I was just at Corp Brothers in Providence a few days ago. Dropping off my CNG tanks for good. I spent two months this Spring looking around for CNG exchanges or fills and gave up. The typical reactions was "CNG? what's that? Oh hold on a sec..." then an older person gets on the phone "We haven't had that in decades.". When I finally found Corp Bros I thought I was all set but, as derekl says, they're broken.
I spoke with the guy there for a while in person. The issue is that they have a pump they use to pressurize the tanks and the pump is broken, and is so old that they can't find parts for it. He said "Whenever the guy comes with the new parts he finds they don't fit and are the wrong parts".
The bottom line is that the CNG for boats business is now completely obsolete and the equipment needed to use it is broken and not being fixed. I was glad Corp Bros. took my tanks off my hand as the metal recyclers in the area won't touch them.
If you really want to keep on using CNG, the only option in NE seems to be to get one of the $150 filler-adapters on eBay, find a vehicle filling location that allows you access without supervision, and hope you don't blow yourself up. You can probably get used tanks from Corp Bros for cheap now though
(actually I bet they won't give then out at any price due to liability issues)
I found a cheap propane stove on craigslist that was a perfect drop-in replacement for my tired CNG unit and hooked it all up the last few days with a Trident regulator/solenoid/sniffer/controller. It wasn't so hard and I was surprised how thick the gas locker walls were drilling the hole for the hose clam. Haven't settled on a permanent home for the gas sniffer box yet, but made coffee this morning with no fuss.
The best part is the full 10lb Aluminum tank is noticeably lighter than the empty steel tanks I use for the grill and way lighter than the CNG tanks, I also recovered two large fender's worth of room in the stbd. laz.
I spoke with the guy there for a while in person. The issue is that they have a pump they use to pressurize the tanks and the pump is broken, and is so old that they can't find parts for it. He said "Whenever the guy comes with the new parts he finds they don't fit and are the wrong parts".
The bottom line is that the CNG for boats business is now completely obsolete and the equipment needed to use it is broken and not being fixed. I was glad Corp Bros. took my tanks off my hand as the metal recyclers in the area won't touch them.
If you really want to keep on using CNG, the only option in NE seems to be to get one of the $150 filler-adapters on eBay, find a vehicle filling location that allows you access without supervision, and hope you don't blow yourself up. You can probably get used tanks from Corp Bros for cheap now though
(actually I bet they won't give then out at any price due to liability issues)I found a cheap propane stove on craigslist that was a perfect drop-in replacement for my tired CNG unit and hooked it all up the last few days with a Trident regulator/solenoid/sniffer/controller. It wasn't so hard and I was surprised how thick the gas locker walls were drilling the hole for the hose clam. Haven't settled on a permanent home for the gas sniffer box yet, but made coffee this morning with no fuss.
The best part is the full 10lb Aluminum tank is noticeably lighter than the empty steel tanks I use for the grill and way lighter than the CNG tanks, I also recovered two large fender's worth of room in the stbd. laz.
