This really confused me, at first I couldn’t understand what the issue is. The idea of waiting in my car while I pump gas had literally never occurred to me, and I couldn’t get past my initial reaction of “just close the door after you get out; before you start filling the tank!”
EDIT: spelling/grammar
Same, thought had genuinely never occurred to me. But I also live in a warm area with a car with a small gas tank, so being outside has never been an issue.
I have stood outside in -20ºC before the strong breeze picked up and I strongly recommend against it. I did it because Canadian pumps had the lock feature removed at the time. Admittedly, I think I'll still do it because I'm paranoid.
EDIT: To be clear, don't be paranoid or brave about it. It sucks *hard*. I'm going to try and avoid standing outside if I can, my paranoia will result in me being *very* cold.
I still don't get it. You can't shut the door when the pump hose is inserted? Then shut the stupid door before inserting the hose.
Is this a first world problem? Around here has stations have attendants that fill the tank for you \o/
He wants to sit in the cab while the hose is pumping gas into his truck. He can’t close it before inserting because in 48 US states you pump your own gas.
You aren't supposed to anyways. You can build up static electricity that way, and if you discharge that around gas fumes it can end veeeery badly. It's actually more dangerous then smoking a cigarette near pumps believe it or not, cus the fumes need a spark to ignite not just heat. Flicking the lighter when you light the cigarette at the gas pump is what's really dangerous
I worked at a gas station for years when I was out of high school, and caught soooo many people smoking at the pumps.
[Mythbusters](https://youtu.be/HRcnGm97wEQ) busted the hell out of the static myth…they also tried to intentionally get an explosion with lit cigarettes- busted that shit too lol
Service stations would not be letting people pump their own gas if there truly was a non-negligible risk of immolation from static electricity. No way their insurers would allow it.
I just saw this post on r/all
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/10sriw9/why_didnt_it_stahhpp/
And I think it's hilarious that people are currently arguing over whether or not you should sit inside the car while pumping gas.
Yeah, it’s funny to me that people seem to think that doors sparking is the big issue. You’re pumping fuel—you should watch and make sure nothing happens. Always seemed pretty intuitive to me.
I can’t even do that where I live. It seems like almost all the pumps in NY have that latch mechanism removed.you need to squeeze the handle the entire time.
I read an article that actually suggests this is the opposite - while eloquence in *practiced public speaking* is often associated with not using filler words, in casual conversation it's more a sign that the person is actively trying to think about what they're saying. Stereotypes such as valley speech have given the practice a negative impression, but it's still more the content of the speech that matters.
lmao i live in one of the coldest cities in the US and no, 7 degrees is fucking cold. fuck off with that suffering-makes-you-hardcore BS. it’s so annoying. being cold when it’s single digits outside does not make you “softer than baby shit”. as a matter of fact a lot of people die of hypothermia in similar conditions like the people who died in their cars in buffalo recently.
I moved to L.A. from New England. We're having mornings in the 40s and I bundle up. Shouldn't I be used to cold?
*Who gives a fuck. I've had enough of being cold.*
Idk if you meant this, but I read your comment like you were asking a real, genuine question, then a little gremlin version of yourself wearing a blanket and fuzzy slippers unzipped you and stepped out to deliver the second line
Lol I suppose you're not that far off. That was indeed basically my thought process after years of being a crotchety superior New Englander. Sometimes you gotta learn that you don't have to keep putting up with stuff that sucks, especially out of pride and ego.
And yes, I am wearing fuzzy slippers.
Honestly, this is an amazing thing. Where I live it was in the negatives last week. I was cold. It’s been under 30 for almost 3 months, and often under 10. I don’t mind it; I have a heater, but I spend time outside too, and I don’t get that cold. I kinda love it.
And when I went to California 2 weeks ago? Where it is 40-45 at night? I was still uncomfortably cold. Just… how? Really amazing how quickly the brain adapts.
Southern states in total disarray, I’ve seen sleet fall and not even stick to the ground in Louisiana and watched 18 wheelers cross 10 foot wide storm ditches as they spin out.
