Why aren't more people filling up fuel cans at the petrol station?

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dbxp@reddit

If you feel you can predict petrol prices then trade commodities, you still get the profit but you don't have to physically store it

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OkPea5819@reddit

I’d need 14 Jerry cans to fill one tank.

I have to buy all of these, store, go through the hassle of filling them and decanting them to possibly save some money because I can guess the future of fuel prices.

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For most people it's not even worth the initial outlay. It would take me several months, filling up every week just to cover the initial cost of jerry cans + petrol because I'm only paying about a tenner or so more per tank.

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JBEqualizer@reddit

This isn't as frugal as you think it is.

To fill my car up using petrol cans (plastic or metal) would cost me somewhere around £135-£140 when the prices are low, including the cost of buying enough petrol cans to do so, because it would be pointless just buying 1.

It's about a tenner more to currently fill my car. I'd need to fill my car up around 14 times before I even break even doing what you've suggested.

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Natural_Bet6685@reddit

You strike me as someone who has a huge cupboard of loo rolls.

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SomthingsGottaGive@reddit

Came here to say this.

It’s the bog roll crisis all over again but worse.

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QueefInMyKisser@reddit

I never understood that crisis, I buy a new 24 pack whenever I start the previous 24 pack. I went into the pandemic with 30 or 40 rolls without even needing any panic buying.

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bumford11@reddit

It has an expiration date, and I'm guessing a lot of people either don't want or don't have the space to store a bunch of jerry cans of it.

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QueefInMyKisser@reddit

Before they started adding ethanol to petrol it lasted much longer

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kai_enby@reddit

Yeah it only lasts around 6 months, a big hole in apocalypse movies is often how long the fuel seems to last after the world ends

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cboel@reddit

Yeah it only lasts around 6 months, a big hole in apocalypse movies is often how long the fuel seems to last after the world ends

Wrong on both claims. It can last for much longer than siz months and there is no "big hole" in apocalypse movies. There are such things as fuel additives which can extend the life of fuel for over a decade or more.

https://priproducts.com/retail-consumer/faqs/

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kai_enby@reddit

Sure fuel additives exist and can be used but when your protagonist is breaking into a normal guy's garage and driving away in his car that's been abandoned for years I don't think we can assume Joe Suburb was preventatively using fuel additives

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cboel@reddit

It isn't as uncommon as you think as fuel additives for longnterm storage also help keep engines clean as well. They prevent bad fuel from cloggin up fuel lines and engine parts, helps them burn cleaner and produce less pollution, and generally contributes to engines themselves lasting much much longer than they would otherwise.

Someone in a suburb with a car in a garage (as opposed to parked outside) is likely going to know that (it is common practise to use it in garden equipment as well), so the odds are higher than you'd think and definitely makes a plot hole less than a 100% certainty.

Preppers use the stuff as well so if your suburban Joe was instead in some far off wilderness, it would be almost a 100% certainty all fuel they had in storage or use, would have additives in it. They don't have regular easy access to fuel irl in the first place, never mind a fictional apocalypse.

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SomthingsGottaGive@reddit

Also there is a legal limit to the amount you can store.

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musicallymotivated93@reddit

I'm glad people aren't. It's idiots like that who cause stock problems. Late 2021/early 2022 was a prime example of that.

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AllThatIHaveDone@reddit

I remember watching a video of someone in the US pouring petrol into loose carrier bags in the boot of their car from back around then. I just tried googling to find the video, only to find a video of someone doing the same thing here.

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Speedbird1A@reddit

It’s only a problem id you do it when there’s panic or just before potential panic (such as now) because it’ll trigger the panic. In normal times there’s nothing wrong with doing it.

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PolarLocalCallingSvc@reddit

Well how many jerry can do you own and how big are they?

If it's just one of those small 5L plastic cans with a nozzle, and we say the difference in fuel price pre and post the invasion is 60p a litre, by stocking up you're going to save a whopping £3.

If you don't already own the fuel cans, it's going to cost you more buying them.

You'll get better value for money buying 20L plastic cans (about £8 to purchase for £12 savings on fuel).

But I hope you can see where I'm going to go with this...

If each can saves say £4, what are you going to do with your jerry can collection afterwards? Take them to the tip, or do you have a craft project in mind?

You also have to value your time. Let's say it's a 15 minute round trip to the petrol station including time spent filling up. £4 a can, bearing in mind they're not going to let you fill up multiple cans and will just switch your pump off, that's an hourly wage of £16 an hour. Not bad. Now take off the fuel you spent driving to and from the petrol station. Maybe it's £14-15 an hour. Not so worthwhile.

Then you've got to store all this fuel, for which there are actually laws even as a consumer in a domestic setting, so that's going to make things difficult.

Then you're going to have to deal with every you know who sees you doing this thinking you're an (insert your own expletive here).

Doesn't this all just sound a bit ridiculous?

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Master-Trick2850@reddit

people wpuld rather panic buy toilet paper and flour than fuel

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ResplendentBear@reddit

Amateur petrol hoarding is a Darwin award waiting to happen.

Also, other than the fiery death potential, there's the evaporation and the fact it goes bad.

