When you just need a little.

[verbotenwhisky]

Here Airgas has put almost all the welding supply companies out of business and they do not sell the bottles anymore. You must either rent or lease the bottles and also pay for the contents every time you get one refilled. The lease on my Oxy-Acte had gotten up to $180 USD for one year and same with the Argon and AG-25. So I was paying $360 USD a year for their bottles to sit in my shop. And now when you get one refilled it is an added $8 USD Hazmat fee. I paid $125 USD for the Oxy bottle I now own and I just pay for the contents when I get it refilled. No rental or lease charge because I own it. I also bought the Acte and Argon bottles for $100 USD. Same deal I get them refilled and only pay for the contents. I did this as a way to set up my son after I am gone. Airgas can and does refuse to refill bottles other than their own lease/rent bottles unless the customer has proof they own their own bottles and they refuse to sell any bottles to customers therefore forcing people to lease/rent. Really pi$$es me off when anyone tries to force me to do anything. I am too old for that $hit. Airgas is the Walmart of welding supplies.

I agree, I do business with a little mom and pop welding supply here, owned my own bottles for years, the Oxygen bottle of a bit more that 4 decades. Big thing about bottles is when you swap them do not take a bottle that has a welding supply name cast into the top of it if that company is still in business, these are lease bottles and if you, like me, do not need to exchange them more that once every 5 or 6 years the guy that gave it to you will be gone and others will not take it.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Well Airgas has been bending everyone over with no lube for a long time, They keep buying up the competition and now you have no choice. They have been sued for overcharging and lost. They don't care.

What gets me also is the recertifying the tanks, It's a scam.

They don't care about the little guy at all, That's why they have price tiers. The little guy gets hosed everytime. The Dentist's are the ones that sued them for overcharging for gases and the Dentists won the case.

And that's why I cut with propane torches and a plasma cutter now instead of oxy-acetylene.

I was trying to swap an oxygen bottle at Air Gas once and the lady told me I needed proof of use? when I asked why she said..... "people are sniffing the stuff and its dangerous" yeah, uhhh yeah I don't sniff oxygen, I suck it in in deep breaths...

 

[woodchucker]

I was trying to swap an oxygen bottle at Air Gas once and the lady told me I needed proof of use? when I asked why she said..... "people are sniffing the stuff and its dangerous" yeah, uhhh yeah I don't sniff oxygen, I suck it in in deep breaths...

come on, you're pulling our legs.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

come on, you're pulling our legs.

I wish I were..... *sigh*...