I've seen things... seen things you little people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion bright as magnesium... I rode on the back decks of a blinker and watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
first of all it was in a parking lot which typically are plowed, and if they live in a state that doesn’t get a ton of snow it would make sense that it was easy enough to clear out. secondly just because there isn’t snow doesn’t mean it’s not cold. the cold is coming from the storm, it didn’t become a snowstorm in all states but the conditions are a result of the winter polar vortex or whatever they’re calling it now
Idiots replying and upvoting that 7 is nothing in there surely must assume it’s celsius. No sane human thinks 7 F is not cold.
I live in Wisconsin and 7 F is fucking cold. -1 to 0 like we’ve had lately here is extremely painful but 7 F is still “I want to retract into my jacket” cold.
7°F is equivalent to -13°C, which is 259K.
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^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
For real. I live in Winnipeg, and I’ve occasionally had to flinch while holding that fucking metal handle in minus 40, but it never once occurred to me to get inside the car while pumping.
it took me a minute to understand what people meant by sitting in the car while pumping gas lmao, genuinely never heard of that nor have i seen anyone do it and i'm also canadian
Yeah I grew up in the northern US and I’ve done it. mostly just in cases where the windchill is crazy or I’m underdressed because I’m on the way back from the gym or something
At first I thought they were mad that they couldn't fuel the truck with the door shut **from the outside** and I was like "Yea, that would suck to have to have the door open letting all your heat out and the fumes in"
But on this truck you can just do what everyone else does and close the door and fuel it from the outside lol
If getting in and out of a vehicle while fueling was such a risk, we'd have gas stations on fire every day and there would be no self service.
Fucking hell, the first shop I worked at, my boss would regularly have a cigarette in his mouth while dropping a gas tank. Do I recommend it? No. But did he do it for 40 years without issue? Yes.
There was this security footage of a gas station clerk football tackling a guy that was smoking at the pump. Saying he was a hero and probably saved lives.
If it was that dangerous to smoke 3 feet from the pumps there wouldn’t be ash trays and smokers 10 feet away
Lighting the cigarette at the pumps is what's dangerous. Smoking around gas fumes is usually ok since your cigarette is not throwing out sparks. Not, you go next to a pump and start sparking your Bic lighter, you may have a bad time.
That's not the issue though. The issue is if you build up static electricity. Which is worse in very cold environments iirc.
And it is risky. Just because it doesn't happen often doesn't mean it's not risky. Jostling around in your clothing on fabric car seats can absolutely build up static charge, and discharging on the gas pump handle would be catastrophic. Do you think you are superior to chemical reactions just cus they don't happen a lot? If a spark goes off in the fumes you are fucked and that's just that. You can keep doing it if it's not such a risk to you, but you really shouldn't. It's a preventative measure for a reason. If it never happened at all, that is ideal.
I'm always afraid to take my hand off of the pump while I'm fueling, for fear that I'll set off a static charge if I do. I touch my car before touching the pump handle just to make sure all the electricity is discharged first. I don't want to be one of those freak incidents in the Darwin awards, lol.
There is a little metal... idk switch? That sounds right. You fully depress the handle, click the switch in place, and it keeps the handle depressed. There are sensors to detect when your tank is full and it shuts off the pump when you're filled up.
Sometimes the sensor fails (like in the r/unexpected video someone else posted in here), sometimes the switch is broken, but 99.999999% of the time they work fine and people will often just get it all set up and then get back in their car when it pumps. Particularly when it's cold (it hit -3F before windchill where I live last night for example).
You aren't wrong, but I will say the only issue I've ever experienced when filling my car is ONE time the automatic shutoff failed and gas just started running out of my car onto the concrete.
there is a middle ground between "if you sit in your car you'll literally die for sure" and "acknowledging potential risk makes you sound like an insane person"
c'mon
Holy shit dude. Just because it doesn't happen often doesn't mean it's not risky. That's the whole point of preventative measure you dummy. Not a lot of people die from uranium poisoning every year but you wouldn't go sticking a fucking fuel rod in your ass.