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Rev-Counter@reddit

If you don’t already own a petrol can, and will never have a need for it other than hoarding fuel, it seems completely pointless? A typical 5L can seems to be around £6 from somewhere like Tesco. Say you fill up with 5L of petrol just before the fuel price hikes a whole 5p per litre. You save 25p on that amount of fuel by buying it a day earlier at the lower price and storing it. You’d have to do this 24 times to just pay off the can.

Obviously if you have a petrol lawnmower or strimmer a can is a handy thing to have so this point becomes irrelevant.

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asymmetricears@reddit

A typical 5L can seems to be around £6 from somewhere like Tesco.

I misread that as the cost of the fuel in it. Then realised it wasn't expensive enough.

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Rev-Counter@reddit

If only I found a way to get £1.20 a litre these days!

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asymmetricears@reddit

I wondered if red diesel might fit the bill, it turns out it does

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Rev-Counter@reddit

Luckily we’ve still got half a tank but even at that price it’s not going to be fun when it comes time to refill sadly!

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rising_then_falling@reddit

Because it doesn't save any money. You can only store 30l without a licence, far less than a tankfull for most cars. Petrol isn't that volatile in price, and doesn't last that long in storage. You'd be lucky to make 20 quid a year I reckon.

That's before how messy, smelly, dangerous, and bad for the environment it is.

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Novel-Case6821@reddit

Because it's a monumental pain. Just get an app that finds low prices. Some things just aren't worth the hassle for the slight benefit.

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asymmetricears@reddit

You mean jerry cans? I'm sure there's a more official name.

There are limits to what you can do. Maximum of 5L in a plastic container and 10L in a metal one. I'm sure there's a total limit to what you can also fill so you can't do too many containers in one go.

So in short, you can buy less than half of a normal car tank extra. Say you can get 25L (although you might not be able to), if the cost goes up 10p/L, you've saved £2.50, but your containers probably cost more than that. Also, there's no guarantee the cost will go up, you could fill up extra and find that the price drops and you would have saved money by not doing it.

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Civil_Excitement_747@reddit

Considering the most you can store at home without authorisation is 30L it’s probably not worth it

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Ronald_Villiers_67@reddit

Remember when there was a flu and you couldnt find basic normal thing at the shops because everybody decided that needed to buy 40 boxes of cornflakes and brillo pads?

This is just that with petrol.

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meadowender@reddit

Saw a guy filling up 6 jerry cans about a month ago. I believe you are only legally allowed something like 30 litres anyway unless you're carrying it in a trailer. I could be wrong but it's something like that

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Colloidal_entropy@reddit

You can only store 30 litres at home without a specific authorisation. Which is about half a tank for an average car so not really worth it, particularly as 3 10l petrol cans will set you back about £30. Diesel has gone up about 50p/litre so you'd have spent more on the storage containers.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/fireandexplosion/petrol-storage-club-association.htm

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ialtag-bheag@reddit

Where are you going to keep it? What's the risk of it getting stolen?

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Bumpyslide@reddit

Stir

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MegaMolehill@reddit

You are legally allowed to store a maximum of 30L of petrol which isn’t going to save a lot but with the added risk of having a container with highly flammable liquid in it.

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WhalingSmithers00@reddit

You can store 30 litres at home legally. That's about half a tank of fuel that only lasts for about 6 months. Why would this make any sense to anyone?

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TrackTeddy@reddit

Cans cost money - more money than you are likely to save by buying fuel to use at a later date.

Storing fuel isn't great - Petrol can go off and diesel can develop diesel bug meaning the fuel isn't usable.

Storing fuel is potentially dangerous - particularly petrol, and you may well find your insurance company won't like it.

Storing fuel is potentially illegal, storage of significant quantities of fuel has regulations around it. Bunding to avoid spillage contamination and max quantities, storage tank requirements etc etc.

So yes you can do it, but most don't as it is a bit of a faff as well as a lot of a risk.

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Paul_my_Dickov@reddit

To make a real difference you would need to store a lot when the price is low. Seems a bit risky and it does go off eventually. The prices going up are a bit shit for filling your car up, but probably not that much of an added expense compared to the effect it has on the price of other things. Seems like effort and risk for minimal savings.

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SowwieWhopper@reddit

I’m not sure they would advise you filling up a bucket at the petrol station and whacking in the boot of your car

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Strangely__Brown@reddit

Few reasons why not:

1) It's weird and considerate.

2) Fuel has a use by date, it goes off and doesn't do well in open containers.

Ever seen a zombie or apocalypse movie where they're still driving cars? Wouldn't happen. 6-24 months max before all fuel goes bad. In an open container you're probably talking 2-4 weeks before it wouldn't run an engine.

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soundman32@reddit

I have 4 x 5L plastic for petrol (for petrol tools) and 2 x 10L for diesel (for mower) Fortunately I filled both up in January. Fingers crossed I dont need to mow again for a few more weeks.

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GeggingIn@reddit

99% of homes don’t have room for loads of petrol and it wouldn’t save much money.

Also, don’t light a fag. 💥 .

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