Desperate times call for desperate measures, but if gasoline is short in your area, this is not a good reason to fill up water bottles or, God forbid plastic bags with gas. Hoard gasoline if you have to, but hoard your gasoline in suitable gasoline cans.
If you’ve only ever interacted with gasoline by pumping it into your car, you can simply think of it as some sort of magical juice that gets vehicles moving. But it also has other physical and chemical properties. You probably know it is amazingly flammable. That too melts plastic.
Why does it melt unapproved purpose-built plastic gas containers? Because not all plastics are created equal. Indeed, Here is a table Display of the plastics that can withstand gasoline. Now, I’m not linking this to saying, “Hey, gas spills into some buckets of one of those harder plastics and then irresponsibly stores it up,” but to illustrate this, even after you’ve seen someone put gasoline in a plastic container and it didn’t dissolve in front of your eyes, that doesn’t mean all plastic containers are safe.
Approved petrol cans also have more to offer. They have a pour point so you won’t get gas all over the place when you try to actually fill it into your gas tank (good luck filling your tank, Plastic-bag-at-the-gas-station lady). Occupational Safety and Health Authority approved fuel tanksThese include, for example, a “lightning protection grille, a spring-loaded lid and a spout cover, which are designed in such a way that they safely relieve the internal pressure in the event of fire.” EPA-approved cans do not have the same fireproof properties, but close and vent automatically and are childproof.
Approved cans are also color-coded: red for petrol, yellow for diesel, blue for kerosene, green for other flammable substances. These liquids all have different physical and chemical properties so you really don’t want to confuse them.
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What’s up with venting and pressure? Well, gasoline is a liquid that really wants to be in gaseous form instead. It will evaporate over time and its fumes are particularly flammable. If you’ve ever paid attention to an action movie with a chase scene, this gasoline is one you will remember explodes.
It also means you really don’t want to be storing a large amount of gasoline, whether in one Bundle of bags in the trunk of your car or in one Giant armor strapped to a trailer. Check your local regulations: In many areas, you cannot have more than 25 gallons of gasoline in your home or property without a permit. (And yes, it’s best to keep it in a place like a shed or garage that isn’t connected to your house.)
Gasoline evaporates faster in hot temperatures, so keep it cool. And please don’t drive around with an enormous amount of gasoline in the trunk or the back seat of your car. The built-in gas tank is already so dangerous that the designers of your car worked hard not to kill you in the event of an accident.
You can find more safety tips here HereSuch as: Do not smoke near gasoline, keep containers tightly closed, clean up spills immediately, and so on. And please, please, we ask you never to put gasoline in a plastic bag.
