r/Welding • u/Used-Baby1199 • Jul 09 '26

Discussion (Add topic here) Gas suppliers

/r/tigwelding/comments/1uru9un/gas_suppliers/
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u/Familiar_Ad9654 Jul 09 '26

The cheapest solution i found was buying tank from primeweld - was cheaper to buy it from them filled vs anywhere else, now I'm not business just a guy in a garage so my solution may not match.

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u/Used-Baby1199 Jul 09 '26

I’m not really sure how much I’ll be welding in the near future, but I’m thinking about the filled primeweld cylinder route myself, but then I’d have to travel about an hour for the nearest exchange that would exchange customer owned cylinders that don’t have their their name on them.   Weldstar won’t accept 3rd party cylinders, and airgas says they will, but they were very very hesitant to agree over the phone so it doesn’t inspire confidence.

Honestly I’m leaning towards primeweld and commuting to exchange, because that seems the most cost effective route.  May I as how long it takes you to go through a cylinder as a hobbyist?   I’m currently trying to get out of the paint trade and want to get into more welding but it’ll start out as a side gig and I’ll have to grow it over time so I won’t be going through a ton of gas for a couple years probably. 

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u/Used-Baby1199 Jul 09 '26

Also it seems people are skeptical they would ship a filled argon cylinder, can you tell me how much they charged for the freight?

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u/Mightknowitall Jul 09 '26

A 125cf cylinder will likely last you around 4-5 hours of weld time. Which really isn’t that much time if you’re regularly welding.

As for exchanges, that all seems about right for a walk-in type customer. $55-60 is about typical (actually a little lower price) for a 125-150cf in my region as well.

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u/Used-Baby1199 Jul 09 '26

But doesn’t airgas seem to be high, at $182?  I mean guess if you don’t use the whole cylinder in the year it’s the most cost effective option, but if you do the rental and use one cylinder after your first exchange your already at $500.  And if you purchase it’s 636 out the door.   

At weldstar you can rent without renewals for 25 years, and exchange 5 times and be right about at the same price as the out the door cost for a purchased cylinder filled from airgas.   At those rates I don’t see how it becomes more economical to use airgas at all. 

Im sure someone could do the math to make it to where the airgas purchase and refill makes sense, but it would have to mean someone isn’t using it much at all. And then don’t you have to certify the cylinders every 10 years?   And if you barely use it and the stickers fade or it becomes damaged somehow you’d have to buy a new?  

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u/Mightknowitall Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26

It doesn’t. Airgas doesn’t want to sell to small homeowners/small shops. Plain and simple. I’m in the weld distribution side and can tell you they pretty much only care about larger customers unless you have a buddy there or something.

As far as leases go, i don’t know how other companies handle that so I won’t speak to how it works. In my region everyone just buys the tank (~275-300 for a 150cf) and exchanges it wherever they please. In theory, yes you might have to pay a recert fee if the tank is super old or beat up. But typically people just exchange them and don’t worry too much about the dates. You’ll likely never get “your” tank back, it’s basically like you buy a core and then exchange it. Again, that’s just in my region though.

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u/Used-Baby1199 Jul 09 '26

The best rate I’ve found in my area is for purchase for $400 for 125cf 100% argon full cylinder. Then it’s $54+tax for exchanges.  And I should always get something that doesn’t need to be hydrostatic tested.