Cheating Gas Pumps
 

This was an email that was sent to myself. I felt the need to post if to see if anyone else has experienced it, or knows anything about it. I'm gonna have to keep an eye out and do the 10 gallon test now. Interesting read....

It might be well to check the amount of gas going into your car using the 10-gallon method. I just got back from filling up at Sam's. I filled my tank with 22.5 gal. But, the problem was that my tank only holds 20.3 gal. I went in to talk to the manager and he said that the pumps were calibrated by the state and that he couldn't do too much. I said "Whoa, something isn't right here!"

"He tried to tell me that the bad weather yesterday caused the pumps to pump slow and might be off calibration. I then told him that was not my problem and that I was being charged for 4 or 5 gal. that I didn't get. He then told the cashier to give me a $10.00 gift card for the possible error.

Here is how to check a pump to see if you are getting the right amount of fuel for your dollar:

Whichever grade of fuel you are usi ng, put EXACTLY 10 GALLONS in your tank, then look at the dollar amount. The dollar amount should be EXACTLY 10 times the price of the fuel you have chosen, if not, then the pump is rigged. It doesn't matter where you pump gas, please check the 10 gallon price. If you do find a station that is cheating, contact the proper authorities in your state.

Yeah but if the pumps are rigged it would still read 10 gallons at the right price but you would have no way of knowing if you actually received 10 gallons. Just like the person in the story, it read the right price for the amount of gas the pump registered.

That's exactly what I was thinking. The only way to check it would be to fill up a 5 gallon jug of gas. I've done this before, and found that my fav station (76) was right on the money, while the Shell station across the street charged me for more than 5 gallons to fill the 5 gallon jug, however it was not far off. Maybe 1 quart off.

Doh! I was thinking that in the back of my head but I guess the light bulb just went on. Yes filling up two 5 gallon would be really the only way to tell.

Yeah my dad had this happen to him a while ago. He filled up his Expedition with an amount that was more than what it could actually hold. He ended up getting a refund and was told that the pump needed to be calibrated or something like that. They said it happens every now and then and supposedly they are checked like once a month to make sure they're giving the correct amount, but I doubt that's true everywhere.

May not be related to this problem, but temperature has a tremendous affect on the density of gasoline. If you can it's best to fill up when it's cool like in the morning or evening. It's worst to fill up when its hot in the middle of the day.

Yeah I try to fill up in the AM. Gas also evaporates really fast! We filled up three gas jugs for the jet skiis when we went to Laughlin, two of them had no caps. The next day, about 1/2 a gallon had evaporated from the two without caps.