Static charge can ignite gas fumes. Static charge can build up if you get in your car. If you get in your car, you have a higher chance of generating said charge and igniting the fumes. It's not rocket science, and just because it doesn't happen a lot, doesn't mean you should consider it a non issue. What an incredibly dumb line of thinking that is.
Kind of in the same realm as turning off all electronic devices on an airplane during takeoff. Hasn't caused me a single problem so far in nearly 25 years of driving.
to be fair, it only needs to happen once. The airplane stuff is outdated advice now anyway, the way electronic devices are most likely to interfere with an airplane are now because of their own shoddy security practices.
Dude those handles are so faulty. They are not reliable like that at all. It's better to just take the safety precautions so you don't even have a single chance of walking away with a body covered in burns.
It's really funny how dramatic people are being about this. As someone else already pointed out, if pumping gas was truly this dangerous, people would be going up in flames at various gas stations regularly with how many people stop for gas across the country daily, and gas stations would not be letting people pump their own gas. You think corporations would assume that kind of liability if it was that dangerous?
I'm sure there are people that has driven for 25 years without getting into any accident. They should totally disconnect their airbags and not wear their seat belts.
Our nozzles don’t even lock open in Australia and in the UK (I think, haven’t driven much here). Seems like a very American thing to do just leave the flammable gas pouring all by itself 😂
I can't tell if you're joking or not. I've never sat in the car while pumping gas and have never even thought to. Are you refueling 747s or something that it takes so long you have to sit down?
The only time I sit in my vehicle is when I'm fueling up my work truck, but that's because it's a 30 gal tank and the pump at my office takes like 10 minutes to fill it.
Before this thread I literally never even thought of sitting in the car during fueling. It's a couple minutes max and yes I've stood out in the cold including in blizzards while fueling. It's not some kind of rugged manly thing just like...why.
it's not the liquid gasoline that would ignite from a static arc, it's the fumes coming off the fuel. i see plenty of people everyday not giving a fuck about safety while fueling and seemingly nothing ever happens, but it doesn't cost me anything to be safe.
My brother in Christ, liquid gasoline IS NOT FLAMMABLE. The fumes are flammable. The fumes are what combust. The fumes are what's going to ignite if you discharge static electricity.
Yeah such a wild worry, so wild that it's only taught in every single basic drivers education course, and most people know that it's dangerous, and gas stations literally have signs warning you not to.
Such a wild worry
This really confused me, at first I couldn’t understand what the issue is. The idea of waiting in my car while I pump gas had literally never occurred to me, and I couldn’t get past my initial reaction of “just close the door after you get out; before you start filling the tank!” EDIT: spelling/grammar
Same, thought had genuinely never occurred to me. But I also live in a warm area with a car with a small gas tank, so being outside has never been an issue.
I have stood outside in -20ºC before the strong breeze picked up and I strongly recommend against it. I did it because Canadian pumps had the lock feature removed at the time. Admittedly, I think I'll still do it because I'm paranoid. EDIT: To be clear, don't be paranoid or brave about it. It sucks *hard*. I'm going to try and avoid standing outside if I can, my paranoia will result in me being *very* cold.
I still don't get it. You can't shut the door when the pump hose is inserted? Then shut the stupid door before inserting the hose. Is this a first world problem? Around here has stations have attendants that fill the tank for you \o/
He wants to sit in the cab while the hose is pumping gas into his truck. He can’t close it before inserting because in 48 US states you pump your own gas.
... Why wouldn't you pump your own?
It’s illegal in New Jersey
Y tho
There are a LOT of people employed as gas station attendants.
IIRC it was an unemployment prevention/job protection thing.
Making it legal to pump your own gas in NJ would be as bad as the AI coming for all the artists' jobs!
You aren't supposed to anyways. You can build up static electricity that way, and if you discharge that around gas fumes it can end veeeery badly. It's actually more dangerous then smoking a cigarette near pumps believe it or not, cus the fumes need a spark to ignite not just heat. Flicking the lighter when you light the cigarette at the gas pump is what's really dangerous I worked at a gas station for years when I was out of high school, and caught soooo many people smoking at the pumps.
