[Dale M.]

In some locations some people may have gotten what they think was dirty propane. To my knowledge that is no reason that the Home Depot swaps or any other swap source should be a problem. The tanks are exchanged, in some cases you may have a brand new tank and when swapped you get somebodies older dirty tank. Unless you are really into aesthetics the tank is going to change again with next swap. The tanks them selves should all be certified and certification date should be current. All tanks should be equipped with OPD valve (by law a tank without OPD valve can not be filled - period).

Yes dirty propane may be out there also... But I have yet to find any tanks with this problem. And have yet to have anyone be able to define accurately what "dirty propane" is... I am not saying that the problem does not exist.

There was one thread where it was reported that it was a "possibility" that someplace, some druggies operating a illegal drug lab may have pumped some dangerous chemicals into a couple of tanks and they ended up in exchanges racks. At the time there seemed to be a sort of hysteria that all exchange locations could be suspect and that exchanges were not safe. SO after the initial hysteria died down there has not been one single case of anybody getting a tank filled with "dangerous chemicals" in a exchange program,...

Most dangerous thing may be getting tank with faulty valve and it is leaking propane... Really good chance that if valve is leaking, tank will feel lite when you get it because all the propane probably has already leaked out...

Other issue is maybe a tank is miss marked and whoever is working with you at exchange rack may try to hand you empty tank... You should be able to identify a empty tank by weight.. Empty tanks weigh in about 20 pounds, full tanks weigh in about 40 pounds. If you are suspicious about weight of tank good old bathroom scales will tell what is going on....

Dale