Gas Pump Accuracy; A Call For Action To Find Stations Charging For More Gas Than You're Getting
Hypothesis: Some gas stations' pumps are not reflecting the amounts of gas you put into your tank. So, a call to action is requested.
To confirm or negate this hyporthesis, all of San Diego County residents are challenged to check each pump used to make sure you're getting what you pay for by taking the time to protect yourself and stop any potential rip-offs. Whichever grade you are using, put EXACTLY 10 GALLONS in your tank and look at the dollar amount. If the dollar amount is not EXACTLY 10 times the price of the fuel you have chosen, then the pump is rigged.
Wherever you pump gas, please check the 10 gallon price. If you do find a station that is cheating, please do the following: 1) Keep your receipt; 2) Note the pump number; 3) Note the grade of fuel; and 4) Note the time of day and date. IF you have a cell phone, take a photo of the pump. 5) Note the name of the station and the location.
Action: 1) File an on-line complaint so we can notify the authorities.
I hope this practice isn't widespread. But, if we're trying to save money and stop price gauging, then let's get proactive in ways we can gather evidence and get the rip-off stopped.
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pumped showed/charged MORE than takn capacity....
8-4-08 stopped at a BP.
Have a tank capacity of 19.5 gallons.
Receipt said I pumped 25 gallons for a charge of $100.00
My needle was on about 1/4 and when done it showed 3/4 so in fact I only pumped about a half tank.
That is approx. 10 gallons but even if the tank was dry, it is a physical impossibility for it to hold 25 gallons.
Comments?
Ignore gauges and tank capacity
Gas gauges are notoriously unreliable so I'd suggest drawing *no* conclusions based on gauge readings whatsoever. Even if you fill it up, I wouldn't rely on it because is the capacity specification that of the tank itself? What about the gas that is in the filler neck once the tank is full? Is that counted in capacity? I don't know, and the answer could be different for different cars.
Was gas $4/gal? If so, it would seem that it pumped the right amount.
Incidentally, you might think gas gauges on aircraft are better, but in fact, they are required to read accurately at only one point on the scale, and that's when the tank is empty. Any other position of the indicator does not have to be accurate at all.
"is the capacity
"is the capacity specification that of the tank itself?" YES
" What about the gas that is in the filler neck once the tank is full?" COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE 6 GALLONS (TANK CAPACITY 19.5 BUT SAID I PUMPED 25 GALLONS...)
"Was gas $4/gal? If so, it would seem that it pumped the right amount" $3.999 BUT THE PROBLEM IS THAT IT IS A PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY TO FILL A 19.5 TANK CAPACITY WITH 25 GALLONS. AND THOSE ARE THE PROVABLE NUMBERS. IN REALITY SINCE MY TANK WAS NOT EMPTY, THE RIP OFF IS A LOT WORSE...
"
pump-rigging
Even if you get close to 10.0 gal, that should be good enough, and besides, it's not too difficult to correct for the error. In your example, 9.995 is only .05% off, so at $4/gal that would be $.002 and the dollar/cent amount shown on the pump is difficult to read to that level of accuracy.
You probably lose that much gas to evaporation and spillage. And again, a .05% error in your example weight of 18 lbs (3 gal of gas) is .14 oz, difficult to measure on most scales. Did I do the calc's right?
If somebody is going to risk getting busted for fiddling the pump, I would expect that s/he's going to fiddle it by a lot more than that, and any technique would catch it. They would be counting on people not even looking for it.
Also, isn't it also possible to change the amount of gas pumped? For instance, if the pump says 10 gal (or whatever) was pumped, isn't it possible that it actually delivered 9.5 gal? Or is the flow metering device sealed and can't be tampered with? Your weighing technique would be the way to catch that.
I tried taking a calibrated kitchen measuring cup of 1 pt, and using that cup "N" times, I put 5 gal of water in a gas can and marked the water line. Then I dumped it out, let it completely dry out, and filled it with gas to that same level and saw how much gas was pumped. In my case, it took less than 5 gal, so I was probably not accurate filling each pint with exactly a pint of water. Getting high accuracy is not easy.
Yeah, that's easier said
Yeah, that's easier said than done. I can barely get the pump to stop at an even dollar amount let alone 10.000 gallons. Have you ever stopped it at say.... 9.995 gallons and been able to give it the lightest squeeze to get it to 10.000?? It's next to impossible.
I think science is the only true method for those 98% who aren't lucky enough to get it to stop at 10 gallons even. Calibrate a digital scale and weigh an empty 3-gal gas can. Add around 3 gallons, noting the exact gallons that the pump says it dispensed. At 60 degrees Fahrenheit, a gallon of vehicular gasoline weighs about 6.15 pounds at that temperature. So you multiply 6.15 by the gallons of gasoline to get a number. Weigh the gas can and subtract the weight of the can itself. The remaining weight should match the earlier number.
Peace!
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