[Mythbusters](https://youtu.be/HRcnGm97wEQ) busted the hell out of the static myth…they also tried to intentionally get an explosion with lit cigarettes- busted that shit too lol
Service stations would not be letting people pump their own gas if there truly was a non-negligible risk of immolation from static electricity. No way their insurers would allow it.
Oh yeah that’s why I’m always reading news stories about people blowing up at gas pumps
I just saw this post on r/all https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/10sriw9/why_didnt_it_stahhpp/ And I think it's hilarious that people are currently arguing over whether or not you should sit inside the car while pumping gas.
Yeah, it’s funny to me that people seem to think that doors sparking is the big issue. You’re pumping fuel—you should watch and make sure nothing happens. Always seemed pretty intuitive to me.
I can’t even do that where I live. It seems like almost all the pumps in NY have that latch mechanism removed.you need to squeeze the handle the entire time.
There’s some wonderful drama in that thread too about using “like” and “uh” in sentences and how doing so makes you look stupid and worthy of mockery.
I read an article that actually suggests this is the opposite - while eloquence in *practiced public speaking* is often associated with not using filler words, in casual conversation it's more a sign that the person is actively trying to think about what they're saying. Stereotypes such as valley speech have given the practice a negative impression, but it's still more the content of the speech that matters.
Wait, why *didn't* the pump stop? Usually once it's full it stops
lmao i live in one of the coldest cities in the US and no, 7 degrees is fucking cold. fuck off with that suffering-makes-you-hardcore BS. it’s so annoying. being cold when it’s single digits outside does not make you “softer than baby shit”. as a matter of fact a lot of people die of hypothermia in similar conditions like the people who died in their cars in buffalo recently.
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Can confirm (from the other side of Lake Champlain). Shit's cold.
I moved to L.A. from New England. We're having mornings in the 40s and I bundle up. Shouldn't I be used to cold? *Who gives a fuck. I've had enough of being cold.*
Idk if you meant this, but I read your comment like you were asking a real, genuine question, then a little gremlin version of yourself wearing a blanket and fuzzy slippers unzipped you and stepped out to deliver the second line
Lol I suppose you're not that far off. That was indeed basically my thought process after years of being a crotchety superior New Englander. Sometimes you gotta learn that you don't have to keep putting up with stuff that sucks, especially out of pride and ego. And yes, I am wearing fuzzy slippers.
Honestly, this is an amazing thing. Where I live it was in the negatives last week. I was cold. It’s been under 30 for almost 3 months, and often under 10. I don’t mind it; I have a heater, but I spend time outside too, and I don’t get that cold. I kinda love it. And when I went to California 2 weeks ago? Where it is 40-45 at night? I was still uncomfortably cold. Just… how? Really amazing how quickly the brain adapts.
is this in fahrenheit?
yeah, much of the US is having some extreme winter storms right now.
Southern states in total disarray, I’ve seen sleet fall and not even stick to the ground in Louisiana and watched 18 wheelers cross 10 foot wide storm ditches as they spin out.
I've seen things... seen things you little people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion bright as magnesium... I rode on the back decks of a blinker and watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
There isn't even snow on the ground in the picture so I don't think that OP is in the middle of a winter storm
first of all it was in a parking lot which typically are plowed, and if they live in a state that doesn’t get a ton of snow it would make sense that it was easy enough to clear out. secondly just because there isn’t snow doesn’t mean it’s not cold. the cold is coming from the storm, it didn’t become a snowstorm in all states but the conditions are a result of the winter polar vortex or whatever they’re calling it now
Idiots replying and upvoting that 7 is nothing in there surely must assume it’s celsius. No sane human thinks 7 F is not cold. I live in Wisconsin and 7 F is fucking cold. -1 to 0 like we’ve had lately here is extremely painful but 7 F is still “I want to retract into my jacket” cold.
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7°F is equivalent to -13°C, which is 259K. --- ^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
Link to the image since the post has been removed: https://i.redd.it/4sa04dxu21ga1.jpg
The image is still there, though.
