MLS, I can only imagine you were somehow born into a family that never had to do any sort of car maintenence whatsoever.
The “Oregon Law” was exposed years ago. The Democratic leadership (this isn’t a slam, check the voting) in the state tried to raise employment numbers to bring in other corporations (GOD forbid!) by making it mandatory for gas stations to require full-service dispensing.
In New Jersey, I’ve seen the same; however:
I drove a semi (accident-free) for 8 years and have never had an attendant fill the 220 gallons my tanks required anytime I was in that great state. Maybe Oregon and New Jersey recognize pro drivers as safe? (I know most citizens don’t).
Are some seriously claimng that the smell of gas is the reason they’re too lazy to pump thier own gas?
Listen, you touch the nozzle at most 20 seconds, unless you have problems with fittiing a nozzle into a stationary hole. Start to finish. Last time I checked, every filling station has anti-bacterial soap and hot water close to the fuel desk to sanitize your hands.
I can only imagine “elite” members of our society would still have a problem with this.
Oh yeah, up here in Grand Forks, we have a gas station that offers full-serve (even checking fluids and tire pressure) for the same gas price as BP, Conoco, et al.
so… leaving your children in a locked car with the engine and the AC running (which is possible if you have a car with remote start), is against the law?
thats no more dangerous than being in a different room than your children are in, while in your own house…
and i dont know about you guys… but what is this crap about getting rained on and snowed on? I have never been to a gas station ever that didnt have a “roof” over the WHOLE PARKING LOT… and are the gas station lines in some of your areas always 15 people long? if i pay cash i’ll pay before, and its usually a 12 second job from opening the door of my car to get out, from the time im back to the car… walk in, say $10 on pump six and thats that. i might take up to a minute if there are people in line and i need change… not to mention the whole time im inside i can see my car, and if i had kids, i would be able to see them too. do the stations in your areas have obstacle courses between the store and the pumps or something??? around here the walk is less than 25 feet…
My mother (and many others with such cars) are now well trained to just ignore the “check engine” light.
The first time this happened, she went to the repair shop, where they told her it happens because the gas cap wasn’t tight enough, they tightened it, and told her the light would go off in a day or 2. Then the next time she went to fill the tank, she couldn’t get the tight cap off, and had to get the attendent to come out to do that. (She’s in her 70’s, and her hands aren’t that strong any more.)
So now she fills the tank, tightens the cap only enough that she can undo it next fill-up, and blightly ignores the constant “check engine” light. Another friend of hers, in her 80’s, had the same problem. She put a piece of black electricians tape over the “check engine” light on her dashboard, because it bothered her by being constantly lit up.
You have to wonder about the qualifications of the designers of such systems. Are they the same people who created the Ford Pinto ‘firebomb’ gas tanks? Or the top-heavy, rollover-prone SUVs? Did these people ever actually graduate from an engineering school?
I grew up in Milwaukee and I know there are certain areas where the chance of a drive-off is increased. Short story, in high school i worked at a gas station and was required to get pre-pay from both Paul Moliter and Robin Yount.
Cover from rain/sleet/snow? Come to the Great Northern Plains.
We get most of our enjoyment watching eastern cities shudder at weather we welcome as spring. 30 degrees is time to put the top down!
Native Oregonian here, and I like it the way it is just fine, thankyouverymuch. The nice thing about having 50 states is the variety. Living right on the border, I can cross the Columbia and pump my own gas in Washington any time I feel the need. In 35+ years of driving, I’ve yet to feel that need so bad that I’d make that trip.
The fact that it makes some of us look like total dweebs at gas pumps when we’re out of state is only part of our charming entertain-the-locals philosophy.
I’ll take the inconvenience of having to stay comfortably cool or warm or dry in my car while someone else pumps the gas in return for living in a state with no sales tax.
Just so you know, you could be saturating the vapor detector that initiates the cut off - and you may very well be making the pumps inoperative until they can be replaced.
I’ve seen it before - the vapor detector gets saturated and then no one else can use that pump because it stops every 5 seconds because the vapor detector is constantly going off.
Senor… do you have a site where i can go to see a diagram or read an explanation of how the shut off works? I dont understand how there can be a ‘vapor detector’ that gets saturated… there are no vapor return pumps around here… i assumed there was some kind of pressure sensitive switch or something inside the metal nozzle that detects a flow restriction and shuts the pump off… theres no way for a ‘vapor detector’ to NOT be saturated… if its inside that metal nozzle its directly in the flow of the gasoline for the entire time the pump is on…
im gonna assume there are two types of pumps then, right?
No - I don’t have a technical cite I just work as a gas station monkey now, and someone explained it to me.
I’m guessing there’s a detector of some sort on part of the nozzle inside the seal, but that doesn’t come into contact with the actual gas flow. I assume if you top off to the point where the actual gas handle comes in contact with the resovoir in the tank, the detector, which, I assume, isn’t normally exposed to and soaked in gas, will be.
