slow gas pumps

I was at a local station today, and they like to do the ol ‘(lower price) only at pumps 1, 2, 9, 10’ trick. So, I check all 4 pumps, and they are so slow, you wouldn’t want to stand there very long. Got me to thinking….is this by design? Do they purposely make these pumps so slow that you’re not willing to stand there for the lower price and you’ll go to another, faster (and higher priced) pump? Or because the price is lower, the tanks are less full of fuel, so the pumps are slow? Being my cynical self, I’m SURE it’s the former rather than the latter. What do you think?

Fuel should come out of the same tank is the other pumps. seems really odd why they would set flow slower at the near and far pumps, but keep the others at normal speed. Maybe they want you to spend time looking inside and get turned onto the day old donuts, cold hot dogs, and burnt coffee..

nahhh- – -they just do it cuz they know it turns your crank jerr

Sometimes if you stop pumping for a few seconds, then resume, it will pump faster. This happens every now and then at the Casey’s in Zumbrota. Lady running the place told me they get vapor locked or something like that. Try that next time.

If I’m understanding you correctly, there are different prices for the same octane at the same station?

I’ve noticed the pump is only slow when the price was really high.

But the $ meter runs double time !!

Talked to a “bud” of mine who works for a company that sells and services gas pumps. He says it’s the mechanical leak detector that reacts to the lower temps. If you let off the fuel flow for a few seconds, it will reset itself, and you’re good to go. He could not explain why some pumps were priced different than others. In fact, he threw the bulls#$t flag on that one.
Now ya know.

I like your pricing anologey but it has nothing to do with that. You can’t change the price on individual pumps. There are times that the leak detector causes them to slow in the cold weather but it has to be real cold. The filters are bad on the pumps and they need changing. It most always seems to effect them when it starts to get cold. Usually the bussiest pump gets plugged up faster but we got a bad load of fuel one time and all of them plugged up fast. The higher grades don’t get plugged up as fast since they are not used as much.

The station would like to know that they seem slow so they can get fixed. It is a simple process and takes about 30 seconds to replace. It looks like an oil filter that screws on under the pump.

I would have to look at my specs at the store but there is a formula that says if it is pumping less then X gallons a minute it needs to be replaced.

Quote:

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Sometimes if you stop pumping for a few seconds, then resume, it will pump faster. This happens every now and then at the Casey’s in Zumbrota. Lady running the place told me they get vapor locked or something like that. Try that next time.

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I found out the same thing… pump for a few seconds, if its slow, stop for five seconds and resume. Seems to help I also belive it is illegal to have different prices on different pumps with the same product at any given time.

big G

Learning more on Ido by accident than at other places by design

You know me too well, Jerr.

Yes, they are saying that the price today was $2.56 at pumps 1, 2, 9, 10, and I couldn’t tell you what it was at the others because I didn’t look, but I would guess it was 2.64, which is where it is at other places in town. I know there are other places that pull this dirty trick too. If you don’t read the fine print to see what pumps have the lower price, you’ll be paying the higher price at other pumps because chances are you look at the big numbers on the sign, then don’t look at the pump when you start filling up. They’ve gotten me a couple times, but I always look things over closely now. Ya, I know, it’s only a couple bucks, but it’s a couple extra bucks those %#%@@!s don’t need.

If the layout of the station is anything like the one I frequent the push the button to pay inside works because the pumps are in view of the attendants probably and the others are CC or higher priced and are designed to get everyone to wait for the cheaper gas.The station I use forced pay at the pump for any of them not in view of the counter and it works for them to eliminate drive offs.It also saves them money on a spendy security camera setup.Once your there they figure they got you with the distraction of cheaper gas.Keeps the honest people honest.

This station is right off the interstate, so there’s no option for pay inside unless you prepay. I will try to remember to stop in there, maybe tomorrow, so see what the other pumps say on them and their octanes and such. Got me curious now.

I am a development test engineer for pump drivers and as I look at all the answers I say possible or not correct, some of the suggestions might endanger unexperienced gas pump clerks… from experience I suggest not to make assumptions about the reason of why the pump is running slow, the reason can be one of hundreds of possible reasons… as simple as sensor got gas on it, to pump over heatig to more than 1000 other reasons… one of the most dangerous things that can be done is repeated reset, to clear the fault, some VFD variable frequency drives reduce the speed when overheat reaches a limit so the pump will be run slower to keep the temperature of the motor under the set limit. Resetting the power might clear the memory and cause the motor to over heat and start a fire… my suggestion is to treat this issue as a sefty response and a dangerous one and contact your gas pump technician ASAP, this can be costly if not fixed or if bypassed… Joseph Morse

H’mmm,

I’ve never seen different prices at different pumps at the same station, with except of some near the Interstate that give discounts for Paying Cash with any Credit transaction being higher priced.

CAUTION this is a 8 yr old thread.

DaveB wrote:

CAUTION this is a 8 yr old thread.

How the heck did this one even get found?!

Joseph Morse wanted to lecture us…. for an engineer, he might want to redesign the pumps, so operators cannot blow up the station by stopping and then starting the pump again.

munchy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>DaveB wrote:</div>
CAUTION this is a 8 yr old thread.

How the heck did this one even get found?!

There are now 4 posts on the main page over 4 years old. These are popping up on a regular basis. Most likely a result of a google search.

-J.