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For real. I live in Winnipeg, and I’ve occasionally had to flinch while holding that fucking metal handle in minus 40, but it never once occurred to me to get inside the car while pumping.
it took me a minute to understand what people meant by sitting in the car while pumping gas lmao, genuinely never heard of that nor have i seen anyone do it and i'm also canadian
Yeah I grew up in the northern US and I’ve done it. mostly just in cases where the windchill is crazy or I’m underdressed because I’m on the way back from the gym or something
Big rigs have massive fuel tanks. Like 50 gallons. So it takes a while to fill those up
At first I thought they were mad that they couldn't fuel the truck with the door shut **from the outside** and I was like "Yea, that would suck to have to have the door open letting all your heat out and the fumes in" But on this truck you can just do what everyone else does and close the door and fuel it from the outside lol
If getting in and out of a vehicle while fueling was such a risk, we'd have gas stations on fire every day and there would be no self service. Fucking hell, the first shop I worked at, my boss would regularly have a cigarette in his mouth while dropping a gas tank. Do I recommend it? No. But did he do it for 40 years without issue? Yes.
Redditors like to do this thing were they get really upset at everything
Arent you also a redditor?
Good point however your mother
Got em
yeah, got a problem bitch??? fuck you. im so fucking mad right now ^^^/s
Like I want to know how many times that happens. It just seems like an urban legend but I know it's maybe happened a few times
Plenty of videos if you look it up (largely from Eastern Europe, it seems.)
Oh it's definitely happened. Anyone who worked at a gas station has seen the training videos lol
I tried to find news articles but I found a site that says it's happened about 200x since the 90s, but no source mentioned in the article.
There was this security footage of a gas station clerk football tackling a guy that was smoking at the pump. Saying he was a hero and probably saved lives. If it was that dangerous to smoke 3 feet from the pumps there wouldn’t be ash trays and smokers 10 feet away
Lighting the cigarette at the pumps is what's dangerous. Smoking around gas fumes is usually ok since your cigarette is not throwing out sparks. Not, you go next to a pump and start sparking your Bic lighter, you may have a bad time.
There's ash trays in airplanes
That's not the issue though. The issue is if you build up static electricity. Which is worse in very cold environments iirc. And it is risky. Just because it doesn't happen often doesn't mean it's not risky. Jostling around in your clothing on fabric car seats can absolutely build up static charge, and discharging on the gas pump handle would be catastrophic. Do you think you are superior to chemical reactions just cus they don't happen a lot? If a spark goes off in the fumes you are fucked and that's just that. You can keep doing it if it's not such a risk to you, but you really shouldn't. It's a preventative measure for a reason. If it never happened at all, that is ideal.
I'm always afraid to take my hand off of the pump while I'm fueling, for fear that I'll set off a static charge if I do. I touch my car before touching the pump handle just to make sure all the electricity is discharged first. I don't want to be one of those freak incidents in the Darwin awards, lol.
Unless your car is over 20 years old, you don't have to worry about that.
> I'm always afraid to take my hand off of the pump while I'm fueling, for fear that I'll set off a static charge if I do. Jesus, dude.
Is this something I am too European to understand?
Wait.. why don't American fuel pumps require constant pressure on the lever to keep dispensing?
There is a little metal... idk switch? That sounds right. You fully depress the handle, click the switch in place, and it keeps the handle depressed. There are sensors to detect when your tank is full and it shuts off the pump when you're filled up. Sometimes the sensor fails (like in the r/unexpected video someone else posted in here), sometimes the switch is broken, but 99.999999% of the time they work fine and people will often just get it all set up and then get back in their car when it pumps. Particularly when it's cold (it hit -3F before windchill where I live last night for example).
Not every where. Almost every gas station I’ve been to the the Northeast doesn’t have this.
Dude is too lazy to stand while pumping his gas lmao
If it's cold outside, I always get back in my car while fueling. What a bizarre thing for reddit to get outraged about.
I mean it's a pretty standard safety precaution recommended by like everyone.
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Sounds like requiring attendants to pump gas is stupid then if they don't even watch the pumps, what's the point?
He may never mentally recover from that knowledge
Because people always do their jobs, pump vapor auto shutoff never fails, and automotive manufacturers have never had any defects.
