this post was submitted on 01 May 2024
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Found it. Since the gas goes through the same hose as the other blends, if you're buying gas you need to get at least 4 gallons so the previous gas flushes out what was left in the hose from the previous sale, and fills enough of the container that the blend is primarily what you selected.
If you buy E15 and fill your tanks, then the next guy buys E10 and only gets 1 gallon, they might end up with a higher ethanol mix than intended, and if they use that on a small motor, like a chainsaw, it could ruin the seals.
I'm in Europe and I have never in my life seen a gas station that dispenses every fuel through just one hose.
Every fuel has its own hose and "pistol". Each "pump" has two or three or four hoses.
In America, if a corner exists a company will cut it.
It feels like blending hoses would be a more complicated setup?
Multiple tanks hooked up to one valve and hose vs. multiple tanks with their own separate valves and hoses.
Obviously, it's a different kind of valve in the first setup to prevent backflow into other lines, but that's probably about the extent of it. With the second setup, you probably need to run a new line and pump for each station for each gas type, compared to just tying the tanks into the one valve and pump per station.
I'm not a plumber or anything, though, so take it with a grain of salt.
I feel like we should specific for Europeans or whomever that there is definitely a different hose for Diesel
In the US only diesel gets its own pump, at least in my experience
Same though I do recall seeing pumps with multiple hoses for each grade a lot more frequently back in the '90s and '00s.
Glad someone is thinking of the shareholders
Yeah I always thought so too and then I ran into pumps like this in North Platte, Nebraska last June.
https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/ab6bd220-9b30-47e6-aab6-dbc24ad683c3.jpeg
Edit: I couldn't fuel up at that pump as my car requires 92+ Octane.
There are a few stations near me that have E85, "88 octane" (which is just 12% ethanol), diesel, and three grades of gasoline. Since you can't mix those other fuels with gas the pump has four hoses and you still have to select the grade of gas.
Here's a pretty typical american pump: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-shell-station-gas-pump-135764267.html You can select diesel with the green button, which comes out of the green handled hose on the left, but any other option for regular gas (87/89/93 in that picture) comes out of the right hose.
(US) I've been to gas stations in big cities, small towns, little collections of buildings that have no official name but they have a dollar general and a gas station, etc...
I've seen several kinds.
Single hose to dispense 87-93 ("normal") gasoline, and one for diesel
One hose for normal gas, one for diesel, and one for high-ethanol
One for all gasoline types and one for diesel
One super fancy stainless-steel-clad gas station that looked like something from retrofuturism had 5 hoses, one each for 87,90,93, e15, diesel, and the farthest end pump had a line for kerosine.
Never seen a combined gas and diesel hose though.
In America drastically different fuels like E85 and Diesel are dispensed with different hoses as mixing those with normal gasoline or vice versa in the wrong system could cause damage. But when it comes to different grades of just gasoline it's all the same hose. E10 or E15 are pretty much standard in many parts of the Country of Corn (USA) so they are the primary form of gasoline available for normal cars.
While those do exist in the States too, a single hose and "pistol" is used for all grades of gasoline and the operator presses a button to select their grade of fuel. The only time there is a guaranteed separate is between desil and gasoline:
The button leads to some interesting minor social problems. The expectation is that the use uses their hand or fingers to press the button, but the buttons are usually disgustingly dirty, so that lead many to using the tip of the "pistol" to smack the grade of gasoline which may put a drop or two of gasoline on the button. So those that come next and use their hands end up smelling like gasoline.
No longer interacting with public gas pumps is one minor joy of driving an EV.
i'm gonna be real with you buddy i have never seen a "disgustingly dirty" fuel button so I think the people in your area just grody. no offense to present company.
You never hit up a Shell station? Majority of them and independents I’ve been to have buttons that are worn through on the octane text for low grade. High octane is usually next most worn
I am a refined gentleman who only goes to turkey hill and wawa.
its a thing often in America, there's just 1 hose and you press a button to select what blend you want.
I'm not from the US so my biggest surprise here is that you don't get separate hoses for each grade.
Imagine getting Diesel in Germany. “Sorry, that was actually 15 liters of regular gas. ¯_(ツ)_/¯”
Edit: Ok, it’s not as bad as I imagined, since this picture seems to be about E15/E10, not diesel/regular.
diesel absolutely DOES get a separate hose, every time
Diesel are often entire separate sections of the gas station.
