In the US, where I lived until recently, there are rules about keeping the container, preferably plastic, on the ground to allow static electricity to discharge when filling it, and I was wondering what is the law back here? I have an old red metal petrol can, with a good screw filler cap, but it does not match what I see on
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was made before litres were common here, I'm sure, but looks perfectly sound, and is probably a 2-gallon size, ie just under 10 litres. Or should I just visit my local car parts shop and buy a new plastic container? I need this now that the mowing season is upon us.
In the '60s and '70s everyone carried spare fuel in cans - a lot of them in metal 'Jerry Cans'. This was usually necessary because petrol stations were not open 24/7 and the cars did not do a good MPG.
Most people probably don't carry a spare fuel can now - I know that we don't.
However this web site is pretty confusing because it implies that you can get charged with an offence if at any time you have a fuel can in a vehicle. How then do you cope with the 'run out of fuel' situation? Have your vehicle towed/trailered to the nearest fuel station?
So that particular website doesn't seem to reflect current practice.
There have been various pushes against dangerous storage of fuel to discourage people from hoarding fuel during fuel shortgages (or just scares) especially in containers not designed for the safe storage of fuel but I can't see that anyone is going to get serious about petrol or diesel in sensible cans.
Everyone with a petrol lawnmower, strimmer, chain saw, generator, rotovator.....whatever is going to need fuel in a can to fill it up.
Re-reading this report, I think it is incredibly biased and misleading. Your old metal can is almost certainly better than any modern plastic one (though you have to be sure that the seams are sound and the top seals).
I regularly fill 20 litre jerry cans of fuel, I think I've done at least two and maybe three in one session and no one batted an eyelid (although I often keep them behind an open car door while filling)
About 20 years ago I rang the police to ask what restrictions there were on the number of fuel cans carried (I needed fuel for a competition vehicle), they assured me that as long as I used containers designed for carrying fuel and they were secure they could see no reason why the carriage of three or four of them on my vehicle trailer would cause an issue.
In hindsight I know what they said was incorrect, but big containers that seal properly like jerry cans are IMHO a damn sight more sensible than pissing about with 5 litre plastic containers (you only have to store them in a boot of a vehicle on a hot day to know how much vapour they vent even when in 'perfect' condition.
I have a plastic fuel can, but it is only used for mixing 2 stroke for a strimmer.
I had a free and frank exchange of views with the "manager" of a Shell station about this last year, which ended with me leaving and buying my fuel elsewhere, never to return to any Shell station, ever.
And once I checked the Petroleum Spirit Regulations, needless to say, the ugly, ignorant, cryptofascist, petty cow was wrong.
There's no such restriction in my policy, but I wouldn't store any quantity in mine, which is integral with the house. Not even the car gets to go in it! If it was separate from the house, then I would be prepared to store it in there.
Thanks, that is the best information. Reading that, it appears that my old, but good, red metal can would be ok, except that it only has words, not symbols, and certainly no EU-derived terminology. Being red, it would indicate leaded petrol, but that is not breaking the law. But then it says that the regulations don't apply to purely private carriage, so I can do whatever the station (Morrison's, in my case), will let me do. Fill car, then fuel can, using the pump-based card payment system should cover it. Now I need to find a suitable funnel to make sure that the petrol all goes into the can.
When we had a petrol car neither did I. Normally Tesco in this case.
As that HSE page says. If you get hassle just vote with your feet.
As for a funnel there shouldn't be any need the nozzle of the pump should easily fit into the can. An unleaded pump nozzle isn't much over 3/4" dia. The auto cut offs are normally pretty sensitive just be careful as the can gets full and the end of the nozzle is only just in the opening. The trigger is a variable flow control as well depending on how far you squeeze it.
In particular, I was puzzled by the bit on the BBC page which appears to su= ggest that if you're storing petrol outside it has to be within 6 metres of= the house, when in fact the point is that the regulations quoted about siz= e of container apply when kept within 6 metres of a building, and different= ones when further away. Looking at the original legislation I notice that = it's actually a building, highway or public footpath, and of course since i= t was 1929 the distance is given as 20 feet.
I wouldn't be at all surprised. After all, they put water and goldfish in plastic bags so surely a plastic bag can happily accommodate any liquid, can't it? In the shortage back in 2000, a taxi driver in Derby kept fuel in wheelie bins in his cellar. You know how some plastic dissolve in petrol or diesel? He wasn't aware of that possibility. Story at the time was that the cost of getting the fuel out of the fabric of the house was around £30,000.
I wouldn't be at all surprised. After all, they put water and goldfish in plastic bags so surely a plastic bag can happily accommodate any liquid, can't it? In the shortage back in 2000, a taxi driver in Derby kept fuel in wheelie bins in his cellar. You know how some plastic dissolve in petrol or diesel? He wasn't aware of that eventuality. Story at the time was that the cost of getting the fuel out of the fabric of the house was around £30,000.
But it gets interesting if he'd let the station man keep the container who would pay for the dispensed petrol? If your mate did then the station man is starting to tread into the theft area, intentional depriving some one of their property etc.
Mind you I do have some sympathy for retail sellers of petrol considering the containers some people want to use. Petrol should not be messed about with, the vapour is explosive, ask that woman who was simply decanting some in her kitchen with the cooker alight...
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