[turkishguy]

I was wondering if there was a kit for regular consumers with which they could test the quality of the gasoline pumped at a gas station?

The gas prices are around $6 per gallon in my country. It has always been around this figure. I travel a lot since my customers are distrubuted all around a 400 km radius. I usually have to take out a loan to pay for gasoline which I pay back when my cutomers pay me. But the problem is I sometimes get low quality gasoline at gas stations I don't know and it cuts my travel distance by half. Considering it costs me $90 to fill up my 45 liter gas tank, I lose a lot of cash with fake fuel. A test kit would really help me out.

[pup55]

State of Hawaii gasoline testing

Welcome, Turkishguy.

According to this, most of the real testing of gasoline requires pretty specialized laboratory equipment and procedures, and is probably not what you are interested in, since you need to be able to test it right at the gas station.

On page 24 of this little booklet, though, is a picture of the stuff that is sometimes used to do a quick field test of gasoline. It's a glass cylinder, which is basically a glass tube with a base so it does not fall over, and a hydrometer, which is a little floating device to measure the density of the gasoline. The glass cylinder is called a "hydrometer jar"

You can get this stuff online at the following place for a total of about $20 US.

Science Lab

You want the one for "light liquids". Alternately you can usually get these things at places which sell winemaking supplies, but you need one that can read down to a specific gravity of about .70

What you would do is fill the tube up with gasoline. This would give you a chance to inspect the gasoline to see if there were any contaminants such as water or dirt that might be causing you problems. Then, you put this hydrometer in there to tell you if it is the right density. I would say you mainly have to worry about people putting water in there, although in your part of the world maybe water is more expensive.

The "right density" will vary slightly depending on what type of blending etc. went on when they made the gasoline. The specific gravity of gasoline, according to Citgo's MSDS is .72 to .77. If it is much higher than this, it is a pretty good bet that they put something in there to make it more dense and cheaper. Since the specific gravity of water is 1.0, you will be able to tell this right away.

You will have to handle any problems this might cause with the gas station owner. Chances are, in your part of the world, the very fact that you are using this test equipment and look like you know what you are doing will be enough to either have him get mad at you, or else have him be a lot more cooperative. If I were you, I would also buy a white lab coat and put it on before you run the test just so you look "official". For $20 US plus shipping, it might be fun to do this a couple of times and see what kind of reaction you get.

One more thing: Don't smoke, or let anybody around you smoke when you do this.

[dmtu]

Thanks pup.

[pup55]

By the way....

Since you are an enterprising Turk, you should probably buy a lot of these and start marketing them as "gasoline field test kits" for about $100 US. Have some official-looking boxes made, with padding so the stuff does not break when you have it in your trunk, and include some testing instructions etc. to make it look nice and scientific.

If you need one, chances are there are a lot of other people that need one.

If you do this, I want a piece of the action for giving you the idea.

[turkishguy]

Thank you for the information. That is an excellent idea, but selling the kit would cause me some problems since I have a "computer software" company. I should talk to my accountant about this since it really sounds like a good idea. People are very ignorant here and most have superstitious ways of testing the quality of the gasoline. Some claim they can "see" the color/quality of the gasoline, or smell it.
I think getting a lab coat would also make testing on the field easier. I'm going to try it, as soon as I find a place to order the tubes and hydrometer.
I'll let you know how it works out.