Gas and smoking

[Steve S]

I was finished pumping gas the other nite when a woman who pulled up behind me proceded to pump gas while smoking a cigarette. I hurriedly left but wonder if I should have notified the attendant.

[Von Felgenhauer]

Heat from a cigarette wont ignite fuel vapors, only spark or flame. Same thing with propane. If it really would ignite at the littlest thing, would they really be attached to a grill with flames?

[64jazz]

Try this: put some gasoline in a small, open container like a 7" skillet, for example. Flick a lit cigarette into it and see what happens. The result will almost certainly be nothing like the warning labels/fear mongers would have you believe. Keep your distance though, should that one case in a hundred thousand crop up and actually ignite the gasoline!

[ShredderMaximus]

According to my Dad and Grandpa, smoking in gas stations used to be completely fine, and they both managed to stay around long enough for me to be here.

[Jinro]

Of course if you toss a cigarette in pan of gas it won't ignite--because the liquid will douse the cigarette.

If the mixture of fumes and oxygen is just right, it can happen. But the fuel/o2 mixture is probably never right when left in the wild. If you purposely got the fuel/o2 mixture right I bet it would ignite.

[Von Felgenhauer]

Originally Posted by Jinro

Of course if you toss a cigarette in pan of gas it won't ignite--because the liquid will douse the cigarette.

If the mixture of fumes and oxygen is just right, it can happen. But the fuel/o2 mixture is probably never right when left in the wild. If you purposely got the fuel/o2 mixture right I bet it would ignite.

Again, as long as there is a spark. A heat source will not ignite the fumes the actual combustible part.

[BurningSkies]

Didn't mythbusters test this and find that they couldn't get ignition?

[Jinro]

Again, as long as there is a spark. A heat source will not ignite the fumes the actual combustible part.

If the fuel/air mixture is right, and if there is a source of heat hotter than the autoignition temperature of the fuel, it will happen. I have no clue how hot the end of a cigarette gets, but I doubt it's hot enough.

[Steve S]

OK..I feel better now..

[fourstringdrums]

I don't know if I'd be afraid of her but rather I would be afraid of the idiot who gets back in their car and then gets out to finish pumping without touching the car to break a possible static charge.

This is more dangerous and some stations actually removed the lever locks so you have to stand there the whole time while pumping.

[BurningSkies]

Originally Posted by fourstringdrums

I don't know if I'd be afraid of her but rather I would be afraid of the idiot who gets back in their car and then gets out to finish pumping without touching the car to break a possible static charge.

This is more dangerous and some stations actually removed the lever locks so you have to stand there the whole time while pumping.

The pump locks are illegal in NY. They're all removed. Actually, Even in other states I seldom see them on self-service pumps, which is about 95% of what's out there.

[fourstringdrums]

Originally Posted by BurningSkies

The pump locks are illegal in NY. They're all removed. Actually, Even in other states I seldom see them on self-service pumps, which is about 95% of what's out there.

They are in Massachusetts, but while I see a few stations now that I've been up here in New Hampshire that don't have them, most of them do.

Live Free or Die remember

[Jinro]

This is more dangerous and some stations actually removed the lever locks so you have to stand there the whole time while pumping.

So that's the reason they're removed. It's a royal pain in the winter, as I can't feel my hand at all by the time I'm done pumping. I've never been one to go back into my car though--I always stood by the pump even when using the lever lock because sometimes it would overflow.

[Lee H]

It is not even legal to pump your own gas in Oregon...

funny though. last time I was up there, I was on a custom harley. The attendants looked at the bike, and paint job, and told me I could pump my own gas

[64jazz]

I'm guessing the spark generated by a static discharge is substantially hotter than the end of a cigarette, probably on par with a piezo-electric IGNITER, right?

[spade2you]

I thought when you took a drag of a cigarette, they became hot enough to ignite vapors, provided the vapors are at a certain PPM near the smokes.

[Time Monkey]

Gas pumps seal very well against modern fuel tanks. No where near enough vapor escapes to ignite the fumes in a normal situation.

toss a lit cig into a bucket of gas.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Gasoline is a "safe fuel", the combustible air-fuel ratio is very narrow, compared with acetylene for example.

Anyone who's tried to coaxe the maximum performance out of a carburated engine on a broad rev-range knows that .

Originally Posted by 64jazz

Try this: put some gasoline in a small, open container like a 7" skillet, for example. Flick a lit cigarette into it and see what happens.

Originally Posted by Time Monkey

toss a lit cig into a bucket of gas.

If You do this, make sure You hit the gasoline, not the sides of the pan/bucket/skillet/gas-tank etc.

When I was a kid there was this dare to flick a lighted cigarette into an open gasoline tank of a moped. I wasn't stupid (daring) enough to try, but a friend of mine did, and missed for just a hair...

Needless to say a gas tank almost empty of liquid, filled with vapor forming a stoichiometric mix in the vicinity of the filler opening, combined with the shower of sparks of that cigarette hitting the tank was a blast. Literally.

His tank held a lot more gas after that though .

Regards
Sam

[Chef FourString]

A cigarette can't draw enough oxygen to ignite gasoline.

[Strohsx]

I never quite understood turning the engine off either.