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High Oxygen Cost $100/tank refill???


KmanTexas
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I was told by several oxygen providers in the Dallas area that they would not supply me with oxygen, even with a doctor's prescription, unless it was to treat Covid.  I finally found a small supplier close to me that didn't ask.  I had to buy two E tanks for $125 each, and then I could exchange tanks to get refills for $40 each.  This works the same as when I buy propane for the outdoor grill, so it kind of made sense.  I'm going through about half a tank per day, and I'm 4 weeks into my episodic cycle.  Today I went to get a refill, and the price is now $100 to exchange an E tank for refill.  They said their oxygen supplier, Airgas, raised the rates over the weekend.  Holy wow, that's expensive!!!  At this rate it will run about $1500/month for oxygen.  Anyone else experiencing this a$$-rape for a simple refill?

 

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@KmanTexas

Wow!!  I do believe ass rape is putting it mildly!!  Old Dallasite here by the way....43 years between Cow Town and big D...we escaped the Metromess a little over 10 years ago!!

So, I wrapped up a 20 week cycle in early May.....I started with a 1/4 full M sized tank, refilled it twice and still have a little over 1/2 a tankfull.......at $22/refill which is the same price I paid in 2015 evidently their cost hasn't increased due to covid!!!  I said screw those idiot medical O2 suppliers many years ago and opted for welding oxygen so granted, I did have an up front investment of $300 for the cylinder and around $75 for a welding oxygen regulator.

Now that's here in far south central Oklahoma.....when I was still in big D I was able to lease a large M sized tank for a $150 deposit and $6/mo with refills (actually exchanges) costing me $18 at Seagoville Welding Supply on 175.

You just can't let em know you're going to breathe it!!  Neither them or my current supplier ever asked me any questions...I walked in, ask for a large tank of weld ox and he wrote it up and took my dollar's.....they're in biz to sell welding gas so they don't care what you're gonna do with it (as long as you don't tell em the truth..lol).....if they should ask, tell em you've got a bunch of heavy scrap metal to cut up and a buddy is loaning you his acetylene rig but he doesn't have an o2 cylinder.....by telling them you're gonna be operating a cutting torch they'll automatically expect that you're gonna need to refill more often.

Get rid of them damned money mongers!! Good luck!

Dallas Denny 

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Wow bs! This is ludicrous! I'm in CA which is a joke but seriously... I pay $1. 73 per tank an get 6 at a time.. never thought another state could compare to our liberal stance. Anyhow I do pay 26,000 per year to have that coverage as a small business.. maybe do the welding 02?

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I'm looking into the welding o2, and it looks like a good solution.  @jon019 and @Dallas Denny, my only reservation is exchanging tanks.  Does your supplier fill your tank, or do you just exchange the empty one for a full one?  If it's my own tank I know where it's been.  Maybe I'm being too paranoid.

The other thing I'm looking at is possibly filling them myself at home.  Some of the medical goods suppliers sell an oxygen compressor that mounts to the top of an oxygen concentrator.  It takes several hours to fill a tank with this setup, and then you just remove the the tank and use as normal.  Since the o2 concentrator wouldn't deliver enough oxygen as needed for a cluster attack this looks like a good possibility.  Has anyone done this before with success?

I haven't read about doing this, but wouldn't it be the same as getting tanks filled by a gas vendor?  It's probably never been an issue since o2 has been so cheap up until now., but at $100/tank it could cost-justify itself pretty quickly.  Three years ago it cost me $65/month for all-you-can-eat oxygen, and they delivered the full tanks to my door any time I called them.  That same company just told me to go pound sand.

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@KmanTexas

So, I've been using weld ox since 2009....the guys on ch dot com who schooled me had been using it for several years at that time.....I personally know several clusterheads that have been using it for years and I know of no one who's had any issues.  Welding requires "pure" O2 for good welds....med ox and weld ox come out of the same faucet.....med ox tanks are vacuumed prior to refilling while they just do a "sniff test" on welding tanks in case there's been an acetylene crossbleed contamination due to a faulty regulator. 

And yes, they just exchange empties.

