We don't have'em here (unless the station is full-serve and then only the gas bar person gets to use them). So I don't know the name for them. But my dear WW, if you had worn your toque, mitts, and scarf, like a good girl, you wouldn't've been too cold to stand outside by your car now, would you? (I'm just teasing of course.)

'gas bar' also sounds like a place where young men go to, um, fart. In groups. Stay away!!!!!!!

Gas bar strikes me as funny, too! Gee, do they proffer a snifter of each octane so you can test the bouquet?
Our schools are closed today, too, and we only got about an inch.
My guess is that what you're asking about is called the lock-down bar or something like that, but. I just called my friend who works at a BP station, and he didn't know. But he said if he finds out, he'll call me back.

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What are those hold-click things called that enable you to get back into your car when it's 13 degrees Farenheit outside while your tank fills up with gas?

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Door handles? Or is there some special mechanism to enable USns to get into their cars during cold weather?

Bingley

[regarding above exchange] I think this is what them cross-ponders mean when they say USns don't "get" irony....

Round this part of the country they usually call them non-functional

Well, Dub-Dub, I pumped gas, and we always just called it the "nozzle lock".


Only in this case, it locks the nozzle open to keep the gas flowing, so you can attend to other customers at the same time. Which made for a lot of mighty messes in the days before computerized timers on the pumps...because if you didn't orchestrate your timing properly the nozzle would spill onto the pavement, or sometimes even pop out of the full gas tank and start snaking around the lot with a jet-propelled geyser of gas. You could only pray, then, that no one around had a lit cigarette.

Only in this case, it locks the nozzle open to keep the gas flowing, so you can attend to other customers at the same time.

That's what she's talking about, Juan. :rolleyes

Jeez, WW, here I am getting frustrated *for you!

That's what she's talking about, Juan. :rolleyes

Well, duuuuh! I was just pointing out in semantic comparison that locks usually close or seal things.

And Dub-Dub...you poor baby, standin' out there for all of five minutes in the cold...I remember working a whole shift at night in a blizzard in February! [rolleyes-e]

mighty messes in the days before computerized timers

They always had some kind of pressure thingie that would cause them to kick out when the gas started backing up in the tube that fed into the tank. They do the same thing if you just hold them in your hand.

I have never heard the name of the gadget. I know ;they have a clever arrongement that
when a very small amount of gas blocks a small airhole, that triggers the shut off. But they
can fail. It used to give me fits to see a woman with a carfull of small kids set the thing and
then go into the store. Though not likely, an oveflow of gas could ignite and fry her kids.
She also had left the motor running!

They always had some kind of pressure thingie that would cause them to kick out when the gas started backing up in the tube that fed into the tank. They do the same thing if you just hold them in your hand.

Yeah, but you couldn't trust 'em...they didn't always work.

We magnolia blossom, fried chicken, Southern spoonbread types warn't bred for this kind of weather!

Amen, sister.

We don't have'em here

Bean! nozzle locks? sure we do! I only just started using 'em recently though - they're dandy for when you want to multi-task (clean windscreen and rear window and check oil while filling tank!)....Never thought of getting back inna my car while using a nozzle lock though....But I totally understand the frustration - I tanked up somewhere that didn't have one, or it had broken off, and I was ANNOYED! - wanted to be rushing round preparing for long drive, and couldn't!

Thanks for the new term, WO'N! it kinda sez it all.

On nozzle locks not always working:

Oh, the nozzle locks usually hold okay, except for once in a while when one would break and then you'd have to stand there and hold the cold metal nozzle for the entire fill (and, no, it was hard to manage with gloves on, so you'd take the pump hand glove off, and you didn't want to soak your glove with gas either)....it's the safety shut-off valve that's supposed to kick-off when the tank is full that has a habit of failing.

And here's a tip for all you self-service pumpers...it's a good idea to stand off to the side, and not in front of the tank opening, while you're pumping, and especially when you start to pump, because a lot of model's tanks have a way of burping up a nice splash of gas at the outset, especially if you release too fast a flow at the outset which most folks are prone to do. Gas baths are no fun...believe me.

