Metal (steel or aluminium) fuel tanks are usually built by welding stamped sheetmetal parts together. The premise here is that the fill and vent hoses are not typically filled with fuel for any extended period of time, whereas the distribution hoses are usually filled with fuel all the time. When I sold the car it was 12 years old and ran without issue, suggesting points 2 and 3 are not major factors. Equipped with this new cabin, the Trieste reached the deepest known point on Earth, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, on January 23, 1960. More volume provides more dissipation of heat. No, all kinds of tank and property variables can affect each situation. Many fuel tanks' baffles (particularly in aircraft and racecars) contain lightening holes. Cited harms include: Your fuel pump overheating if it runs dry Water condensation in the empty areas of the tank, freezing or causing corrosion Sediment accumulating and blocking your fuel filter Running out of fuel unexpectedly, leaving you in dire straits To me, only the last of these makes some sense; the rest seem folklore-based. The average fuel tank capacity for cars is 50-60 L (12-16 US gal). This is when the tank is permanently closed with one of the following methods: Filling the tank with a substance like polyurethane foam is a popular option since its lightweight, eliminates health hazards, and strong enough to keep the tanks structural integrity intact. The good news is that properties with underground oil tanks are rare. 9 May 2007 (p. A1). The answer is H and J. 5 Simple Reasons to Keep Your Gas Tank Full - Carsforsale.com Should I really keep my gas tank at least half full? it would not drain to the last drop but instead leaves a certain volume (in German it's called Sumpf - don't know in English). Did the drapes in old theatres actually say "ASBESTOS" on them? Little is known about this vehicle, except it is constructed of titanium and has a more streamlined, teardrop shape than earlier bathyscaphes. Many municipal and private wells have been shut down as the result of contamination caused by releases from UST systems. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. Wiki User. If your leak affects a neighbors yard or nearby company or government building, it could result in additional expenses or even lawsuits. Below is a summary of what we've gleaned from various sources about the usefulness of these tips: Fill up your car or truck in the morning when the temperature is still cool. As a result, it takes these large tank trucks around 20-30 minutes on average to fill up a gas station. Since each compartment is kept separate, the tanker will take more time to fill a gas station as they need to connect the nozzle to each compartment and fill it up. This article is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional advice from a medical provider, licensed attorney, financial advisor, or tax professional. The particles would have to be quite heavy to not mix Keeping laminar separation in a moving fuel tank is not possible, though, I will grant you I have never ridden fine German roads (Diesel) injection pumps rely on the lubrication by the diesel. Anyway, the interior of the tank after 20 years was. 11,000 pounds were stripped from the tank after the first half-dozen shuttle flights and another 7,500 pounds during the 1990s to increase the shuttle's capacity to haul components to the International Space Station. For example, many. Flex-fuel . The tank's propellants would stay liquid only if kept at cold, or cryogenic, temperatures. The feed pump [Frderpumpe - not sure about some transations here] is a small electric pump that will work to transport fuel as soon as fuel is available again, so problem there (that's the pump I said was absent in many of the old diesels). What were the most popular text editors for MS-DOS in the 1980s? You cannot download interactives. A poor decommissioning job could put you at risk for costly, harmful leaks in the future. Once the main area is filled, that's where most of the fuel ends up staying. "You May Not Be Getting All You Pay for at the Pump." The second tank is connected to the first tank and to my generator, and the first tank has a line that runs into my home for a gas fireplace. The explosion risk of transporting volatile liquefied natural gas in vulnerable tank cars through major population centers is off the charts. So, is there any basis to these concerns? The pressure will go down as the tank empties. If you want to make sure you can always drive a couple of hundred miles at a moment's notice, then you should keep some gas in your tank. If you think there might be an oil tank on your rented property, talk to your landlord about your concerns. The oil was used mainly as a heat source for the home. The downside of this method is that once the pressure begins to drop it will run out fairly quickly. In most cases, the longer the coverage history is, the better. addressed - such as where the outlet, drain, fluid level indicator, seams, and baffles go. As I mentioned, it depends on the type and size of the tanker truck. You can typically put these homes into one of two categories: Generally speaking, most oil tanks have been properly decommissioned. They are typically of metal construction, and may be removed for inspection, replacement, or repair. If an old oil tank has been decommissioned, the contractor usually removes or cuts the breather tube and fill valve. The flammability of fuel makes stress cracking a possible cause of catastrophic failure. Theyre usually located no further than 10 feet from the homes foundation. Where Does Gasoline Come From? - AAA Exchange This is a real concern, but it has to be evaluated based on where you live and what your priorities are. Outside the home, look for the presence of a gas meter and oil tank fill valve or breather tube (also called a vent pipe), as shown in the photos below. 