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The story
The habit of lightly tapping a gas pump nozzle against the fuel filler neck with a “tonk tonk” sound became a hot topic on 5ch’s News VIP board. It started with someone pointing out that tapping the filler opening with the tip of the nozzle might generate sparks and lead to ignition. In the thread, a former gas station attendant said they’d “never given it a second thought,” while others countered with testimony like “back in the full-service era, we were taught never to do that,” splitting opinion. Commenters also noted that the nozzle is made of brass, a material designed to resist sparking, and that while Japan’s high humidity makes static-electricity ignition unlikely, videos of fires breaking out this way are often seen overseas.
What people said
Maybe it's because Japan's humidity is high.
There are quite a few videos of it starting fires in the US and elsewhere overseas.
I worked part-time back when full-service outnumbered self-service, and we were told never to do that.
Sounds like you believe in anime-style dust explosions.
Dust explosions are a real thing, but you'd need something like a flamethrower to actually set one off.
If flour were that dangerous, supermarkets couldn't sell it.
Never gotten a warning, and no attendant's ever shot me a look or said anything.
Even if it really is technically bad, it's probably a pretty minor issue.
Well, it's probably like a 0.0001% chance or something.
Still dangerous regardless.
Posting to VIP from beyond the grave, huh?
I don't go outside at night anyway.
The reason is that overflow can damage the car's paint job, and spilled gasoline can cause a fire.
Seriously, way too many people try to fill it right to the brim and end up spilling it.
When I said "fill it up," the attendant used to top it off right to the brim.
Well, it's someone else's car — selling as much gas as possible is more profitable than worrying about damage to the body.
The "no topping off after auto-stop" rule is for self-service pumps — it doesn't apply when an attendant is pumping for you at a full-service station.
Well, might depend on the company though.
Back when I worked there part-time, I was actually told to squeeze in a bit more even after it clicked off.
With all that safety consideration already built in, I don't get why you'd take on a completely unnecessary risk anyway?
You're probably the type who rocks the Ferris wheel car back and forth for fun and gets yelled at by park staff.
Well, if nobody explains it, how am I supposed to know it's "risky behavior"…
I mean, I know brass doesn't spark.
If you actually think it through, you'd realize the air around the filler neck is full of vaporized gasoline.
But overseas there are videos posted all the time of it catching fire and causing a huge commotion.
Link please
You've been bombing up there for a while now
If a little tap could ignite the gasoline, alcoholics and old folks whose hands are always shaking would be dying every single day.
Wait, do you mean the buzz-wire game (Irairabou)?!
The electric buzz-wire game show — yeah, the older guys definitely used to watch that.
My dad (80 now) does it all for me.
Wouldn't this solve it?
Bad at talking to attendants → go self-service
Don't get how the machine works → go full-service
Background and points of debate
Under Japan’s Fire Service Act, self-service gas stations are required to have customers touch a static-discharge sheet before fueling, among other anti-static rules. The fact that the tip of the fueling nozzle is made of brass or another non-ferrous metal is also said to be a deliberate design choice, meant to keep sparks from forming even if it rubs against the filler neck. The claim circulating in the thread that “tapping the nozzle against it won’t produce sparks” appears to be based on this design. On the other hand, footage of fires caused by static electricity at gas stations overseas frequently goes viral, and some point to the dry, low-humidity climate abroad as a contributing factor. In the thread, opinions split because two separate questions got tangled together: the manners-based question of whether it’s okay to deliberately ignore a stated safety precaution no matter how tiny the actual fire risk is, and the scientific question of just how big or small that risk really is.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (News速報 VIP) thread “Me: “Full tank of gas!” (taps the nozzle against the filler neck) *tonk tonk*!“.
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