CO2 & Propane Refills in Minneapolis/St.Paul?

Anyone know of a good location in the twin cities? I’d like to do “refills”, and pay for the amount filled, as opposed to swaps. For a good price, I’ll budge on the swap of the propane tanks, but I’d really like to keep my really nice, shiny 10lb CO2 tank.

not much help here, but - i also prefer the refills. unfortunately around here, a lot of gas stations are taking out their propain tanks and strictly doing swaps. as if the gas station clerks jobs are too complicated to train employees to do refills. drives me crazy. in Oregon we cant even pump our own gas

You might try Minneapolis Oxygen Company, Mississippi Welders Supply, Jason Dry Ice, or Brew and Grow.

The places I go usually are in St Paul and Maplewood. For CO2 I goto OSC Oxygen Supply Co. They are located under the Lexington ave bridge right on pierce butler rd about 3 miles south of Hwy 94. There large so they are in the book. For Propane I goto Holiday on Marshall and Hamline. They are cheap, my fill last weekend was $13 Another good location is just north east of Phalen lake it is a propane appliance and supply & repair shop. Real good people like to bring him all my business when I’m in the neighborhood.

Awesome. I will call these places tomorrow and check.

How much did you fill for $13? 13 lbs?

I thought you’ve had problems with getting refills on CO2 and only do exchanges. :?

Your local UHaul center usually fills them too

I gave up on the re-filling of my co2. It’s just far more convenient to swap. At some point your shiny new tank will turn dull and old looking. Also, so long as it works, who cares. If you have aluminum though, make sure you swap for aluminum. Once you have steel you’ll never get aluminum back.
Minneapolis Oxygen has been great. They let me pick out the tank from their supply and when you swap 5, the 6th is free with the punch card.
They will however fill your tank at the Minneapolis location only. It costs an extra $5 surcharge and I believe you have to leave it there.
Propane is another story. I only swap when my tank starts to look nasty. When you swap you only get 15-18lbs. When it’s filled you get the full 20lbs. Usually for the same price. Places like menards and fleet farm are usually the least expensive to swap at.

Baratone, It was a “little” place that should be more customer friendly as they have 5 locations its primarily a weld shop but they have gases also they actually source from OSC. OSC will fill the tank, no probs usually. Although it depends what day you drop off as you might have to pickup a day or two later if they are too busy to fill on demand, calling ahead will lead you to what’s possible. Bottom line if you got the shiny tank might as well put up with a little fuss to keep it but my advice was for newbies shopping for gear to just get a used tank from an OSC etc… and swap. Its the only way to go as you dont have any wait, its done, new gas in hand done.

Edit* I might as well include the “little” guys as they can be a quick resource on a Saturday also depending on location. But depending on shop they will fill on demand, but these guys I would call ahead for sure and find out if they are going to do whats needed or if they are “grumblers”. They have a few different locations and it was their now closed location that gave me grief other than that I have had good service with TOLL Welding Co.

The tank filled for $13 only had a pound or two left, she was pretty low from ice fishing season. I have always gotten a good propane fill on demand price with those guys on Marshall/ Hamline.

Follow-up:

I’m getting my 10lb tank filled (and I get to keep it) at OSC. It’ll be $17.50. But, as others mentioned, I did need to drop it off and will have to pick it up later.

I used a U-Haul location (as it was close) to fill & top-off a propane tank. 6.6 gallons for $29, total, before tax (about $2 extra). About $4.40 per gallon, or (at about 4 lbs/gal), about $1.10/lb. You can probably find a better deal than $20 for a tank fill.

ItsPossible, how much exactly did they fill at Marshall/Hamline?

I fill my propane tanks at the gas station on the corner of Hamline ave and Marshall St in St. Paul across from Concordia collage you pay by the gallon if it takes only 3 gallons to fill that’s all you pay for.

I do this on my way to NB where I just exchange my CO2 tanks.

+1 for the Holiday at Hamline and Marshall. I have got my propane tanks filled there for years. (Grilling, I am not brewing outside yet) I dont remember how much it cost maybe $13? The tank was low but not completely spent.

I had a great experience at the Oxygen Supply Company at Pierce Butler and Lexington. The 10 lb tank that my buddy sold me with his kegging gear needed to be inspected in order to be filled because of its age so for $15 the guy gave me a brand new tank then filled it for $17.50 He said it would only cost $17.50 to do an exchange after that. My buddy was paying $30 to fill the tank somewhere in the warehouse district in Mpls. I’m not sure if they do fills or not.

Ever so slightly off topic… can you get nitrogen or beer gas ant any of these locations?

Not certain about all that are mentioned, you’d have to call to see. Minneapolis Oxygen does. I had an old out of date 22cf nitrogen cylinder. They swapped it right out for their “Guinness mix” It’s 70% nitrogen, 30% co2. Cost me $17 and change. They didn’t care about the fact the tank was out of date.
If you’re looking for a fill, I’m sure they can do it at the Minneapolis location, but you’d have to drop it off and will likely cost more.

Convert to electric and take the hassle out of refilling propane tanks.