It might just be enough to allow your wife or loved one to get to a place of safety on a dark back road at least.
Note, however, that because of the low flash point, it only works in a hot engine. You have to dilute it with fresh gas before you shut off the car. Your hypothetical wife or loved one, upon reaching safety but not gas, is going to have a problem in the morning.
“Spare Fuel was actually tested on one of the local morning TV news shows here in Baltimore this week and it worked!”
But they only proved it would function, at least somewhat. It appears they did not verify that it’s shelf life was any better than gasoline.
It appears they did not verify that it’s shelf life was any better than gasoline.
Speaking as someone with 4(!) undergraduate chemistry courses, I think shelf life is not likely to be a problem. Gasoline has such a high vapor pressure that you have to store it in a ventilated container. That means that over time, the more volatile or lighter components evaporate, leaving behind the heavier components, so it isn’t quite gasoline anymore. Plus, water vapor get get into the container and cause problems, which are exacerbated by the presence of ethanol.
If this stuff is of low enough volatility that it can be stored in a completely sealed container in a hot trunk on a sunny day, then it’s not going to change much over time.
I guess its just a matter of priorities and how prepared you keep yourself. I commuted 120 miles a day for over five years with a non-working gas gauge and never ran out of gas. I simply reset the trip meter. I really have to question anyone running out of gas unless you are driving all night through desolated territory and then a half gallon isn’t going to help much.
"Your hypothetical wife or loved one, upon reaching safety but not gas, is going to have a problem in the morning. "
Agreed, and I know it’s a stretch, but at least she would be at a safe place for the night and possibly find or call for help.
I know it’s a reach in these days of cell phones, but I was trying to come up with a scenario. If my “wife” was traveling alone I might consider buying it.
In the winter it could buy an extra hour or so of idle time too if stuck somehere in snow. I could see it as an add on to a winter survival kit. Could be the difference between freezing to death.
But they only proved it would function, at least somewhat. It appears they did not verify that it’s shelf life was any better than gasoline.
Plus, they didn’t prove it won’t damage the engine. I wonder what the octane rating of this stuff is.
To an earlier commenter: I know that dropping a match into gas fumes is a bad idea. Dropping a match into liquid gasoline will put out the match.
I’ve really never understood how it can be so difficult to not run out of gas. My ex managed several times to run dry in different vehicles over our 2 decade plus relationship but I just never got it. I’ve never run out of gas in any vehicle, ever.
That said, though, I’m rather curious how good for your engine this stuff can possibly be. It may work but so does moonshine in some engines. Doesn’t mean it’s good for them!
" I wonder what the octane rating of this stuff is."
It’s 91+. Read all about it here:
Look, it’s gasoline that is refined to remove the more volatile components. They aren’t trying to sell you on running any farther than the next gas station. The manufacturer doesn’t seem to be overselling the product. It appears to be legit. I won’t buy it because I won’t run out of gas, and my wife and children won’t run out, either. But stop guessing it’s garbage and read what the manufacturer has to say. They even provide a street address on the web site. But you have to look in the Privacy Policy page to find it.
" Dropping a match into liquid gasoline will put out the match. "
Usually, but not always ……
"I know it’s a reach in these days of cell phones, but I was trying to come up with a scenario. If my “wife” was traveling alone I might consider buying it. "
Don’t assume cell phone coverage is everywhere. We spent time in the national forest regions of NM and our cell phones were useless in between the small towns in that area.
Since we really don't know much about this miracle fix, I would suggest not relying on it.It sounds like a legitimate product, it’s just a fuel that has a low volitility that can safely be stored in the trunk and will run a already hot engine in an emergency.
I just think it’s way overpriced.
I once used Coleman Lantern fuel as an emergency fuel to get to the next gas station but it has an octane rating of nearly zero and I couldn’t go much faster than 40 mph without the engine detonating, but it worked and I bought a tank of premium to dilute the low octane rating of the Coleman fuel.