6 Things You Need to Know about Underground Storage Tanks Interpreting non-statistically significant results: Do we have "no evidence" or "insufficient evidence" to reject the null? If the inner chamber is kept in a vacuum, the atmospheric pressure would crush it. NASA - Amazing Facts: Space Shuttle External Tank So diesel cars are programmed to shut down and pretend to have run out of fuel while there remains a litre or two of diesel in the tank (but with the gauge below empty). These flanged holes serve two purposes, they reduce the weight of the tank while adding strength to the baffles. The odds increase when its located in certain parts of the Midwest or Northeast. I used to own a car that ran on LPG (Honda Accord). Having grown up in the mountains of Montana where snow is a factor for four to five months out of the year, this is an extremely important thing to remember to do, for a couple of reasons. Why refined oil is cheaper than cold press oil? August Piccard, the designer of the Trieste, was a pioneer in high-altitude ballooning as well. If it takes me five minutes to get to and from the gas station (ignoring the time spent actually standing at the pump), then 340 fills would take about 28 hours, and 640 fills would take about 56 hours. Also a concern if you live outside a serviceable range of roadside assistance. So using the "get the last drop out" switch would get you to the gas station, but it would do this by using fuel that may be more dirty and in consequence sooner clog the filter. This is also why the air conditioner in cars formerly owned by geriatrics tend to be broken (they never use it, so everything dries out, the pump degrades and the refrigerant escapes). Hope this will help ease your 'pain at the pump'. Assuming that a motorist typically bought 15 gallons of gasoline per week at $4.00 per gallon, and assuming that by carefully choosing to fill up at a particular time of day said consumer could realize a 1% savings, we calculate the total savings to be gleaned over the course of a year at about $31. Its important to choose a reputable oil tank removal professional to decommission your tank. When you reach out to him or her, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. But both these concern running on the dregs, not running below half full. Well Help You Unpack the Answer, Why is My House So Dusty? Homeowners insurance rarely covers these costs. Homeowners insurance rarely covers these costs. So do passengers. This enables the bathyscaphe to maintain equal pressure between its interior and the sea, even at extreme depths where water is highly pressurized. Here are some tricks to help you get your money's worth:1. For example, the tank for STS-1 in 1981 weighed 77,000 pounds empty; after STS-91, launched in June 1998, tanks weighed 58,500 pounds. So, by only refilling when empty I'd save about 28 hours over the life of my car. Yes, It's Hot; But No, Your Gas Tank Won't Explode If You Fill It Up The heavy steel cabin is designed to resist pressure, which increases the deeper you go. The external tank was the only major expendable shuttle element. It does this from the air which is vented into the tank from the outside. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Mileage can also be improved by removing from the car little-used equipment that adds weight or increases drag (e.g., sporting gear, tools, roof racks/carriers). She or he will best know the preferred format. We haven't found much of a consensus about whether gasoline evaporating from automobile gas tanks is truly "lost," whether the amount of (hypothetical) loss is significant or negligible, or how much the evaporation rate would really be lessened by motorists' driving with gas tanks never less than half full. I.e. Should I really keep my gas tank at least half full? Take the density of oil to be rho (o) = 1.8 slug/ft^3 and the density of gasoline to be rho (g) = 1.4 slugh/ft^3. As fuel is loaded into large tanker trucks for delivery to gasoline stations, special additive packages are blended in, which turn the base fuels into branded gasolines with unique characteristics. Lead is commonly found in all of these EXCEPT insulating material When in doubt, always ask a qualified professional. - Christopher James Huff. When it gets warmer gasoline expands, so if you're filling up in the afternoon or in the evening, what should be a gallon is not exactly a gallon. A racing fuel cell has a rigid outer shell and flexible inner lining to minimize the potential for punctures in the event of a collision or other mishap resulting in serious damage to the vehicle. Ends can then be hemmed in and soldered, or flanged and brazed (and/or sealed with an epoxy-type sealant) or the ends can be flanged and then welded. An old house with a properly decommissioned oil tank. I've only run out of gas a few times ;), I'd suggest there's credence for all of these. Whittier Daily News. Hoses at the pump are corrugated; the corrugations act as a return path for vapor recovery from gas that already has been metered. If we start pumping fuel in when the tanks are made (I believe the inside chamber is not vacuum), it will explode. August Piccard, the designer of the Trieste, was a pioneer in high-altitude ballooning as well. I recently had a second 80 gallon propane tank installed so that I would have extended run time for my 9Kw whole house generator. What Causes Excessive Water Leaking From Car Air Conditioners? Flow-through . 