I shelled out a handful of sawbucks for that tank not long ago, as I recall.
Strangely, it had a few rust stains on it, even though it was only a couple of years old.
Bad news is that my baby tank was now 27 years old, as the embossed 1988 on the side near the top demonstrated.
How on earth did my nice new propane tank age worse than MacCauley Caulkin? (And can you get someone to Benjamin Button-ize it? - Chimples)
Answer. It seems somewhere along the line I brought that new tank in for a refill to a big box store that swaps tanks instead of refilling them.
Such places include Costco, Provisoir and Canadian Tire among many others.
So when I wasn't looking my child tank was traded for a lookalike old timer.
I brought in Shirley Temple and left with Herve Villechaize. (Okay now you're just being stupid- Chimples).
A stamp on the side with the number "11" indicates that my shitty new old tank had been refurbished four years back so was still moderately safe in spite of the rust all over its 27-year-old body.
The big box stores - with the exception of Costco - sub-contract the swap-refill service to another company which is not scared to take your nice new tank and replace it with a grody old oneThis allows the stores to claim ignorance when you complain about the switch.
The green and blue tanks are the worst.
It takes a lot of screaming and hollering and threatening to get your nice new tank back in case you get scammed with such a switch.
This was all explained to me by the excellent guy in the photo whose name I did not get but I have seen around the area many times.
It cost me $18 to fill this tank. It's cheaper - I believe than the swap services and much more honourable, it would seem.