Fume Guards at Gas Pumps

I find that I type, then edit. Every so often I get caught where someone quoted me before I got all my editing done.


Daniel I used to moderate a very G Rated website (If Mickey would not say it, we won't say it). I was
JimboPalmer
GCS Jim (my 'staff' name)
Flemington
Duke of URL
and
Prints Valiant
as my 'needs' varied. I used a triple monitor system so I was often 3 of those names at once.

 

It was interesting how little nastiness happened on that unmoderated site. The regulars would jump on anyone who got nasty. You'd have needed a very thick skin to endure the unofficial "moderation." There was, however, a lot of stuff to make a shy person blush. The owner was a strong believer in free speech.

I don't remember why I drifted away from it, but I think it was that the posters I liked most drifted away, and the newer members just were not as interesting. A year or two later I peeked back in, and the site was gone. I don't know if it got shut down, or if the owner just lost interest. Or maybe a change of jobs made it impractical to keep the site running.

 

Here's how I understand this.

1. Cars no longer have vented fuel tanks. The vapor from the fuel in the tank is trapped to be burned later, when the engine is running.

This has nothing to do with the fume guards.

2. The fume guards trap vapors that are emitted during the pumping process. They are proven to reduce volatile hydrocarbons released into the atmosphere, but of course also require a bit more maintenance.

When they were first introduced in CA, the pumps had two hoses going to the nozzle, one pumping gas and the second recovering vapor. They were a bit heavy and some consumers complained they were difficult to handle. Since then, the system has become more sophisticated, with a single, biaxial hose.

 

The newer cars and trucks also grab the vapor coming out of the house when filling. When filling for example a prius, the vapor capturing nozzles don't do any good at all. The new system was not required in trucks until 2004, so many on the road do still benefit, but this decreases every year.

 

Cool, thank you. Seems like that vapor is energy; better to capture as much as we can (since we're paying for it anyway) than to have some of it end up back in the big tank under the ground.

Perhaps that explains those rubber caps that seal the nozzle/fuel tank filler gap, without any vapor recovery function? Makes sense now.