Please stop bouncing off our doors, they're breakable.

[Lingering Grin]

Apparently cell phones present a similar risk, and recently I saw a girl yakking on her phone while putting gas in her car. The person inside the building came on the loudspeaker telling her to get off the phone. She complied.

The chances of a cell phone setting off gas fumes is virtually non-existent. You'd have to have a SERIOUS flaw in the phone's electrical system... so much so, that the phone probably wouldn't even WORK at that point.

[Samaliel]

The chances of a cell phone setting off gas fumes is virtually non-existent. You'd have to have a SERIOUS flaw in the phone's electrical system... so much so, that the phone probably wouldn't even WORK at that point.

Yeah, but there is this video that has been running around the Net and appeared on TV a few times. While it has been demonstrated that video was forged, I guess there are more people who saw the video than those who saw both the video and the proof of forgery, hence the urban legend spreading.

The people interviewed said that, while cellphone can increase the amount of static electricity you gather, you have slightly more chances/risk to be struck by lightning and win the French national lottery in the same day than to blow up your car because you were on your cell phone while pumping.

Whether you consider this an acceptable risk or not is totally up to you.

[Geek King]

The chances of a cell phone setting off gas fumes is virtually non-existent. You'd have to have a SERIOUS flaw in the phone's electrical system... so much so, that the phone probably wouldn't even WORK at that point.

What Samaliel said, and I'll add that you have a much better chance of setting off a fire by getting back in and out of the car while fueling then you do with even the worst cell phone fault. The static effect has been proven, while, to my knowledge, no gas fume explosion has ever been linked back to a cell phone. There have however been many poorly researched, overly-hyped news stories broadcasted to feed the rumors.

Let's put it this way, the guys from Mythbusters completely failed, under even unrealisticly terrible/perfect circumstances to come up with a cell phone explosion. If they had to resort to an ignighter (basically a big spark plug, actually), I doubt joe average has much to worry about.

[SpyOne]

Didn't share this tale at the time it happened because it "lacks excellence", in the criteria used over at the Darwin Awards.

The setup:
We're a convenience store, so most of our parking is right in front of the building, facing the building. There are those little concrete bars called "curb stops" to remind folks where to stop (when your wheel hits it, you've gone just an inch too far), then there is a gap of around a foot, then there is the step up onto our "apron" (the sidewalk area immediately in front of the windows).
Right next to the doors are two large concrete trashcans, decorated with pebbles on the outside.

One morning (I think is was a Saturday), when there happened to be a few extra employees in the store (near shift change, therefore), a lady pulls into our lot.
She was old enough to have grey hair, though not of extremely advanced age, and driving a medium-ish SUV. A Lexus SUV, specificly.

The curb stops did not seem to slow her down, and with a couple of bounces she was up on the sidewalk. Apparently she did have on the brake by then, because when she hit the trash can she only moved it a couple of feet before coming to a stop. She then backed up until she was back in her parking space and parked.

It was the consensus of customers in the store at the time that, had they done the same, they would have been too embarrassed to enter the store, but she did not feel so. We all studiously avoided comment.

Astoundingly: no damage. Not to our building, our trashcan, or her Lexus.

[rerant]

Who cares which fuel can be pumped with the engine running? Just turn the damn thing off!
Same goes for cell phone usage at the pump.
Good that Mythbusters was on the case with that one, but if there is an obvious sign at the pump telling you not to do it then you don't do it.
For all the talk about customers ignoring signs I think it's a bit of a stretch to start nit-picking over which signs we're going to pay attention to and follow.

[Darkmage]

Who cares which fuel can be pumped with the engine running? Just turn the damn thing off!
Same goes for cell phone usage at the pump.
Good that Mythbusters was on the case with that one, but if there is an obvious sign at the pump telling you not to do it then you don't do it.
For all the talk about customers ignoring signs I think it's a bit of a stretch to start nit-picking over which signs we're going to pay attention to and follow.

I agree with your sentimant. Interestingly enough, around me anyway, shortly after the Mythbusters epispode aired about gasoline and cell phones, all the gas stations removed the signs telling you to turn your cell phone off.

[SteeleDragon78]

actually if I may raise my hand on this one... apparently diesels are perfectly safe to leave running while fueling sense they don't use spark plugs... I know this because I was on a bus the refueled while running and asked the driver about it... and I think I can trust him (translated, I hope that I wasn't sitting on a bus that could have gone ca-fricken-boom at any time).

the reason you can leave a diesel engine running while pumping is because it runs on compression. basically the glow plugs start the first few sprays of fuel ablaze, then as the engine spins up to idle the heat of the compressed gases and the volatility of the fuel keep it going. ie it squeezes the diesel fuel till it detonates. thats why they are so loud. Wiki can explain it better than i can. this one too. remember kids, science is your friend.

[SnarkyPie]

This is somewhat off-topic, but upon reading the title of this thread I immediately imagined SCs bouncing between glass doors like little pinballs. I was amused.

[astyn-dbs]

This is somewhat off-topic, but upon reading the title of this thread I immediately imagined SCs bouncing between glass doors like little pinballs. I was amused.

Hehehehehe. That image will no doubt pop up in my head the next time someone bounces off them .

[Samaliel]

<snippage> if there is an obvious sign at the pump telling you not to do it then you don't do it.

Agreed. I guess that, even if you can't set gas ablaze with your cellphone, I'm fairly sure that some air head would get so involved in their phone conversation that they wouldn't notice they spilled gas everywhere. And THAT is dangerous.

[AriRashkae]

Agreed. I guess that, even if you can't set gas ablaze with your cellphone, I'm fairly sure that some air head would get so involved in their phone conversation that they wouldn't notice they spilled gas everywhere. And THAT is dangerous.

Oddly enough, what I was told when I worked at the last gas station was (like the airplane myth) certain phones on certain frequencies could possibly cause the pumps to misfire and either not work properly, or possibly spark fumes.

[42_42_42]

Off-topic, but I just wanted to say that your avatar, astyn-dbs, is all kinds of hotness!

[astyn-dbs]

Off-topic, but I just wanted to say that your avatar, astyn-dbs, is all kinds of hotness!

Why thankyou . It's actually off deviantart.com, the artists username is JacobBiff.

Sorry for the plug, just wanted to make sure he got the credit he deserved.