as I was having my propane tank filled at Costco, of an old tank I had in Calgary.

It was past it's prime but still in it's useful life. The law gives us 10 years on a tank and then makes it difficult to impossible to fill again. In Calgary there was a way to have it done, but it ended up being stupid. You paid a fee, around $10, to have it “officially” inspected and then you could fill it once! A new one was more, of course, but at $10 a year it was going to defeat it's purpose very quickly, and $30 for a new one was not a bad deal.

So we had this old tank, about 8 or 9 years old, and we were taking our barbecue, so we decided to take the old cylinder with us. The moving company said they would not take a partly full propane cylinder, so it was up to us.

I had the story a bit wrong, and assumed that they would take an empty cylinder, so I went down to the gas station where we bought propane to see if they could purge the tank for me so the movers would take it (this was wrong as I found out later).

I put the partially filled cylinder down by the tanks and went inside to talk with the people. They told me it was illegal to remove the propane from a cylinder and spray it into the air, and they only purged new tanks to remove air.

I was crushed, but went out to get the cylinder and leave. The guy asked me for $10 and I asked what for.

“For the propane filling”, he said!

“No, no!”, I said. This was wrong, big-time.” I wanted an empty cylinder, not a full one”.

The gas station people were besides themselves. They couldn't empty mine now, as it was illegal, so they had to give me a new one, empty and ready to use!

The movers said they couldn't take it anyway, so I threw it in the car and drove east.

I kept it for the next 10 years!