Maybe it’s just that expensive to produce a fuel that has both a high boiling point and a high octane rating. Most heavy hydrocarbons have a low octane rating.
@Nilt, I agree. One of my motorcycles has no fuel gauge and a 3.7 gallon tank, and I’ve managed to never run out of fuel, so when someone runs out of fuel with a working fuel gauge and a 10 gallon (or more) tank, I just have to laugh.
You can count me as one more person who has never run out of gas, and that is over a period of 46 years of driving.
Perhaps folks who live in really remote areas might benefit from buying this very expensive product, but for anyone who lives in the vast majority of the US–where gas stations are rarely more than a few miles apart–it just seems to be unnecessary.
However, if a driver is one of those folks who never bothers to look at his gauges, or if a driver is one of those folks who like to run the tank down to fumes before refilling, then it might be a good investment. Personally, I think that visually scanning one’s gauges every few minutes is vitally important for preserving the life of one’s engine–and that is even more important than not running out of gas!
Why some folks apparently don’t glance at their gauges periodically is something that I just don’t understand. But, then again, I also have a hard time understanding people who never seem to refill their tank until it is virtually empty. The list of things that I don’t understand seems to get longer as I age.
Even if I DID run out of gas, there’s no way I’d pour some unknown substabce in the tank.
Re: the question of gasoline burning. Gasoline, like any other hydrocarbon, will only burn when in contact with oxygen. Combustion is the process of the hydrocarbon molecule splitting and its elements, hydrogen and carbon, attach themselves to oxygen atoms. Drop a match in a puddle of gas and it’ll either get smothered (the fluid gas will deprive it of contact with oxygen), or it’ll light the surface only. As that burns away, the underlying hydrocarbon molecules will then. This will continue until (a) the fuel runs out, or (b) something else smothers it.
Explosion happens when the gasoline is vaporized, having large surface per volume such that it burns very rapidly, heat energy is added, and it’s in a container insufficient to contain the expansion from the heat of the combustion.
If you had a gas tank full to the brim and lit the gas, it’d blow out flames like a flame thrower. If you had two inches of gas in a capped 55 gallon drum and lit it off, say with a sparkplug, the whole barn would go up. This is how farmers used to level old barns.
I live in the mountains of Oregon. We regularly see signs that say next gas 50, 70, or even 90 miles. We have stretches of road where there is no cell coverage for 20-50 miles. I understand that many of the posters here are soooo smart that they never let their tank get under 1/4 or 1/2 and they even manage to teach their wives and daughters to do the same so there is never a chance to run out. And, of course, in the day of electronic everything on a car there is never a chance that a gas gauge could screw up, NEVER- EVER happen. My fiance drives back and forth over these mountains, the last thing I want is for her to run out of gas in the dark, on a steep corner, with no cell reception because the fuel gauge screws up (it happened this month) she made it but it was close. (put 12.7 gallons in a 13 gallon tank)
I bought a gallon of Spare fuel and tried it out last night in my 87 Toyota pickup. (do you have any idea how hard it is to run out of fuel on purpose??) I added the spare fuel (1/2 gallon) and it started right up. I let it idle for a few minutes then drove it about 8 miles. It ran great and I had no trouble at all. I filled up the tank at the station and it started and ran great this morning also. It seems to me that their claims are valid, the product works. My fiance will have a gallon in her Jeep from now on.
So to any skeptics out there, I tried it and it works!
Good travels.
I’m happy that you’ve found something that gives you added confidence, but the sarcasm is really unnecessary. At 25 mpg with a 15 gallon tank (both conservative numbers) a vehicle will go 375 miles on a full tank. Planning such that running out of gas is prevented really isn’t that difficult. If it were my fiance (if I had one) I’d be more inclined to simply offer to fix that gas gage.
Yes, I did teach my daughter…and my son…to plan ahead to prevent things like this. Both have been driving for many years now, and to the best of my knowledge neither has ever run out of gas.
