October last year our propane company called to inform us they were upgrading their tanks with the latest in remote monitoring. They sold this as the best thing ever. Remote monitoring, real time communication between the tank, us, them, blah blah blah. Me being an old, kidding more like a skeptic, of anything new was hesitant. But I like to be flexible and trust that technology only betters us. So we said sure, come on out and upgrade it.

November comes and goes, tank reads 77%, December comes and goes, tank reads 77%. I started to get leery as I know we've been using propane since Dec. November was mild in temps, so I didn't fret as much. Well this cold snaps happens, still at 77%. I call on Monday and talk to the gal at the desk, she signs into their portal and see the same 77%. Then she says, go out and slam the lid a few times. That should free up the gauge. WHAT THE H#LL slam the lid??? OK. I also asked her to schedule a tech come out this week. After slamming the lid, it drops to 71% percent. So in 3 months we've only used 6%? No way!?

Technician shows up today. I meet him outside and tell him what's going on. He tells me these new gauges are sticking for many of the clients. He slams the lid, taps the gauge, for no change. He then proceeds to connect his truck to the tank and starts pumping, and pumping, and pumping, and pumping, and pumping. We had 30% left and it took 246.49 gallons @ $2.7 = $666 later we're back to 80%.

I'm now out in my lawn yelling at people to stay off my brown grass, because what else am I to do.

Long rant short...keep an eye on new tech. We could have easily ran out of gas had I not trusted things.

Dependence on cheap computer chips and poor programming will be the end of us all.

Ferrell Gas?

Surprised she didn't tell you to unplug and wait 5 minutes.

The ferrell switch should be fine on a four month old unit.
They are a simple mechanical mechanism and should be good for at least
ten years.


Disregard, I was thinking mechanical coupler switch.

Enderby Gas

According to the technician several people have ran out of gas because they haven't been watching it like I have. With so many having issues, I'm surprised they didn't notify customers.

He also said, I may need to rebuild my tank as the connections / senders my need replacement. But they won't do that until the Spring.

We used to have a big propane tank at work to fill our forklift tanks ourselves.
Ferrell gas came in and removed the big tank and provided us with the individual forklift tanks they refill weekly.
It's been a chit show since.,bad valves on tanks that won't close. We are lucky there hasn't been any bad accidents from propane burn from the serious leaks when a line is hooked up to tanks.

I finally got amerigas online in chat, only took 3 days. same thing except I can't see the needle on one tank and we got the senders about a yr. ago.

told the chat guy this was an emergency fill I needed and he said okay, they will be there whithin 24 hrs. this was at about 0900 this morning and so far no propane.

the end I have propane on has frozen hot water lines for some reason, still get a trickle but can't get water to run so the heater fires off.

in other words, right now things here at the ranch are afu.

Damn Hop, I'm sorry man. We're lucky to not have any freezing that I know of. The weather is changing tomorrow, so that'll help.

Glad we got natural gas that comes directly from Duke Energy... Dan

What size New Balance do you wear?

Funny you should say that I got into a fight with a propane tank on a fork lift this morning and it just pissed ice cold propane all over me it got me good enough to feel the burn but not like scald my skin . Took the tank up there and argued with them a little but they ended up just swapping the tank no charge little hassle . Where do you y’all get your propane ?

Businesses have figured out lots of customers will believe anything and well, not so bright. We are cutting our own throats.

I always prefered dipsticks on all my tanks,...