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. Why were the large tanks filled with gasoline? Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, Section 8, pp 8-3, 8-4, says that small- and medium-sized pumping stations are to be equipped with fuel storage tanks capable of storing seven days capacity, plus "floor-mounted packaged system day tanks", Learn how and when to remove this template message, environmental hazards of underground storage tanks, "WS-8020 Class B Sealant - High Temperature Fuel Tank Sealant | NSL Aerospace", "What Is The Average Size Of A Car Gas Tank? Like sand in your bathtub, any sediment introduced is going to naturally settle around the drain and get sucked into the filter as fuel is drawn through it regardless of volume. You think to yourself, Ugh, I should have gone to the other station down the street.. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. In. Is that a good trade-off of time vs. money? If youve determined that your property has an inactive or active underground tank, you have a few different options for decommissioning the tank. Another harm: Earthquake/hurricane requires you to get out of Dodge quickly along with 1M other people and the gas stations are either out of gas or out of electricity to run the pumps. I received similar advice from my dad ("never let the tank run to empty"); this is probably leftover advice from the 70s-80s when gas tanks were still made of metal and subject to corrosion. "Dispelling Gasoline Myths." The injection pump is AFAIK a piston pump, and it doesn't matter how it is driven (mechanically or electrically): if the piston moves in a space completely filled with incompressible liquid, that liquid has to go somewhere and the pressure builds up accordingly. Below are five reasons why topping off your tank should be added to your list of car maintenance priorities. If youre buying a house with active oil heat, ensure the current owner has properly registered the tank. The first tank's gauge currently reads 70 . Why did the allies use gasoline as a fuel for their tanks? A bathyscaphe is a self-propelled vehicle used for deep-sea dives. Bathyscaphe - National Geographic Society And many cars don't have the cheap 1st filter any more at all). (That is, the pumps do not adjust price or volume to reflect vapor recovery, so the consumer is essentially paying for losses due to "waste" even though the retailer is recouping those losses through a recycling process.). And, as ivan noted, that's what fuel filters for; they are designed to capture silt and be replaced at regular intervals. Request Answer. For the latter, as cbeleites noted, emptying a tank halfway twice pulls in exactly as much air as emptying a tank completely once, so again you'll get the same amount of water pulled in no matter how you split that up into fillings. Submissions should be written legibly and include the originator's name. That isn't much power; it would take at least fifteen minutes for it to heat a cup of water to boiling. Some say it doesn't; others maintain that consumers are getting the same "energy content" in a tank of gas either way. Typically, the oil tanker trucks will have 3, 4, or 5 insulated compartments depending on the size and used to transport gasoline or other flammable liquids. In terms of freezing, if there's ethanol in the gas then the water will likely blend with the gas, so it won't freeze. 1996 - 2023 National Geographic Society. When in doubt, always ask a qualified professional. What Happens When You Fill Up With Too Much Gas? The craftsman generally creates a mockup to determine the accurate size and shape of the tank, usually out of foam board. You have 2 options: if your tank has a dual gauge regulator, you can read the amount of pressure on the dial. Heres how you can prepare for any variables that come up along the way. Would that reward really be worth the potential inconvenience of adhering to a rigid fill-up schedule week after week? It takes an average of 20-30 minutes to unload a 9,000-gallon tanker. This is indeed a concern, as with all other fluids in the car. Now, there are different sizes of tanker trucks. It also helps to have the decommissioning statement handy for the next owners if you plan to sell the house in the future. San Diego Union-Tribune. Some scenarios are simple, while others are complicated with more things to consider. It can cause symptoms like headaches and drowsiness in humans and lead to serious health conditions when people are continuously exposed to it. So yes, you are, I once had to tear apart a fuel tank from a rust belt '83. This is the same principle behind an overinflated balloon popping: when the interior, outward-pushing pressure is too great for the container's walls to withstand, a rupture will occur, and the. In fact, the word "bathyscaphe" takes the first part of its name from the ancient Greek word for "deep": bathys. TREC: Info About Brokerage Services, Consumer Protection Notice. Rental homes can have underground tanks just like any other home. Assuming that our typical consumer bought