Gas Pumping Tips

Gas Pumping Tips from someone in the Petroleum pipeline business!!

I've been in petroleum pipeline business for about 31 years, currentlyworking for the Kinder-Morgan Pipeline here in San Jose, CA. We deliverabout 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period from the pipe line; one dayit's diesel, the next day it's jet fuel and gasoline. We have 34storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons. Hereare some tricks to help you get your money's worth.

1. Fill up your car or truck in the morning when the temperatureis still cool. Remember that all service stations have their storagetanks buried below ground; and the colder the ground, the denser thegasoline. When it gets warmer gasolineexpands, so if you're filling up in the afternoon or in the evening,what should be a gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleumbusiness, the specific gravity and temperature of the fuel (gasoline,diesel, jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleumproducts) are significant. Eve ry truckload that we load istemperature-compensated so that the indicated gallonage is actually theamount pumped. A one-degree rise in temperature is a big deal forbusinesses, but service stations don't have temperature compensation attheir pumps.
2. If a tanker truck is filling the station's tank at the timeyou want to buy gas, do not fill up; most likely dirt and sludge in thetank is being stirred up when gas is being delivered, and you might betransferring that dirt from the bottom of their tank into your car'stank.
3. 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 andgasoline evaporates rapidly, especially when it's warm. (Gasolinestorage tanks have an internal floating 'roof' membrane to act as abarrier between the gas and the atmosphere, thereby minimizingevaporation).
4. If you look at the trigger you'll see that it has threedelivery settings: slow, medium and high. When you're filling up do notsqueeze the trigger of the nozzle to the high setting. You should bepumping at the slow setting, therebyminimizing vapors created while you are pumping. Hoses at the pump arecorrugated; the corrugations act as a return path for vapor recovery b"from gas that already has been metered. If you are pumping at the highsetting, the agitated gasoline contains more vapor, which is beingsucked back into th e underground tank b" so you're getting less gas foryour money .

Hope this will help ease your 'pain at the pump'