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May 14, 2008 8:12 pm US/Eastern
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Officials Get Complaints Over Gas Pump Calibration
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
When we drive in to our local gas station we make one very big assumption, a gallon of gas is a gallon of gas, right?
"It doesn't seem like a gallon, that's for sure, because it starts out real fast on you and it might jump to 14 or 15 cents before it starts giving you gas," said Tony Clark, of Swissvale.
Clark is not alone in the skeptical corner.
Officials with the Allegheny County Weights and Measures Office say they are getting double the amount of complaints they normally get about gas pump calibration.
Making sure that calibration is correct is on the shoulders of Larry Deluca and his team.
"We do 10,000 tests a year, we inspect 505 gas stations," said Deluca. "We've seen pumps giving 50 cubic inches, minus 30 cubic inches."
Greg Medic has been pumping gas into his state inspected five gallon canisters for a long time and has seen some real problems.
"I've seen some that don't come to the neck of the can which means they have to be at least a minus 40," said Medic.
When they find a pump out of compliance, it gets a red tag.
"You should not use it because it means for some reason that pump was either out of order or was not giving enough gas," said Medic.
But Medic says, believe it or not, most of the pumps checked actually give a little extra gas not vice versa.
The rest were either out of order or giving more than the allowed six cubic inches.
So just how much gas is that?
On a 20 gallon fill-up you would be short two cups or 1/16th of a gallon.
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