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Yes. Of course, it’s handy when you’ve got a car that actually has steel panels. Old-era Saturn owners beware!
However, I do not turn off the cell phone in my pocket.
Didn’t Mythbusters try to spark up gas station fumes with a static discharge and fail?
I do seem to remember them trying to spark fumes with a cell phone (boosting the output to ridiculous levels).
Nope. Why?
No. I like to live on the edge, I often consider myself a dare-devil when fueling up my car. Where’s the fun if there is no risk factor? :)
Every time I have seen an aircraft being refuled (down to the Cessna 150 I took lessons in years ago) a grounding cable is attached to the plane before refuling starts. I always wondered what makes the plane different from filling our cars. The only two conclusions I could reach are that the grounding cable is like suspenders with a belt, or that we all run a slight risk of self-immolation every time we hit the Shell station.
In most cars that I’ve driven the inside door pull on each door has a little strip of metal that exists solely to discharge static electricity. So every time you get in or out of the car and use the interior door handle, the static is discharged whether or not you’re aware of it.
I would thin you’d ground yourself when you touch the metal of the pump, too.
Cel phones starting a fire are a myth.
Filling tanks in the back of a truck can cause static discharge and a massive fire. This HAS happened. You should always set them on the ground first.
As soon as you pick up the nozzle you’re grounded,
no worries. There aren’t enough vapors around to ignite during that first discharge. What’s bad is if you get back in your car and pick up more static before you take the nozzle back out. Then you have a chance of static plus vapors are present and bad things can happen.
But realistically, the chance of bad things happening are so low, think of how many people fuel up each day without incident.
My xB zaps me every time I step out and touch the door. That energy would certainly be enough to ignite fuel vapors if they were present in the right mixture (which they aren’t, thankfully).
So the answer is yes, I do discharge my static electricity, but it would be almost impossible for me not to do so.
The vapor recovery technology in the fuel pump, along with flame arrestors and grounding techniques, do a pretty good job of eliminating risk.
Having designed explosion-proof equipment in my past, I have seen misconceptions regarding the roles of temperature, energy, fuel mixture, and probability. A simple flashlight switch can generate an arc sufficient to ignite the right mixture, as can an open filament from a battery-powered light (such as the instant the bulb breaks). This is why there are warnings about ‘battery-powered’ devices, because they certainly can pack the energy to cause harm if an internal switch can draw an arc. Its steady-state operation is not a problem.
But the probability of having the right fuel mixture and operating a hazardous device at the same time makes catastrophe a rare event.
Actually, static fires are very common. This girl was lucky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuZxFL9cGkI
During Winter, people in their sweaters build up a nice static charge by sliding across seats to get out of their car, then they promptly light themselves on fire while they handle incredibly flammable petroleum products.
I think that in the process of getting out of the car, opening the gas door, removing the gas cap, grasping the nozzle and probably also touching the pump itself, it would be amazing if you didn’t discharge any static charge you might have had.
I have been at a funeral before and someone had a cell phone ring during the ceremony. Do you really think that gassing the car up would call for a stop of the conversation? Even despite any risk? The call must go on.
I run on Diesel, so no need. You can run sparks off a grinder into a puddle of Diesel all day long and never ignite the stuff. Will it burn? Of course. It just doesn’t go “boom!”
–chuck
The hiiiiiiiills are alive… with the sound of exploding gas stations…
Me and my car generate a lot of static, especially in the winter. So much so that I have developed the habit of nudging the door closed with my right upper arm so as to avoid touching the metal door panel with my hand. Knowing this I always discharge before gassing up by touching the door. Since I get back into my car in the winter I also discharge on the door and again on the very far end of the nozzle when fueling has finished. While I agree with the poster above that the right conditions for ignition are rare, why take the risk around a known source of fuel vapors, especially when preventative measure don’t cost time or money…
Yes. After finding that several of my weekly business rentals would regularly shock me, I developed the habit of specifically touching the side of the car before refueling.
Also, I would never buy a car whose fuel filler is on the passenger side. Every time you fill up, you have to open the driver’s door cautiously and walk around the car to get to the pump.
70 Chevelle SS454 :
Actually, static fires are very common. This girl was lucky.
Yes, and she also demonstrated what causes all of those fires – getting back in the car while the pump is running, and then getting out without discharging again.
I don’t turn off my phone, pager, or any other “portable battery-operated devices” though.
Yes. Discharging static can trigger a very short, but really high voltage spike (up to 5,000-10,000V depending on how much charge you’re carrying).
Also, the cell phone thing is not a myth per se, it’s just very unlikely. High frequency RF definitely can ignite vapors — the reason it’s so unlikely is that cell phones aren’t transmitting high power signals, and what signals they do transmit fall of as the square of the distance.