We don't have'em here

Bean! nozzle locks? sure we do!

When was the last time you filled up a car in Newfoundland? Or Winnipeg, or Calgary, or Vancouver, or Regina? We don't have 'em here, and by here I mean any place where I've ever filled up a car. Remember, Newfoundland is most definitely NOT the same as Toronto. In oh so many ways.

I can't recall seeing one of those locking devices in the UK since self-service became the norm. As WON said, the attendants (I think that's what we called them) used to use them.

I reckon the device is a type of 'pawl' - "A hinged or pivoted device adapted to fit into a notch of a ratchet wheel to impart forward motion or prevent backward motion."

They are usually reliable, there's just a 'catch' to it .

here, the nozzle is more likely to be activated by a trigger-like device and the "nozzle-lock" is a mechanical "finger" which holds down the trigger in lieu of my fingers.

It's called a Nozzle Turn Off Venturi, and was invented by a rabbi; hence it's frequently called a nozzle TOV.

TEd [should be ashamed of himself but isn't-e]

Dear Q o G,

Remember that $500 I loaned you?

Although I don't currently own a car, back in the day I'd carry around a nozzle lock tool with me on my key chain cuz most of the Midwest stations have removed them. The auto shut off mechanism would fail on the earlier versions because people didn't put the nozzle in all the way which eliminated the back pressure needed to 'kick' the 'finger' free.

Do what I did. Find a station where there are still attendants. Only one in our town and not easiest to get into from traffic but well worth the trouble especially today!
Now, I have been told that when weather is cold you get more gasoline than you do when you pump gas on hot days ...anyone know if this is true. Something to do with compression ?
Whatever.........

Nozzle locks are only available at the biggest, greasy-spoon sportin', parking lot fulla 18-wheelers, full service interstate highway located truck-stop accessory shops.

Talk about your inconsistent hyphens...

Talk about your inconsistent hyphens...

Anna-Strophic

I think my poetic license just expired!

Geoff, who is a mechanic, says that the gas nozzle release device is a "vacuum break".

In reply to:

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I suspect Bingley digests all fragments.

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Are you suggesting that I no longer have the sylph-like figure of my youth? If so, you're quite right, and it probably is due to digesting too many fragments.

Bingley

Newfoundland is most definitely NOT the same as Toronto

I KNOW! but what makes you think I'm from (shudder) TORONTO?! Please! gaaaaahhhhhhh! I'm from Kingston (it's slightly less bad).

Maybe nozzle locks, vacuum whatsits or whatever, are an Ontario phenom?

I remember filling up at a station in Brockville (getting closer to you, Bean, by a very little bit! ) and not only was there no nozzle lock, but you had to flip a metal plate from one side to t'other in order to get the petrol flowing. I had not encountered this before (have only been filling up a car - mine own! - since 1998!) so I stood there at the pump, with the nozzle in the gas tank, wondering why nothing was happening when I squeezed the trigger (hey, maybe it should've been called a trigger lock!) - until...the station attendant got on the intercom to the pump island and told me what I had to do. Just a very little bit embarrassing....When are They going to standardise petrol pumps, anyway?!

When are They going to standardise petrol pumps, anyway?!

About the time we all agree that it is standardized gas pumps.

what makes you think I'm from (shudder) TORONTO?!

Well, since you don't actually say where you're from, and you've mentioned Stratford and Toronto (or is it their film festival?) in other posts, Toronto seemed like a good representative city of what the rest of us call "Southern Ontario". It's all the same weather, anyway (which I believe is what affects their choice of not using flow-locks in most of the country - apparently they fail much more readily in the cold).

I've been in Britain for 18 months now, and I've yet to find either a petrol station which provides anything remotely resembling "service" or one that has nozzle locks on its pumps. It's very much a "take it (yourself) or leave it (as if we care)" society ...

- Pfranz

Wot the 'ell, Juan? Whence all this expertise at gas pumping? New Jersey is, far as I know, the only state where there are no self-service gas stations, it being agin the lawr to pump yer own. What was the point of that, by the way? Saving jobs?