Automatic delivery means we track your usage and fill the tank before you run low. Will call means you watch the gauge and phone us. For most homes around the Highland Lakes, automatic is the one that causes fewer problems, and the exception is a property you are at nearly every day.
Both options cost you nothing to be on, and you can move between them with one phone call. This is the part of how propane delivery works that people ask us about most, so it is worth setting out properly.
What is automatic propane delivery
Automatic delivery is a schedule we build from your own usage. We know what your place took last time and how long it lasted, and we book the next fill before the tank gets low.
How we work out when to come
Two things drive it: gallons delivered last time, and the weather since. A house heating with propane burns far more in January than in September, so the gap between fills moves through the year.
After a couple of deliveries the pattern for your property is usually clear.
What you have to do
Nothing routine. Tell us if something changes, because the history stops being a good guide the moment the house does something new. A new propane appliance, a long stay by family, or a winter where nobody is there at all are all worth a quick call.
What is will call delivery
You watch your own tank and call us when it gets low. We schedule you in, and the fill happens on a normal route.
The trigger most people use is 30 percent on the gauge. On a 500 gallon tank that is roughly 150 gallons left, which in a mild week is comfortable and in a hard freeze is not very much at all.
You are the monitoring system
Will call puts the watching on you. Lift the lid, read the dial, and call at 30 percent. If reading the dial is new to you, we have written a short guide to the gauge.
The risk is the week you are busy
Almost nobody runs out because they do not understand the gauge. They run out because the week they meant to call was the week the truck broke down or a parent got sick. Will call works until it does not, and it tends to fail in the busiest part of the year.
What actually goes wrong on each one
Each plan fails in its own way, and the two failures look nothing alike. Knowing which one you can live with is most of the decision.
How automatic delivery fails
Automatic delivery fails when the house changes and nobody tells us. You put in a propane fireplace, or the grandkids move in for a winter, and the history we predict from now describes a different household.
The tank then goes down faster than expected. That is rare, it is fixable with a phone call, and it is why we ask you to tell us when something changes.
How will call fails
Will call fails in the week you are busiest, which is usually the week the weather turned. You meant to call on Sunday. By Thursday the heat is off.
The Thursday of a hard freeze is the worst possible day to ask for a delivery, because every other will call customer in Burnet County is calling that morning.
Why the busy week matters more here
Our service area runs from Buchanan Dam and Kingsland out through Liberty Hill and Leander, and the roads are long. When everybody calls at once, the limit is not propane in storage, it is hours in the day and miles between stops. Customers already on the schedule are the ones who get seen.
Which one is cheaper
Propane costs the same on either plan. The real difference in money is what happens when something goes wrong.
The cost of being on either plan
Automatic delivery and will call are both free to be on. You pay for propane either way, and anyone telling you one of them is a cheaper rate is talking about something else, usually a prepay or a budget plan.
Where a run-out costs real money
An empty tank is not just a refill. The system has to be leak tested and the appliances relit by somebody qualified before the gas goes back on. That is a visit, and it is on top of the fuel. Avoiding that is the strongest financial argument for automatic delivery.
Which should you choose
Pick the row that sounds like you.
| If this is you | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Propane heats the house | Automatic | Heating is the biggest draw and a winter run-out is the worst one |
| Weekend or lake property | Automatic | Nobody is there to read a gauge, and use is uneven |
| You are at the property most days | Will call | You will see the dial in good time and you like the control |
| Cooking and hot water only | Automatic | Steady use, long gaps between fills, easy to forget about |
| You travel for weeks at a time | Automatic | The gap between fills is exactly when you are not home |
| You have run out before | Automatic | Once is bad luck. The second one is a system problem |
Commercial accounts are a different question
A business running a forklift fleet or a crop dryer is not choosing between the same two options a house is. Usage follows work, not weather, and running dry stops the operation.
Commercial accounts get built around the operation, so call us and we will talk it through rather than put you on a residential plan.
You are not locked in
Switching takes one call and nothing changes on your tank or your equipment. Plenty of our customers start on will call and move across after a winter, and a few go the other way once they have watched a gauge for a season and decided they would rather do it themselves.
What about a tank monitor
A monitor is a third option that sits on top of automatic delivery. Instead of estimating from history, it tells us the real level.
When a monitor is worth it
A place nobody visits in winter, a long or steep driveway, or a home whose use jumps around. It is covered properly in how propane tank monitoring works.
Frequently asked questions
Can I be on automatic delivery and still call you
Yes. Automatic delivery is a safety net, not a restriction. If you know something has changed, call and we will come sooner.
Does automatic delivery mean a contract
Automatic delivery is an arrangement, not a lock in. You can come off it the same way you went on, with a phone call.
What if my usage changes a lot
Tell us, and consider a monitor. Usage history is only as good as the assumption that next winter looks like last winter.
Is will call cheaper than automatic delivery
No. The propane costs the same. The difference is who is responsible for noticing the tank is low.
Propane is a byproduct of natural gas processing and oil refining, which is why supply and demand through a cold snap is a national picture rather than a local one. The US Energy Information Administration keeps the background.
4-T Propane runs three locations across the Highland Lakes and Northwest Austin. Call and you get a person, not a menu.
4-T Propane15115 TX-29, Buchanan Dam, TX 78609
(830) 220-9240