9. Pumping Mid-Day
Pumping when temperatures are coolest, i.e. the morning hours, gasoline will be denser; therefore delivering more liquid for the buck through the pump…so say industry experts. However, other experts say temperature only matters when the gasoline is delivered. Their reason? They say that since the fuel is going to sit underground in tanks that act like thermos bottles, it doesn’t matter what the temp of the outside air is above ground. All that said, Snopes.com sums up the question nicely with this scenario. If you buy 15 gallons of gasoline per week at $4.00 per gallon, and you carefully choose to fill up only in the morning, you might realize a 1% savings. The total amount you’ll keep over the course of a year at is about $31. If $31 is worth the potential inconvenience of adhering to a rigid morning fill-up schedule week after week, go for it!
10. Rushing
Most gasoline pump handles let you set a lever in a notch to free your hands while your car refills. You get three settings from which to choose: low, medium and high. Choosing high might cost you more money! The faster the gasoline pumps out, the more of it vaporizes. This used to be bad news for the environment. Then many stations updated their equipment so that nozzles include a vapor recovery system. This system prevents vapors from escaping into the atmosphere by sucking them back into the pump via an environmental return system. This is good news for the environment…but it could be bad news for your wallet. If you set the auto-fill to the highest, and therefore fastest, setting, more liquid is vaporized. You pay for the gasoline that came out of the pump but then gets returned to the storage tank. Choose the lowest setting to decrease the amount that’s vaporized, and you’ll get more of the gas you paid for. Use the extra time to plan your day, read or just relax…outside of the car, that is. (Remember #3?)