Of course, I haven’t seen the actual designs of the machines, but the person who told me seems knowledgable enough and it seemed reasonable - the result was that the pumps would pump for a few seconds, stop, pump for a few seconds, stop, etc. It’s consistent with a vapor detector constantly returning a positive. I know we’ve had to shut down several pumps at various times for that reason… I’m not sure how they fix them.
SenorBeef: I think someone gave you poor information. It could be that “someone” told the person who told you, and “someone” told the person before him, and so on. Or it could be one of those things that people say so you won’t do something, and it’s better to tell the attendant that if he follows the driver’s wishes he will damage the pump. (“Don’t do that. You’ll break it.”)
This page explains how the shut-off works. A switch detects when air is no longer flowing up a small pipe. A mechanical switch is more robust than a “vapour sensor” that can be “saturated”, which is important when a machine gets heavy use.
The real reasons why you don’t want to “top off” a tank are that you can spill the fuel when filling the tank (which is a waste of fuel, creates a slipping hazard, and – most importantly – may cause gasoline to be flushed into the storm drains), and because fuel expands when it gets warmer which may cause the tank to overflow. As I said, I refuel before driving; so expansion is not an issue. I’m also careful not to spill.
There are, of course, environmental reasons not to top off the tank. Many nozzles have vapour recovery boots that keep fuel vapors from getting into the atmosphere. (There’s that word. Maybe whoever told you about this “detector” was confused?) But the place where I normally refuel does not have the boots. Also, you cannot fill a motorcycle tank when a boot is engaged. You need to use both hands and hold the boot up (there’s a switch inside) and hold the nozzle just inside the opening in your tank. If you don’t do that, you’ll only get about a gallon or two in your four+ gallon tank. (My ex-g/f knew a guy who bought a bike and couldn’t figure out why his range was so short. He’d just been sticking the nozzle into the tank as if he were filling a car. She explained it to him.)
I stand corrected - though IIRC there was some fuel spillage accompanying one of the pump malfunctions, supporting the idea of a ruined sensor due to topping off - that made it seem like a reasonable explanation.
There you go. Do you know how many times I’ve seen gas station attendants refuse to fill inappropriate containers for gasoline? People will try to fill a paper bag with gas if you let 'em. This alone gives the state compelling interest to limit the dispensing of gas to trained attendants.
And, yes, just because you, the fiftieth level initiate of the illuminati know by heart federal regulations describing the parameters of containers meant to store Class 1 flammable liquids doesn’t mean that the average or even subaverage Joe and Jane Blow will know what they can and can’t pour gas into.
lite, I have no idea what doing car maintenance has to do with pumping gas. If we have to do car maintenance at home (change the oil, for example), we FIRST put on appropriate clothing, if that’s what you’re referring to. Why are you insulting me by calling me lazy? You don’t need to be insulting. I’m glad you drove a semi safely for 8 years and always filled your own gas tank. What does safe driving have to do with it? I drove a family car for 40 years and never caused an accident. It’s irrelevant.
something clever:
As shoshana said, yes, it is against the law since it is child endangerment. It is definitely more dangerous. Would you leave $1000 in plain view on the front seat of your car? Do you know how quickly someone can break into a car? Maybe the chance is one in a billion. It’s an avoidable risk.
Also if a child gets out of the seat belt/safety seat, there are all kinds of things in a car that you don’t want them to mess with, especially if the engine’s running. Maybe you don’t recall the story about the child who died after being left alone in a car to sleep – woke up and somehow released the brake, causing the car to roll downhill into a lake. Sounds funny, doesn’t it? The child died. Not a risk I care to take.
MLS, does your area have a lot of gas stations that are built on a slant near lakes? I mean, I understand the point of the kids in car argument, but the potential for horrible flaming death seems more than a bit exaggerated here, and the hyperbole isn’t helping you make your point.
When it comes to stuff like this, I’m in favour of letting the market decide. Sure, having to deal with the sleeping kids question when filling up is an inconvenience, but it’s not an unusual one for parents. I mean, how did the parent who has more small children than he or she can reasonably handle in the car get them in the car in the first place? Does s/he have help loading and unloading the car at every departure and arrival? If there is a parental demand for gas stations with full service, then gas stations with full service will appear, as if by magic. Capitalism - it’s a good thing.
The disability argument is more persuasive, though apparently disabilities that make driving possible and pumping gas impossible are fairly uncommon. I’d think a better solution to that would be to require that all stations make full service available to people who require that accomodation. As someone upthread noted, there is that requirement, but the process doesn’t work well. It would seem to me far less costly and much easier to implement a more effective policy for dealing with disabled customers than to provide full service to all customers. Certainly, all of the gas stations I’ve been to lately (in Canada, mind you, not the US) have intercoms near the pumps. If they were slightly better situated, they could certainly be used to implement a request for special service process.