Most of the pumps in the US have the same hose for 87/89/92 octane pumps that are E10 (10% Ethanol) and if there is a higher ethanol like E15 or E85, they're usually a separate hose.
I've seen pumps that have individual hoses for each octane grade in the US, but they're definitely uncommon, at least where I am, and I believe more prevalent on older pumps. But diesel always has its own hose.
Thanks for the explanation! I wonder what they would do if they caught someone dispensing only 3 gallons.
Federal law states the punishment is a bare bottom spanking.
😳
FTFY
I'm sorry officer. Looks like I only bought 3 gallons. I guess you'll have to...punish...me.
Probably nothing. I guess it's possible if you kept switching back and forth between pumping a gallon of premium and a gallon of regular on different pumps to try to steal a few dollars of higher grade, they can use it to give you a ticket, but I'm pretty sure they won't really care if you were just topping off a tank of gas with 3 gallons before a road trip.
I honestly don't know what one does if one runs out of gas down the road from a gas station and doesn't want to call AAA or similar. I assume that gas stations must keep a jerrycan or similar around that they'll let someone take with a deposit.
I definitely wouldn't want to be lugging more gallons by hand than would be necessary to get my car to the gas station.
You'd be amazed how many people learn the hard way that they first need to head to a separate store to buy a gas container, then head to the gas station. Most places could care less about keeping a container on premises because it is both a rare situation these days, and storage is at a premium in most stores. If you saw the back room or manager's office, you would see the floor-to-ceiling stacks of inventory (usually drinks or tobacco products).
Most gas stations will sell small gas cans for exactly this reason
Most expensive gas can on the planet ofc.
As it's a federal regulation, it would need to be the feds pursuing it. It's highly unlikely they'd come after the individual. They would be more likely to pursue the gas station.
I'm guessing it's more of a "if you don't get the minimum, they're not responsible for variation from the rated mix".
Presumably, you buy a grade other than the E15 that doesn't have the "minimum 4 gallons" restriction.
So, I don't know what the deal is with E15 -- what's unusual there is the ethanol content -- but insofar as high-octane blends go, and if that's the factor here...I mean, while I realize that there's a certain contingent of people who buy them because they think that they're just better for their car, and for all I know that may dominate the actual market, in theory you're supposed to only use high-octane fuels in cars with engines that require it.
I guess they'd probably function without it, but...
Around here stations have a purpose-built plastic bag that seals after filling up and fits in the car's fuel intake. It holds a few gallons, but I'm not sure how many.
I didn't know this before and it adds credence to my feeling that it's better to let my tank get below 1/4 full before filling it up, rather than continually topping it up.
The vast majority of cars run fine on 87 octane. If that's what you're using, then it really doesn't matter if there is some 89 or 92 in the hose.
True, but my car needs 92 octane
I fill up when I hit 1/4 tank as well. Don’t wait for it to go below though, as it can be bad for the engine with deposits and other stuff in the tank.
I would hope your car has a fuel filter installed that would never let deposits get to the injectors. (Or carb on the off chance you drive one of the last ones on the road.)
You should be filling up closer to a third. The fuel pump is cooled by the fuel and letting the fuel run too low can cause more wear and tear on the pump, causing it to fail.
How fucking big are American canisters? In Germany the regular size is 5l, [Edit: ~~just shy of~~ a bit more than] one gallon.
5L can't be shy of a gallon. 4L is more than a gallon.
checks
Yeah, a gallon is 3.7854118 L.
Oh...wait. You're in Europe. I bet that you're thinking of imperial gallons.
checks
That's about 4.5 L. Still not the case even with imperial gallons.
When people are talking about gallons in the US, they won't be using imperial gallons. They're using the US gallon.
Well, I just typed “1 gallon in liters” into google and took the first number, because I couldn’t be bothered to deal with your system of measurement more than necessary. My point stands regardless of the exact volume of one gallon.
OF COURSE THERE IS MORE THAN ONE DEFINITION OF GALLON
Portable US gas tanks are typically 1, 2, or 5 gallon.
I usually just grab a 5 gallon (about 20L) can to fill up my lawn mower, throw some fuel stabilizer in there, and then I don't have to go back to the gas station for a long time.
I do the same for my mower and mini bike. I can last a month on a 5g canister, well 5.5 gallons to the fill line according to the ⛽.