Gas buying tips

[ShakesAllDay]

I received this e-mail as a forward. Something to think about...


Tips on buying gasoline


I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon..

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value for your money .

DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!
WHERE TO BUY USA GAS, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW. READ ON

Gas rationing in the 80's worked even though we grumbled about it. It might even be good for us! The Saudis are boycotting American goods. We should return the favor. An interesting thought is to boycott their GAS. Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia. Just buy from gas companies that don't import their oil from the Saudis. Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I fill-up the tank, I am sending my money to people who are trying to kill me, my family, and my friends. I thought it might be interesting for you to know which oil companies are the best to buy gas from and which major companies import Middle Eastern oil.

These companies import Middle Eastern oil:
Shell........................... 205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco......... 144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil............... 130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway... 117,740,000 barrels
Amoco.............................62,231,000 barrels
Citgo gas is from South America, from a Dictator who hates Americans. If you do the math at $30/barrel, these imports amount to over $18 BILLION! (oil is now $90 - $100 a barrel.

Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:
Sunoco..................0 barrels
Conoco...................0 barrels
Sinclair.................0 barrels
B P/Phillips............0 barrels
Hess.......................0 barrels
ARC0. ....................0 barrels

 

[ManBeast]

Great post! I knew a lot of that info, but the one about pumping slow and in the cold is new. Thanks

MB

 

[ReaperX]

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/general-chat/89507-tips-pumping-gas.html


This stuff turned out to be just a myth.

 

[Hate4TheWeak]

Dude I've done electrical work (Union electrician) at a Kinder Morgan Plant in Tucson, AZ, small world...Anyways Shakes nice post brother repetitions.......................

 

[xmeroxmerox]

Ah I hate Chain Letters...

In any case, the bottom line is whether it's really worthwhile for consumers (in the absence of ATC) to take matters into their own hands and attempt to save money by buying gasoline only at a particular time of day. Even if the temperature/volume issue were a real and significant one, one has to consider the amount of savings to be gleaned from such a scheme. Assuming that a motorist typically bought 15 gallons of gasoline per week at $4.00 per gallon, and assuming that by carefully choosing to fill up at a particular time of day said consumer could realize a 1% savings, we calculate the total savings to be gleaned over the course of a year at about $31. Would that reward really be worth the potential inconvenience of adhering to a rigid fill-up schedule week after week?

 

[xmeroxmerox]

...

Fill up when your gas tank is half-full (or half-empty), because the more gas you have in your tank the less air there is and gasoline evaporates rapidly, especially when it's warm

We haven't found much of a consensus about whether gasoline evaporating from automobile gas tanks is truly "lost," whether the amount of (hypothetical) loss is significant or negligible, or how much the evaporation rate would really be lessened by motorists' driving with gas tanks never less than half full. Nonetheless, we can still make some rough economic estimates about the purported advantages of this tip.

Some advanced gasoline filtration systems claim to recover about 2% of the fuel lost by evaporation from gas station storage tanks, so we'll use that figure as a baseline for argument's sake. (Yes, we realize that underground storage tanks and automobile gas tanks are two very different things.) In the scenario outlined for tip #1 above, our typical consumer might save about $62 per year on gasoline if he could completely eliminate losses due to evaporation from his automobile's gas tank (and this tip only addresses reducing evaporation, not eliminating it). Is that savings really worth essentially halving the storage capacity of your car's gas tank (thereby requiring you to stop for gasoline twice as often as before)? Assuming that our typical consumer bought gasoline once a week, and that the fill-up process averaged a modest 8 minutes (including the time to get to a gas station, to wait in line if the pumps are all busy, to pump the gas, to pay for the purchase, and to get back on the road), said consumer would be spending an extra 7 hours per year pumping gas to achieve these savings. Is that a good trade-off of time vs. money?


When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to the high setting. You should be pumping at the slow setting, thereby minimizing vapors created while you are pumping.

The primary claim here is that service station pumps in some places use nozzles fitted with vapor recovery systems, but those systems recover and recycle vapors produced during the process of dispensing gasoline which the consumer has already paid for. (That is, the pumps do not adjust price or volume to reflect vapor recovery, so the consumer is essentially paying for losses due to "waste" even though the retailer is recouping those losses through a recycling process.)

The efficacy of this tip is another issue of dispute. Advocates maintain that pumping gas more slowly produces fewer vapors, and therefore consumers get more for their money by using slower settings on pumps (because less gasoline is lost to vaporization). Critics (including state regulators) assert that the amount of vapor loss produced during the pumping process is so small as to be economically insignificant to the ordinary consumer. And, as in the tip #3 above, one has to consider the time factor: Is the aggregate amount of time you're going to lose by using only the slowest delivery setting at every fill-up really worth whatever modest amount of money you might save?

 

[xmeroxmerox]

...

The bottom line is that there are much easier and better ways of improving the efficiency of your car (and thus of saving you money at the pump) than the tips outlined above. Particularly important is proper maintenance, including engine tune-ups, wheel alignments, tire pressure checks, and filter replacement. Mileage can also be improved by removing from the car little-used equipment that adds weight or increases drag (e.g., sporting gear, tools, roof racks/carriers). Driving habits are especially important: jackrabbit stops and starts eat up extra fuel, as does driving at higher speeds. All in all, the simple habit of engaging in planning and combining multiple trips into one excursion will likely save the average motorist far more money (and time) than all four of the above tips combined.

Last updated: 21 March 2008

The URL for this page is Urban Legends Reference Pages: Tips on Pumping Gas

 

[ShakesAllDay]

Sorry for the repost, guys. I didn't see the other thread.

 

[jmh80]

All full of sh*t.

Mods - lock this thread. It's all BS.

KTHXBYE.

 

[ManBeast]

it isn't all full of sh*t, the one about not pumping when they are filling the tank is 100% true...

MB

 

[jmh80]

it isn't all full of sh*t, the one about not pumping when they are filling the tank is 100% true...

MB

Yeah - ok. Thing is people aren't focusing on this part of the email - the whole email was geared towards maximizing your buying power of gasoline.

Note the bottom with the dumb-azz boycott idea. I mean really.

 

[pistonpump]

i think some of it makes sense....

ill rep you anyway.

 

[jmh80]

Piston,
Read the Snopes article.

I work for an oil company - I posted my thoughts on another forum, not much different than what Snopes said. They aren't biased in any form though - so I'll let their response stand.