I have not noticed any static electricity since I got my Accord, and Ihaven’t thought about this since then (2004). I was constantly getting shocked by my first gen Saturn.
When and where I choose to discharge is kind of personal, don’t you think? That being said, I don’t recall ever receiving an electrical shock when getting out of a car. Maybe I don’t wear the right kind of sweater.
I have carried on cell phone conversations using my bluetooth ear bud while fueling up, but have never initiated a phone call while at the pump. Don’t know whether that’s any different as far as risk goes.
That video was interesting. The key to the chain of events was that she left her drivers door open. She was able to get in and out of the car without touching metal. When she got out of the car the second time, she was charged, and she had not touched anything to discharge herself before touching the nozzle.
On my Volvo I always get zapped when I step out of it. I have cloth seats, so perhaps I build up a lot of static charge while driving. Then when I step out and grab the door to close and lock, I get a nice zap.
Usually do when fueling an airplane, but don’t know how dangerous it would be without. I used to work at a few airports fueling aircraft and I think there is more of a danger when fueling from a truck rather than a fixed pump as the truck can generate a charge running around on rubber tires all day. I did forget to ground on occasion and am no more charred for it.
Not an issue here in Oregon, where it is illegal to pump your own gas.
Yes, really.
Yeah, Jersey is the other state that doesn’t trust it’s subjects to operate a gas pump. I fill my bike myself, this way 93 octane doesn’t end up all over the tank and engine.
I don’t even shut the car off. we have enough nanny rules as it is.
Yes, but not because of any special action on my part. I simply touch the grounded handle on the pump and put the metal nozzle into the metal filler tube of the gas tank before pumping gasoline. EPA smog regulations require gasoline vapor recovery on the gas pumps here in the Dallas area, so there isn’t much gasoline out in the air to ignite unless you spill it.
Another oft-zapped xB owner here. Yes I discharge my static, because I’ve been zapped so many times I’m secretly afraid the car is made of carpet fibers. What IS it with those cars?
Fortunately I’m not at the gas station that often…
My cars have a metal door that must be opened.
If by “discharge your static” you actually mean “masturbate”, then yes, I do.
Otherwise, no
I’m very safe, I drive without windows, the static discharges before arriving at the gas station.
What a coincidence, I was just reading that placard on the gas pump (apparently for the first time) today while filling up the Subie. And no, I never have – at least intentionally.
BTW, as far as getting zapped while getting out of a car, aren’t some low rolling resistance tire compounds more prone to causing this effect than others?
Yes, but only because I got in the habit of doing it getting out of the car when I lived in a snowbelt state and had a car with velour.
At least one commenter got it right. The risk of fire is related to leaving the car door open and getting in and out repeatedly (more than once, anyway) while the car is refueling.
This practice is more common among women than men, it turns out. It happens that they also are often chatting on cell phones when it occurs but that is a coincidence, the cell phone probably doesn’t contribute to the fires.
Yes I do, out of habit. I worked in a DuPont paint lab for a long time and grounding to avoid static discharge is second habit. I’ve worn grounding devices. Heck, when we’d dispense from 55 gallon drums, we’d ground both containers because the fluid flow itself can create an electrostatic charge.
That whole cellphone bit used to crack me up because every single car out there is outfitted with a high-voltage inductive ignition system and a solenoid on the starter motor. There is no conceivable way that a cellphone could produce adequate EMF to do anything to gasoline if those two things can’t. As for the gap-spark problem, some really old cellphones may have at one time had that problem, but the concentration of gasoline vapors in the cellphone would be very low.
I, personally, never, ever get back in a car. I’ve always been that way, even in short sleeves in freezing weather, I will shiver rather than get back in.
The ignition is caused by a spark from the nozzle to the car. There is a lot of fumes in the fuel filler pipe at that point.
As for aircraft, they charge themselves due to air friction and encountering ionized atmospheric conditions, I would imagine, so they need to be grounded. It is the airframe, not the person that matters there.
+1 on the first gen Saturns! My Vue is nutts with static. It sounds and feels like it could be a sourse of ignition every time I touch the dam thing. Happens every time I get out of it.
@gibbleth-
Re airplanes, I believe you’re right. Plus, planes have much more metallic surface area, and thus should be able to hold a bigger/more sustained static charge (basically a bigger “battery”).
I only “ground” myself in winter because that’s the only time eneough static builds up to get a shock. And I don’t do it to keep from getting blown up; I just do it to get the shock over with.
Yes, but not on purpose. It just happens when I get out of the car. I should note that nothing ever discharges, probably because I have leather seats. When I was a kid, I would always get shocked getting out of my parents’ ’87 Ford Taurus. One time I touched the car when getting out and the shock was so bad it stopped my watch for several seconds until I hit it and it started up again. Ouch!