Gasoline/Petrol Dispensing Disparity?

every state has a dept. of weight and balances. and actually seeing one being calibrated would be rare, (unless your working there)

If the pumps are short to the customer, the owner of the station I believe have to calibrate it immediate, if its dispensing more that what its shown, the owner is not required to do anything. (of course he'll recalibrate it, then it has to certified)

I do not know the frequency though

And this was just a topic that was on a local radio station I heard going into work about 8 months ago.

Does good to question it, instead of assuming its correct.

I saw a new story a few years ago about a station whose pumps were off, and was shutdown and had to have them recalibrated. So I assume the state must do at least some checking...

about thirty years ago, my brother worked as a mechanic at a local contruction company that had gas pumps out side.

one day something was wrong with the pumps (calibration wise) it was pumping more gallons than was stated about 3 to 1. gas was only about $0.27 some odd cents a gallon at the time......

The calibration used by most (all) states in the US is quite thorough, repeatable, and precise. Error tolerance is way less than 0.5%. The pump delivery of a 5 gal, sample is measured into a calibrated container with a small graduated measuring neck and thermometer. The actually measured volume is then corrected to API standard temp of 60 deg F by API standard expansion correction tables.

A dishonest retailer is way more likely to add water to the bulk tank, especially since ethanol is included in many fuels. If the ethanol content is 10%, the station could add up to about 3% water before phase separation. In a 10,000 gal tank, that's over $1000 of pure profit (ignoring water cost) since no taxes are paid, no station lease, no purchase cost. TREMENDOUS crack through which many unscrupulous roaches are crawling.

In Ohio this is done by the county auditor, and I have seen it done as has been described (including the temperature correction. This auditor is also validating pricing databases used by retail stores that scan prices. Probably the one government job that foes work, protects us, and is accountable for their errors.

We also have some TV journalists that investigate this sort of thing.

milo

Strange isn't it, how some questions just pop up and it is a very valid one but you just never thought of it before. You have me paranoid now.

I don't know how they do it here in the UK but they have them stickers for sure. Maybe we will have to look at this....hmmmm

Don't forget Case491, over here in the UK petrol isn't just $3 a gallon its reaching to almost £5 or approx $10 a gallon!!!

Much more incentive for unscrupulous petrol sellers to 'cut' the petrol with something cheaper...

Remember the occasional uproar when a particular filling station has its customers' cars breaking down after filling up there? It doesn't happen too often but I bet there's quite an incentive to make just an extra 10 pence on a gallon when you're selling thousands of gallons a day!!

John.

Checking in the UK is down to the local Trading Standards offices but I don't know if they check regularly.

The part that I noticed in C Rummel's post was the complaint about petrol being over $3/gallon!!! That's about £1.50/gallon & the states get bigger gallons that the UK, we pay nearer £5/gallon here.

That's about £1.50/gallon & the states get bigger gallons that the UK,

Nope. A US gallon is a tad under 4 litres (3.8 litres =i US gallon according to the 'American Standard' urinal at work! , an imperial gallon is about 4.5 litres.

The main reason US gas (Petrol for the Europeans) is more expensive is due to the much higher taxes in Europe

It would be interesting if someone would move in the private sector and sell it to the fed for "auditing" the process.

Yes. A woman can pee on a strip and know if she's preg in 10 minutes. How about an H2O strip for fuel?

It would be difficult to prove unless the ratio is way out. The reason is that any glycol or alcohol content, including the mimicking kind, would attract water from the air. This is due to the hygroscopic nature of these chemicals. If they added these chemicals in the first place, as mentioned by other reply above somewhere, it would mean you would always find some water in there. Question is how much is natural and how much is added to con us. I don't know the answer to that.

Maybe somebody else?

A question comes to mind: Shouldnt we be selling gasoline on a weight basis with a guaranteed minimum energy content? (eg:$/lb).

How would that stop assholes putting water in it?

Water is heavier so it would still be worth it.

To check the energy content is making it more difficult. To check for water is easier I would have thought.

yes i have seen someone from weights & measure's with his container s and thermo

and have often see gas station personel check the level of gas and water in the tank

they powder the end of the dip stick

when water is present the color of the powder changes.

nick qc. ca.

C_Rummel3,

Weights and measures does the gas pump check in Oregon with ordinary looking automobiles that have a separate calibration tank. You could be filling up next to one and not know it.

I recently fueled up at a station in eastern Pennsylvania that had 2 pumps shut down and the inspector was there pumping into what I'm sure was a calibrated container.