Surveys now show that a significant fraction (approximately one quarter) of early-type galaxies have molecular gas, detected via CO. The molecular gas in early-types is found to be in very central distributions, where the effects of shear, hydrostatic pressure and possible AGN influence will be maximal. But little is yet known about the state of molecular gas in these galaxies. I will present the results of a survey of 18 molecular-gas rich early-type galaxies from the Atlas3d sample in 12CO, 13CO, HCN and HCO+ from the IRAM 30m telescope. This study reveals a wide range of average optical depths for the molecular gas, but a fairly constant dense gas fraction. We also currently know little about the origin of the molecular gas in these systems, but the molecular gas kinematics indicate that accretion from external sources plays an important role. Additionally, I will discuss whether the molecular gas in early-type galaxies may be less efficient at forming stars, despite the universal molecular gas-SFR relation observed for other galaxy types.