BUTLER COUNTY MOTOR FUEL METER TESTING
2010
2,847 meters tested: 2,703 correct; 144 incorrect
2011
2,834 meters tested: 2,723 correct; 111 incorrect
2012
3,059 meters tested: 2,758 correct; 301 incorrect
Have a concern?
View the top complaints about motor fuel meters and possible explanations online at www.butlercountyauditor.org. Click on the “Consumer Services” tab and then the “Weights and Measures” category
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When you pull up to the pump this Fourth of July and pump five gallons of gas in the tank, you get five gallons, right?
Well not exactly depending on the day and the weather. In fact those who test hundreds of pumps annually know the majority are not right on the money.
“But it does average out,” said Tom Kamphaus, consumer services director for the Butler County Auditor’s Office and one of two inspectors in the weights and measures division for the county.
Each year, as soon as the weather warms up, two testers begin making rounds to more than 100 gas stations and filling 5-gallon provers, watching the meter to assure what “you pump is what you get.”
The allowable error is plus or minus 6 cubic inches per 5 gallons for each visit. If the meter doesn’t fall in the allotted measure in the consumers’ favor, it is “condemned” with a bright orange bag and the station has 10 days to make repairs before a second visit, according to Kamphaus.
“I do tell the station if a meter is pumping too much gas, but it is up to them to decide if they keep it open. Most of them do,” Kamphaus said. “I am here to make sure nobody is getting cheated — the station or the customers.
After testing, a security seal is placed on the device to ensure that they are not tampered with in-between testings.
A chain of stations in the tri-state is having a problem with medium and premium gas meters pumping “way too much gas,” Kamphaus said. He has informed the company and is working with their maintenance staff to correct the problem.
“I believe with the prices now, people just aren’t buy the higher grades and it sits for so long,” Kamphaus said, noting that can lead to pumping malfunctions.
The Journal tagged along with Kamphaus while he tested 28 meters at a Shell station in Millville. While a handful received a perfect 5 gallon measure, most were plus or minus a couple cubic inches.
All devices are rejected if they are in compliance, but the average is predominately in favor of the owner or user.
“They don’t want that, it costs them a lot of money,” Kamphaus said, noting most stations are very conscientious about making repairs and keeping pumps calibrated.
Nozzles are also checked to assure the meter isn’t running before gas is pumped and to assure the price on the digital displays are lit and visible.
One meter at the Shell station didn’t display the entire price due to a burned out bulb. Kamphaus said he would inform manager and recheck in 10 days, but it wasn’t enough of a problem to shutdown the pump.
Robert Miller was filling his tank at Shell while Kamphaus tested.
“In 62 years I have never seen anyone actually testing,” Miller said. “I always see the auditor’s sticker saying it was tested. I guess they actually do it.”
Sean Stout, of West Elkton, said every time he fills up his car, he wonders if he is getting his money’s worth.
“It’s good to know somebody is watching out for us,” he said.
Tom Miller said he is a frequent customer of the Millville Shell and stopped going to a station “up the street” because he was sure he wasn’t getting what he paid for.
“You really have to watch it, especially when you are traveling,” he said.
At the Hamilton Kroger on Erie Boulevard, 34 meters were tested and averaged plus 2 cubic inches per 5 gallons, with some pumping plus 6.
Darrel Lowe, Warren County weights and measures inspector, said warm and cold weather play a role in the measuring process because molecules expand in warm weather and contract in cold.
“That’s all part of the variables when it comes to testing,” said Lowe. He said in 11 years of testing, he has found two stations that were actually cheating customers.
“They are no longer in business,” he said.
Kamphaus, who has been testing pumps in Butler County for three years and spent 16 years testing in Hamilton County, said he has never found a station purposely cheating, but store scanners, weighing live stock and even the amount of mulch sold in a bag is a different story.
“I’ve seen just about everything there is to cheat people,” Kamphaus said with a laugh.
Both Warren and Butler counties check all stations and each meter at least once each year. That adds up to 131 stations and about 3,000 meters in Butler County.
The auditor’s office often gets complaint calls from consumers, and said it responds to all. This year, they have received 20.
“It is usually something the person doesn’t understand, but I check it out and try to explain how it happens,” Kamphaus said. “But I have seen fights at stations.”
One of the most heated was not a fight he saw, but one he heard.
“A man had me on the phone, I could hear the manager yelling in the back ground and lots of expletives. They guy said ‘I’ve got weights and measures on the phone now you are in trouble,’ ” Kamphaus said.
Then the phone went dead. Kamphaus was left with no contact info and said he has always wondered what happened.
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