Never fill a running Generator

[grumpy52]

This reminds me of a story told to me by one of the circuit paramedics.Not a generator but it concerns stupidity and petrol.Two guys were cleaning an engine bay/ engine with petrol and a couple of stiff paintbrushes it was summer and they were both bare chested, once the engine was clean one went to start the engine while the other peered into the engine bay to check for leaks WHOOSH!
One guy with burns all over his chest ,his mate runs and grabs a fire extinguisher and some cream for the burns.The cream was applied and the guy fainted , when the medics turned up the cream was found to be Vicks Vapour rub !

[GG89]

grumpy52 said:

when the medics turned up the cream was found to be Vicks Vapour rub !

It was going so well until this.

[NDA]

J4CKO said:

Good advice, memorised.

Yes, me too.

During power cuts (which are frequent in the winter) I regularly fill up my generator whilst it's still running- thinking it's 'mildly risky'.

I won't do this again.

[MrMoonyMan]

grumpy52 said:

This reminds me of a story told to me by one of the circuit paramedics.Not a generator but it concerns stupidity and petrol.Two guys were cleaning an engine bay/ engine with petrol and a couple of stiff paintbrushes it was summer and they were both bare chested, once the engine was clean one went to start the engine while the other peered into the engine bay to check for leaks WHOOSH!
One guy with burns all over his chest ,his mate runs and grabs a fire extinguisher and some cream for the burns.The cream was applied and the guy fainted , when the medics turned up the cream was found to be Vicks Vapour rub !

One of the few times I've actually LOL'd reading a forum.

Poor guy, funny story

[John D.]

GG89 said:

grumpy52 said:

when the medics turned up the cream was found to be Vicks Vapour rub !

It was going so well until this.

[Sheepshanks]

m444ttb said:

When I was in my early teens my Dad was using me as forced labour on his allotment and a lady a few plots down decided to get her bonfire going a bit better by tipping 5L of petrol onto it. She was very lucky with no skin burns worse than sunburn and some seriously burnt hair. The only image I can remember is her long fuzzy hair flashing over with fire!

Our CEO's neighbour died doing this to get a barbecue going.

[sooperscoop]

For an indication of why this is a bad idea, see this:
Petrol vapour on FLIR

Enough vapour will ignite on a hot surface such as an exhaust. And pouring petrol gives off lots of vapour...

[otolith]

caziques said:

It's petrol vapour that's the problem.

Strangely enough in a crash it's brake fluid rather than petrol that is the culprit for starting fires. Petrol onto a hot exhaust manifold is fine, brake fluid catches fire.

Power steering fluid also. Stupid place to route a rubber pipe of flammable fluid, right over the exhaust manifold, fking French engineers...

[loafer123]

otolith said:

Power steering fluid also. Stupid place to route a rubber pipe of flammable fluid, right over the exhaust manifold, fking French engineers...

If it is any consolation, my 928 is the same and I recently had a weeping hose.

I got it trailered to the garage, and the last journey befoe that involved my son sitting poised with the fire extinguisher in the passenger seat!

[Dusty964]

WhyAyeMan said:

You wouldn't put petrol in a car with the engine running, so why on earth would you do it up because the engine is in a generator instead? Can anyone enlighten me as it seems like a pretty foolish thing to do.

Nobody ever fills up over here in Dubai WITHOUT the engine running, it's too hot to turn off the aircon along with the engine.

[dxbtiger]

WhyAyeMan said:

You wouldn't put petrol in a car with the engine running, so why on earth would you do it up because the engine is in a generator instead? Can anyone enlighten me as it seems like a pretty foolish thing to do.

Mine is always running whilst the attendant fills it up, too hot to turn off and lose the AC in the summer.

I think my missus is the only person in Dubai that does turn it off whilst it's been filled.

Edit - Snap Stu!

[Asterix]

Yup - Same here.

[Dusty964]

dxbtiger said:

WhyAyeMan said:

You wouldn't put petrol in a car with the engine running, so why on earth would you do it up because the engine is in a generator instead? Can anyone enlighten me as it seems like a pretty foolish thing to do.

Mine is always running whilst the attendant fills it up, too hot to turn off and lose the AC in the summer.

I think my missus is the only person in Dubai that does turn it off whilst it's been filled.

Edit - Snap Stu!

great minds etc etc.

[t400ble]

WhyAyeMan said:

You wouldn't put petrol in a car with the engine running, so why on earth would you do it up because the engine is in a generator instead? Can anyone enlighten me as it seems like a pretty foolish thing to do.

I do it all the time if I have someone in car.

[eltax91]

NDA said:

Yes, me too.

During power cuts (which are frequent in the winter) I regularly fill up my generator whilst it's still running- thinking it's 'mildly risky'.

I won't do this again.

Time to rig up sine form of remote pouring funnel? Isolate the vapour from the hot engine, like in a car.

[WhyAyeMan]

Furry muff...it honestly never occurred to me that it was safe to do it.

[ZesPak]

t400ble said:

WhyAyeMan said:

You wouldn't put petrol in a car with the engine running, so why on earth would you do it up because the engine is in a generator instead? Can anyone enlighten me as it seems like a pretty foolish thing to do.

I do it all the time if I have someone in car.

Guilty as charged as well.

Never gave it a thought when filling up the small honda generator. Though often it has stuff like a refrigerator connected, will shut it down next time tbh!

But, besides the fact that it's obviously hotter when running, would shutting it down for a second actually matter that much when you spill something on the really hot parts? It's not like they wouldn't be hot 10sec after shutting it down?

[trashbat]

sooperscoop said:

For an indication of why this is a bad idea, see this:
Petrol vapour on FLIR

Enough vapour will ignite on a hot surface such as an exhaust. And pouring petrol gives off lots of vapour...

You can see this yourself if you watch carefully at some petrol stations - the haze through the vapour as it escapes. Modern pumps are required to be fitted with vapour recovery systems (I don't know to what degree they work) and so it's possibly less of an issue these days.

[Chris Type R]

A customer of ours recently had an incident. He was trying to burn some garden waste, poured some petrol on it, went off to find matches, the fuel started vapourising, flame lit & boom. (This is all second hand info admittedly)

He was initially hospitalised, off work for a few weeks, has had to have skin grafts, and he's is still not healed.

So, quite a lot of pain and disruption.

EDIT: Focusing on the positives, it's taken years off his face as he's effectively had a skin peel. His hands are still very Parmesan in appearance.

Edited by Chris Type R on Tuesday 22 July 09:31

[mjb1]

The thing with decanting petrol on a boat is that the vapour is heavier than air, so it fills the boat up like a bucket.

It's similar to why you never hear of outside gas leaks causing explosions - the gas disperses unless it's a huge leak. Indoors it has chance to build up to the air/gas ratio to combustible levels.