Butane, or Liquid Petroleum Gas, it made all the headlines two weeks ago - when importers were clamoring for industry-wide standards. And they got it. But while they have their standards, what about the consumer?
We're sure you've noticed, your butane tank does not have a gauge on it…so how do you know when it's full? And even when the gas company says it's full, really how do you know they aren't just saying that?
The fact is, you don't. Butane users - and that extends to every single household in Belize - are left to take the word of butane companies, to trust that they have filled your tank.
And those who don't trust can take their tanks to the depot to see for themselves that the gas company puts in 11 gallons of butane in a 50 pound tank, and 22 gallons in a 100 pound tank - those are the specifications exacted by the bureau of standards.
But then, the Bureau doesn't check, calibrate or certify their meters - so again, even the vigilant consumer is left at the mercy of the butane company.
This issue - this absolute lack of certainty - has been weighing on our minds for some time now - and with the help of a few friends - we figured out how to determine exactly how much butane is being put in our tank.
It's a 7 news investigation and what we found, shocked us:…..
Our story begins here on the seafront where I took this 50 pound empty cylinder to make sure it's completely empty.
I opened the valve and emptied it into the open air and right there on the seafront whatever residue was left wafted away.
We then loaded it up and took it to the business location of a friend where there's an industrial electronic scale.
It weighed in at 41.6 pounds . And then with a hidden camera we went to the BWEL Depot on Sarstoon Street and filled it up. And there it is, the meter running, right up to 11 gallons which is what the bureau of standards says should go into a 50 pound tank.
We then took it back to our industrial location where it weighed in at 85.2 pounds.
Now, remember, we started out at 41.6 pounds. Add 50 to that and it should be 91.6 pounds, but it's at 85.2 which means that they shorted us 6.4 pounds, a value of about eight dollars - which means we paid 63 dollars, but got the value of 55 dollars - and that's because we took it to the Depot to see for ourselves that it was properly filled!
So then we wondered what if we tried these hundred pound tanks - which we bought new and had them pick them up at our house - where there's no one watching to see how many gallons are put in?
First, we weighed the tanks empty - this one was 74.2 pounds - and the other one was 73.4
We wrote the tank weights on the bottom of the tanks to avoid confusion - took it to a friend's home on Dean street and called the two importers in the city, BWEL and Gas Tomza to order pick-up refills. They came within half an hour, took the tanks, took them back to their depot supposedly to fill them up without any supervision by the consumer, and brought the tanks back quite promptly as evening fell.
We took those two tanks back to our scales to weigh for the big verdict.
First, the Tomza tank - it started out empty at 73.4 pounds - relining it on the scale now - to weigh in at 143.8 pounds.
Do the math and that's only 70.4 pounds - that means we got shorted 30 pounds, a value of about forty dollars from the 126 dollars we paid.
On the BWEL tank, which started out at 74.6, it weighed in at 162.4, 87.8 pounds, about 12 pounds short of the 100 that should be in there - a value of about thirteen dollars.
We checked with the bureau of standards which confirmed that every 100 pound cylinder should have in 100 pounds of liquid petroleum gas, the same, respectively, for 50 pound and 25 pound cylinders. That is what the price formula is based on and what you are paying for.
We use the term Liquid Petroleum Gas because your cylinder at home contains a mix of butane and propane, and each of those chemicals have a different weight per gallon.
But all that is irrelevant to you the consumer, the standard is that you pay for 50 pounds you should get 50 pounds, if you don't, you're being cheated, simple as that.
The Bureau of Standards did not have comment today - and seemed to want to wait to see the story. They advised us to make sure our scale is accurate. We invited them to calibrate it. But for the record, it is an industrial, two thousand pound scale, which costs five thousand dollars and it is in daily usage.
We called both BWEL and Gas Tomza for comment this morning at 8:00 and again this afternoon at 3:00 pm. We left explicit messages saying why we wanted comment and what our story was about. The manager for Gas Tomza did not call back while the manager for BWEL Leonel Reyes, called us after 5:00. We explained the story to him and invited him to come for comment even after 5:30 and he has not returned our call. We will avail those companies of whatever opportunity is required for them to respond in whatever way we see fit.
And we will urge them to respond, because our investigation continues and tomorrow we'll have an equally stunning report with the testimonial of one industrial user who has proof of the error in the butane meter on the gas trucks. What's more, the big companies have basically conceded to him that their meters are very wrong and have agreed to charge him by a different formula…..
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