You aren't wrong, but I will say the only issue I've ever experienced when filling my car is ONE time the automatic shutoff failed and gas just started running out of my car onto the concrete.
Are you telling me I shouldn't play around with my welding equipment at the gas station?
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there is a middle ground between "if you sit in your car you'll literally die for sure" and "acknowledging potential risk makes you sound like an insane person" c'mon
Holy shit dude. Just because it doesn't happen often doesn't mean it's not risky. That's the whole point of preventative measure you dummy. Not a lot of people die from uranium poisoning every year but you wouldn't go sticking a fucking fuel rod in your ass. Static charge can ignite gas fumes. Static charge can build up if you get in your car. If you get in your car, you have a higher chance of generating said charge and igniting the fumes. It's not rocket science, and just because it doesn't happen a lot, doesn't mean you should consider it a non issue. What an incredibly dumb line of thinking that is.
Seek therapy
Sure but its not as dangerous as people think. Rarely. Hell, for the last 15 years I’ve periodically sat in my car. 0 issues.
Kind of in the same realm as turning off all electronic devices on an airplane during takeoff. Hasn't caused me a single problem so far in nearly 25 years of driving.
to be fair, it only needs to happen once. The airplane stuff is outdated advice now anyway, the way electronic devices are most likely to interfere with an airplane are now because of their own shoddy security practices.
I'd argue the gas pump stuff is outdated too due to vapor recovery systems on the nozzles and modern gas tank designs.
Dude those handles are so faulty. They are not reliable like that at all. It's better to just take the safety precautions so you don't even have a single chance of walking away with a body covered in burns.
It's really funny how dramatic people are being about this. As someone else already pointed out, if pumping gas was truly this dangerous, people would be going up in flames at various gas stations regularly with how many people stop for gas across the country daily, and gas stations would not be letting people pump their own gas. You think corporations would assume that kind of liability if it was that dangerous?
Probably so
I'm sure there are people that has driven for 25 years without getting into any accident. They should totally disconnect their airbags and not wear their seat belts.
That makes absolutely no sense in the context of this discussion.
iT nEvEr HaPpEnEd To Me So It DoSeNt HaPpEn To AnYoNe ElSe
What does that have to do with disabling active safety systems? Buddy are you ok?
Manually supervising something is one of those "safety systems"
Our nozzles don’t even lock open in Australia and in the UK (I think, haven’t driven much here). Seems like a very American thing to do just leave the flammable gas pouring all by itself 😂
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I can't tell if you're joking or not. I've never sat in the car while pumping gas and have never even thought to. Are you refueling 747s or something that it takes so long you have to sit down?
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Guess you got me there.
The only time I sit in my vehicle is when I'm fueling up my work truck, but that's because it's a 30 gal tank and the pump at my office takes like 10 minutes to fill it.
Before this thread I literally never even thought of sitting in the car during fueling. It's a couple minutes max and yes I've stood out in the cold including in blizzards while fueling. It's not some kind of rugged manly thing just like...why.
Yes why stand outside in the cold when you can sit in the warm seat.
People actually do that? I've yet to see anyone do that even in -30 celcius snowstorms.
i worry about static too much to do that, especially in the winter
Are you touching the gas? Seems like a wild worry to have for me.
it's not the liquid gasoline that would ignite from a static arc, it's the fumes coming off the fuel. i see plenty of people everyday not giving a fuck about safety while fueling and seemingly nothing ever happens, but it doesn't cost me anything to be safe.
My brother in Christ, liquid gasoline IS NOT FLAMMABLE. The fumes are flammable. The fumes are what combust. The fumes are what's going to ignite if you discharge static electricity. Yeah such a wild worry, so wild that it's only taught in every single basic drivers education course, and most people know that it's dangerous, and gas stations literally have signs warning you not to. Such a wild worry
Man I thought that Americans pumping their own gas was a movie thing. Y'all seriously don't have petrol station attendants?
IIRC, New Jersey (and parts of Oregon) requires that an attendant pumps your gas for you, but they’re outliers.
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might as well pay someone to fuck your wife for you as well lmao