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Angelia

I'm a thirty-something army brat who still feels the itch to pack everything up every couple of years. My life revolves around my four-legged child, my family, my friends, work, coffee and wine...lot's of wine...and any combination thereof!...

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Saving at the Gas Pump?

I keep getting emails on money saving tips on pumping gas from family, friends and even co-workers.  There is one email in particular that is floating around.  Maybe you’ve seen it, maybe you haven’t – if not let me highlight the main points for you:

• 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.
  

After getting this email yet again, I decided to check up on it and see if there was any truth to these tips or not.  What I found was mixed reviews, half-truths and that some of the tips work but only under these circumstances, etc.

I don’t know if any of the above tips work or not, if you have any information or success with them please let me know! 

In the meantime, I’ll stick with a few I’m sure of ...or at least make a little more sense to me (’course maybe that’s because they came from dear ‘ol Dad!).

• Lighten up. Remove non-essential items from both your trunk and the outside of your car (bike racks, luggage racks, etc)
• Carpool whenever possible.
• Keep your speed down.  Your mileage decreases the faster you go.
• Accelerate and decelerate.  Avoid slamming on the gas to go or the brakes to stop.
• Change your oil and replace filters regularly.
• Keep a check on the pressure in your tires.
• Take your car in for it’s regular check-ups.