gasoline once a week, and that the fill-up process averaged a modest 8 minutes (including the time to get to a gas station, to wait in line if the pumps are all busy, to pump the gas, to pay for the purchase, and to get back on the road), said consumer would be spending an extra 7 hours per year pumping gas to achieve these savings. Some advanced gasoline filtration systems claim to recover about 2% of the fuel lost by evaporation from gas station storage tanks, so we'll use that figure as a baseline for argument's sake. This could be a problem, but the magnitude of the problem won't depend on whether or not there's lots of gas floating on top of the water. That's the kind of sight that makes your blood freeze. This is What Happens When a Tank Isn't Vented Properly - Dultmeier Fuel continually flows in the supply line to the injectors and the excess fuel is returned to the fuel tank through a pressure regulator. Is that savings really worth essentially halving the storage capacity of your car's gas tank (thereby requiring you to stop for gasoline twice as often as before)? Inside the house, look for small copper lines where the furnace is installed (above). If you are represented by an agent, this is not a solicitation of your business. In 5e D&D and Grim Hollow, how does the Specter transformation affect a human PC in regards to the 'undead' characteristics and spells? He holds a degree in mechanical engineering and has spent years working as a mechanic and engineer for some of the worlds top car companies. As freeman noted, OEM fuel tanks these days are plastic, not metal, so corrosion isn't going to be an issue. A long-circulated collection of purported money-saving tips for buying gasoline includes some items whose veracity is disputed, and others whose purported economic gains are highly questionable: I've been in petroleum pipeline business for about 31 years, currently working for the Kinder-Morgan Pipeline here in San Jose, CA. Some states offer a helping hand in this area. I know its tempting to go and ask the driver how long it will take or to take a selfie with the big rig, but trust me, its not worth it. I'll add it to the answer and appreciate you bringing it to light. If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact ngimagecollection@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. "Gas Stations Repeatedly Cited for Air Pollution." Keep your tank > 1/2 full so you can get down the highway fast to a useful gas station Water condensation in an empty fuel tank is a major issue for airplanes. Moisture gets in as humid air is sucked in as the fuel is used. Driving habits are especially important: jackrabbit stops and starts eat up extra fuel, as does driving at higher speeds. For example, many rental homes in Pittsburgh, PA and the surrounding area are older builds with a higher rate of buried oil tanks. How much gasoline fuel to keep in tank of low use vehicle, Tank reading half full. In fact the Russians - an Allied country - were the only nation. The temperature at which gasoline is sold has been the focus of legislative interest of late in several states, the primary issue being that regulators maintain gasoline expands or contracts about 1% for every 15-degree change in the fuel's temperature. But, if a gas station does sell you dirty gas, or if someone spoons mud into your gas inlet, it would sink to the bottom and likely be sucked into the pump whether or not there's lots of gas in the tank. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. 9 Pros and Cons to Consider, 8 Home Remodeling Projects to Boost Your Property Value in Columbus. Then the craftsmen must determine the thickness, temper and alloy of the sheet he will use to make the tank. It is filled with an open-cell foam core to prevent explosion of vapor in the empty portion of the tank and to minimize sloshing of fuel during competition that may unbalance the vehicle or cause inadequate fuel delivery to the motor (fuel starvation).[4]. Swiss oceanographer Auguste Piccard designed the bathyscaphe. These VLG Carriers are capable of loading anywhere between 100,000 cubic meters to 200,000 cubic meters of gas into large tanks. Even if the temperature/volume issue were a real and significant one, one has to consider the amount of savings to be gleaned from such a scheme. If your leak affects a neighbors yard or nearby company or government building, it could result in additional expenses or even lawsuits. I've seen a number of sources that state you should keep your car's gas tank at least half full, some of which saying it's only important in winter. In fact, the 12 gas-filled tanks on the Trieste provided as much lift as the hydrogen gas on an airship. While bottom-loading tanker trucks are generally faster to fill a gas station and offer more options when it comes to loading or unloading fuels, they have a downside. You probably shouldn't continually try to crank a car with an empty gas tank, but I doubt a second or two of fuel-free running would overheat a pump. Lee, Mike. 10 Pros and Cons of Living in San Marcos, From Waterfalls to Parks: 11 Beautiful Places in Spokane, Is Woodbridge, VA a Good Place to Live? Be notified when an answer is posted. Don't go there. When fully loaded, the cold propellant caused the tank to shrink up to 7 inches. The skin of the external tank was less than 0.25 inches thick, yet held more than 1.5 million pounds of propellant. You need all hands on board ASAP so everyone knows what his or her job is.