It’s either kerosene or alcohol that’s been cut with water to reduce its flammability…Good luck starting your car the second time, especially if it’s allowed to cool…
An '87 Toyota P/U?? They have a mechanical, engine driven fuel pump…If you run them out of fuel, they WILL NOT “start right up”…It will take considerable cranking to get it started…
Now, lets talk about the flammability of this product… Pour some on a rag and touch a match to it and THEN tell us it’s “non-flammable”…You might to take the same precautions you would take if the liquid was gasoline…
What you purchased was $4 worth of fuel packaged in a $20 high-security sealed container…But Wait! If you order now, they will send you TWO one gallon containers, each one containing 1/2 gallon of product!! How far do you go on 1/2 gallon of fuel??
One more question…If the plastic bottle leaks or ruptures in your trunk, and sooner or later it will, how do you clean the mess up?
The sarcasm was primarily due to people speculating and commenting without ever having tried the product. Too many people suggesting that only an idiot could possibly ever run out of fuel. (I hope you are happy in your superiority and I hope you never have a mechanical or computer failure, it must be nice in your world? unfortunately Murphy lives in mine) The fuel gauge broke (gave a false reading) on my fiance’s Jeep before she left. It said she had at least 50 miles more than she would need. Things break, especially computer things. A friend of mine had his gauge fail too. I will post his response below.
This stuff could save her if it ever happens again. It could have gotten my friend to a station as well.
The fact is I put my money up, tried the product and it worked perfectly, I think it even runs smoother than it did before but that is purely subjective. I got tired of driving around waiting for it to run out, so I let it sit and idle until it died. I added the 1/2 gallon of spare fuel and it did start right up. Non flamable or not, I carried it around in the cab of my pickup for over a week with no smell or fumes. I don’t care if it is made of moose piss, it works as advertised. It has started several times now after cooling, but then I followed the instructions and filled up before letting it cool.
I will have some in her Jeep just in case the fuel gauge ever screws up again. I never want her stranded anywhere without cell coverage. It is very expensive but worth every penny to keep my baby safe. Cheap insurance for precious cargo.
Joe
“I still don’t think that some of the posters “get it”. I agree with you – things break sometimes at a really bad time. My sending unit went gunny bags and I lost my fuel gauge last month. I ran out of gas with a quarter of a tank still there on the meter. I knew I was heading to the station soon but what I didn’t know is I was going to “swing” by the mechanics on route for a new fuel pump, sending unit and a gallon of gas before I was able to drive those last 2 miles. My beast only gets about 14 mpg, so an additional 7 miles would have at least gotten me to the station. Hey, the good thing is in this case the mechanic didn’t have to heft around a heavy gas tank since it was completely empty when the tow truck dropped it off for component replacement. After it got repaired and the mechanic gave me some fuel, I drove the last two miles to the station and added 21.2 gallons to a 20 gallon tank. Yep, I filled up the filler tube too since I had a ways to go before I was done driving for the day and I was only paying $3.89 a gallon. I would have been really upset if this had happened to my Wife and or one of our kids. I am not advocating a careless attitude or taking an I’m better than you of any kind. It could be a Long cold night if you had to spend it in a snow drift or on the pass cause the last two stations in that sleepy little town were closed at 3 AM when you drove though.” Bill
Only one person in this thread has used the word idiot to describe people who run out of gas. That’s hardly justification for your broadly-targeted sarcasm.
As for your fiance’s experience, relying on a fuel gauge to be accurate to within what you think is 50 miles on the gauge is not a good move because fuel gauges are notoriously inaccurate, especially at the extremes, and fuel gauges measure quantity, not duration. If she thought she had 50 miles to go, then the needle would already have been very close to empty, and she should have filled up.
Even when fuel gauges break (and they do, occasionally, but certainly not commonly enough to justify everyone running out and paying $20/gallon for pseudogas) the prepared driver knows how far his car goes, on average, on 1 tank of gas, and can figure out that if the needle’s still at full after driving 250 miles, there’s probably something wrong with the gauge and it shouldn’t be trusted.