We bought our house in 1999 and it uses propane for heat and cooking. The builder allowed a propane company to install an underground tank and retain ownership of the tank. Apparently this is common and requires you to purchase your propane from that supplier at whatever price they set. Even though the initial propane price seemed fair, I asked what it would take to own the tank. I was told it would cost $1100 and that I would have to maintain it myself. I decided to wait one season and see what winter prices were like.

Lucky for us, the builder made another mistake when building the house. They forgot to insulate the roof over the family room and we didn’t realize it until the following summer. So all I knew come spring was that I burned enough propane the first winter to justify buying the tank. The propane supplier wasn’t happy, but I got very little hassle other than some dire warnings of “being on my own”. I now get my propane from a dealer that will sell me an entire year’s worth of propane at the summer price, store it for me, and deliver what I need each month.

Yes, there is a risk that the tank will fail, but probably not for 30+ years. Yes, I have to ‘maintain’ it but that means replacing regulators every 15 years. I just had this done for the first time and it was less than $200. So I am confident that I have saved enough over 15 years to buy several entirely new tanks, including the cost of installation.

Recently I have noticed that the smaller dealers like my original dealer have been bought up by some really large players. Now the price difference between independent and locked-in customers seems much higher than before. So, after this past “polar vortex” winter I compared propane prices with a new neighbor. He was stunned when he saw my propane price. If he had paid for his propane at my price the difference would have paid for his propane tank in just that one winter. Within a few months he had purchased his tank.

Not everyone is so lucky. Some propane suppliers are using high pressure tactics and outright lies to prevent customers from buying back their propane tanks. They will claim that your only option is to pay all sorts of fees. Some vendors simply refuse to respond and force the customer to bring in lawyers before they agree to a sale. So I was very pleased to read a blog post by someone in a nearby town who found a way to force the issue with his supplier.

With all the TV and newspaper consumer advocates out there you would think that this issue would be discussed more often. And the folks with the most to gain, the independent propane suppliers, don’t seem eager to educate potential customers. So maybe giving this issue a bit more exposure will help.

I have always had a problem pouring rinse aid into a dishwasher. Now I am starting to think this could be by design. I mean, who benefits if I waste rinse aid? The same guys who designed the bottle and spout.

If you don’t want to overfill and waste the liquid then you have to pour slowly. This is because it is hard to see how close to full the dispenser is,until it is full. At the same time it is very hard to pour rinse aid slowly without spilling because of the tiny hole and the fact that rinse aid is watery. As soon as you tip the bottle you get a spurt out, then it has to stop to breathe in and then it spurts out, etc. This spurting makes it very hard to aim and very easy to miss the hole.

At first I thought I was just doing it wrong and maybe someone had created a video of the correct way. The first video I found was by Sears. Even the person making that video couldn’t pour the rinse aid without spilling it outside the fill cup. Then they wiped up the spill. The instructions on the bottle of every brand specifically mentions wiping up any spills. If spills are that common it seems to point to a bad design.

Of course you could pour the rinse aide into something smaller like a measuring cup, and then pour from that into the fill cup, but then you are wasting the liquid that coats the measuring cup, and you have one more thing to wash.

My approach now is to screw the cap off of the bottle and pour the rinse aid directly from the neck of the bottle. This works pretty well, except when the bottle is full. A full bottle is still a challenge because the cup is recessed into a large flat door and there is no easy way to get the neck of a tall full bottle down close to the cup. This especially true for people like me who get dishwasher rinse aid at Costco where the bottle is even taller than normal.

Now I save the last empty rinse aid bottle and I refill it part way from the new full bottle. I can tip the half full bottle almost to horizontal and get the neck down to the fill cup without spilling. Nothing is wasted and nothing extra to wash.