Just saw this while getting gas. Why is it illegal to get less than 4 gallons?

Flying Squid@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 365 points –
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These signs also exist in the Netherlands, and the reason is because pumps are calibrated to a certain accuracy (say, 1%, for convenience).

But in the real world, you can get a lot of variation from temperature, to how long it's been since a pump was used, to how full the underground tank is. They all made a difference, mostly at the start and end of pumping.

So you get a law in percentages, and you get a real world deviation in volume. Obviously, if your pump is short 50ml on 1 liter, you're off by 5% and breaking the law. But of you slap a sticker on, telling everyone they "must" get 5 liters, you're off 50ml on 5L, a perfect 1% deviation and entirely within the limit.

But 8 gallon is BIG volume, damn.

In Canada ours have a sticker that says the amounts are calibrated to a certain temperature (15C I think), so I assumed it took that into account. I try not to think about how much it costs so didn't over analyze it.

What happens if you try to fuel a vehicle with a tank smaller than 5 gallons, for example a typical small motorbike?

Just spray the rest on your car, the ground, or whatever. It's like having fun with the water hose!

I saw a guy filling a Home Depot bucket at the Arco earlier today. Now I'm wondering if it's because of something like this.

Once I saw a guy filling up a plastic grocery bag while smoking a cigarette. I often wonder what he was doing

Or they were just taking it home to store. Which, y'know, will likely result in that gas eating the plastic bucket in a couple weeks because gasoline is incredibly good as a solvent.

Nothing. But you might not fall within the legally required accuracy, so maybe you're overpaying very slightly.