The biggest hurdle with weld ox is that the cylinders are big and heavy so ease of mobility is a problem but crossfill adapters are readily available on ebay and you can pick up used E and D tanks on ebay and Craigslist fairly reasonable.

As to O2 concentrators....they only grab around 95% O2....we see reports of success from a relatively small number of folks....they're of value only to the supplier as another avenue to bilk you and the insurance companies outta more bucks!!

Dallas Denny 

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Holy crap this is my biggest fear moving!!!  Have you tried Apria?  I always make friends with the delivery drivers it’s been a life saver. At one time this winter I had 20m tanks at my house in case the storms were bad and they were busy. I tipped them randomly when we had something to give but they would still have done it for me reguardless. One guy bought me a fishing pole and waiters and told my mother he was getting me out of the damn house. We became friends, unfortunately he passed away this year. I get their Cell #s and txt them when I’m low. Fir a while when I called Apria would only let me get 3 m tanks at a time and they would have to deliver 2 times a week. So the drivers would bring 5 at a time. I’m using about half to a whole M tank a day right now and am crapping my pants after reading this. FL is almost as bad w COVID as TX. 

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I haven't tried Apria, but there's one about 20 miles from here.  I'll check it out as an option.  In the meantime I've got a short list of welding supply companies to visit this weekend.  Also, I talked to the guys at Home Depot at the Pro Desk, and they have 80 cu ft. cylinders of oxygen for $400 to start and then $40 refills.  I'm still trying to figure out which regulator to get for the larger welding tank.  The urgency is lower than it was earlier this week since I've been busting, and the hits are down to 2/day and at low intensity.  I was caught off guard by this cycle since remission period was longer than normal.  I will not be caught again.

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I can't really comment on prices.  I would check around for sure.  I do see that there's a 125 cu ft cylinder at Home Depot for about $40 more than the 80 cu ft one (unfilled, in both cases, I'm pretty sure).  But I am imagining that at an oxygen supplier (Airgas, Linde, Apria) it might be less because you aren't actually buying the tank.  

For me (an old guy) 80 cu ft is about the maximum manageable size.  I think Denny (a younger old guy) lugs a 125-cu-ft one around.  80 cu ft is about 2200 liters, so if you used the whole tank you'd get about 110 minutes at 20 lpm.  Many of us have found that for some reason O2 is less effective as the oxygen in the tank goes down (or you have to increase the lpm for it to be effective), so maybe figure on about 90 minutes at 20 lpmish. 125 cu ft is about 3500 liters; 175 minutes at 20 lpm or maybe 155ish with the fudge factor.  

Can one actually get tanks filled/refilled at Home Depot???  At Harbor Freight, one can buy a tank, but they don't have the capacity to fill them.

I would think you might want to also get a 40 cu ft tank if you want something for portability (car, work...), and/or as a backup in case your bigger one runs low at an inopportune time.

I think this reg would work fine: https://www.amazon.com/IMAGE-Welding-Welder-Regulator-Cutting/dp/B00JP9WIF2/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3DE3OCLZW6EQ9&dchild=1&keywords=oxygen+regulator+welding&qid=1634942540&sprefix=oxygen+regulator%2Caps%2C187&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUE1MVFCNEdQNFlJNzImZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA0MjY2MDUxUjZPWjBPUDZWSDlCJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAxMDM1MzRDWlpXV0ZOWEYxNDcmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl         

My concern about the Harbor Freight one is that I can't see whether it has the optional barbed fitting that this one has, which is really good for attaching your mask tubing.

Much of this blabbing is also in the file I linked to above.

 

 

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Saturday I got a filled, 40 cu ft. tank from Home Depot.  They keep them in the outdoor cage outside of any store that has a "Pro Desk", and they are serviced by Thoroughbred industrial gas.  They also had 80 and 125 cylinders.  Thoroughbred appears to be the default standard around these parts, and it looks like I can get an exchange refill from HD, Tractor Supply and several other places.  It costs a lot to take home the first tank, but refills are $34.99.  I'm about to order a regulator so I can test this thing out.

Also, good news...the beast is down to a low roar after the 4th busting dose.  Some low-grade attacks at night, but nothing compared to 2 weeks ago.  Felt good enough to take the motorcycle out yesterday for the first time in a long time.

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