That'll be $1.50 + tip

In pretty much every state, they're legally obligated to turn it on for free if you make a purchase. But since the pumpjockey behind the counter is making minimum wage, if you just ask them to turn it on, they will and not think twice about it.

>state
>implying nationality
All the stands here are coin operated now. Whether the guy in the kiosk is awake/paid or not is irrelevant.
No coin. No air or water.

It did used to be nice being able to do it all in one go.
But bottles of tapwater and footpumps are not exactly an arduous task tho.
It's more being annoyed at the absolute front these people have to charge for things that shouldn't have a charge.

No, the guy behind the counter must turn it on, the coin-op is to deter retards like you who don't realize if you go in and buy a bag of chips or a soda bottle they have to turn it on.

Okay, air I get.
But water?
I'm in my 30's and have never seen a "water pump" at a gas station, nor can I think of a reason to have one.

Are there people driving stream engine cars that need the water?

Water for the radiator, especially in hotter climates where it doesnt drop below freezing ever.

Why the fuck would you need someone at the counter to turn it on? Don't you guys have unmanned fue lstations with air?

Here it freezes regularly in winter, and a lot of fuel stations have water.
Never used though.

>free with purchase
gimme a slurpee and free air you greasy pumpjockey

>Why the fuck would you need someone at the counter to turn it on?
Because otherwise its coin-op only.
>here it freezes regularly and stations still have water
Still for the radiator. You are supposed to mix antifreeze and water from the pump.

>Because otherwise its coin-op only.
Here it's just free at most

>Water for the radiator, especially in hotter climates where it doesnt drop below freezing ever.

Plain water in a radiator? Why not just shoot your car to put it out of it's misery.
I've travelled the US southwest, gulf and Florida, and never saw a water pump

>Here it freezes regularly in winter, and a lot of fuel stations have water.

Am in US midwest, it was -9 F this morning.
Literally ZERO gas stations have a water pump

>plain water = bad for car
Nigger what the fuck do you think coolant is? I'll tell you right now: It's water+antifreeze.

It's distilled water.

switzerland here
> air is always free. there are even unmanned stations where you can go get air anytime for free. no such thing as coin operated compressors here
> water is always free

same in germany.

I was quite confused when I wanted to get some air in the US for the first time.

What kind of jew shithole do you guys live in where you pay for air and water?

all of the Wawa's that I have been to (PA/NJ chain of stores) have free air

Plain water rusts. Looks like you're the dumb nigger

Enjoy your socialism taxes to subsidize all that "free" stuff.

Because an air compressor and a connection to the existing water system is expensive.
If you would pay for the costs + 200% profit you still wouldn't reach a cent.

Racetrack stations will just turn it on if you ask them, don't even need to buy anything.

For windshield washer

this. Never really have to worry about paying for air here in Virginia. I've never seen a water pump before.

Nah it's free

hum where do you live ? because i never seen someone or myself paid for air i'm in europe btw
checking and correcting tires pressure shouldn't be something you have to pay for it's a matter of public security

Is the Netherlands the only European country that charges for air?
A lot charge €0,50 here.

You are not a smart person at all.

>OK let me see, I don't have any quarters...
>Let me just go to the ATM (that'll be $5.50 for the transaction plus tip, sir) and then buy something I don't want to break the $20.
>Oh their register is out of quarters nvm then

well in France it's free too
that's really fucking weird is it free when you buy gas ?

>is it free when you buy gas ?
No.
There are fuel stations with free air, but they are also destroyed most of the time.

antifreeze is also and mainly here to stop the corrosion i always used tap water in my radiator an i never had any issue with it

maybe it's because of the bicycle

You people are looking way too into the water thing; if your car is such a leaky piece of shit that you find yourself regularly pouring water and or antifreeze into it, you probably don't care about the minerals in the water which may otherwise adversely affect the radiator or other parts of the engine.

Air pumps combined with water are so common, its more unusual for me to see an air station without water. Also, here in TX most of the gas stations have actual water spouts near the pumps where you can conveniently put a large container under or attach a hose.

But they have the wrong fitting for most bikes.

It's the same one. There is no difference.

Schrader valves are pretty much universal. Preston valves on bikes are very rare in the US.

what ? car tires and bicycle tires have the same valves

Why is the air hose so short? how are you suppose to inflate your tires with it?

No.
Most bicycles use Dunlop
Race/tour bikes use Sclaverand
MTBs and cars use Schrader

all the bicycle i had used the scharder but whatever

Never seen the left two before. Every car and bike uses the right.

But you don't live in this bicycle country.

Thank fuck. Traffic is bad enough, last thing we need is people impeding traffic.

true

But bicycles don't impede traffic, they have their own roads.

>being yuropoorean.

>specialized bicycles in an obscure country nobody really cares about use snowflake valve stems
>USA, Australia, most of europe, china, india, and most of the 6 billion other parts of the world use Schrader valves.
>most bicycles use
You're wrong, pierre.

But most other countries only use MTBs.

actually i'm the french dude you're probably speaking to the Netherlands guy

thyre all $1.00 to 1.50 except at wawa in my shithole county in this shithole flyover/drive through no professional sports team having east coast shit "commonwealth" state

every get-go has free air and its a nice digitalpump

It was just sloshing around

>but these are always free
I've not seen one for free in over a decade here in the USA and I've traveled roads for years between the states of Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington. Gas stations have air/water stations because state law requires them to. Those laws were enacted back in the full service gas station days as the stations were all transitioning into self-service gas stations.

In my area, a few of these don't work because someone would take a bolt cutter and lop the end off. So all that exists is the stub end of the hose that has retracted inside the housing. Sometimes it's marked out of order, other times no marking . Don't know why people vandalize or cut off metallic things. Is there even enough metal to sell to a recycler on the hose ends?

>once drove 210 miles in the dead of winter at 2am just to use a free one of these rather than the one at my local shop that charges 20p

Quick Trip in the Midwest all have free air pumps, no water pumps though.

You just
Ask the fucking clerk to turn on the air
It's really not that hard nobody wants your fucking chump change it's mostly to keep the kids and niggers away from misusing the machine

>he thinks if it’s coin-op there can’t be another switch that turns it on

Who is she?

In many ways it’s good Australia is so behind the curve. It’s like the good old days down here m80s.
Pull in, pump air then fuck off and no one gives a fuck

I just use the compressor at home or work.

>Why the fuck would you need someone at the counter to turn it on?
That person didn't qualify their statement which was carelessly made. Some places give free air/water to customers. OR the city or county has issued ordinances or laws that require free air/water to customers. Thus, the customer can request the free air/water after they bought something to satisfy the law.

The clerk then goes out to the air/water unit, opens up the door, and presses the button to enable it for one use time period. But if it is a sloppy clerk, maybe he doesn't know the rules. Or the manager didn't tell that new hire. Or the clerk does NOT care and is pretending to not know the law for that city/county. In my city, it is not free and being a customer doesn't mean I can get free air/water. So being free or not varies all over the country.

My state allows NON-members of costco to enter the warehouse. That's because pharmacies cannot restrict who sees them as they get support from the taxpayers in general. That's my state. Just say you're there to use the pharmacy and they let you in if you're in my state. Again, this is another example of how laws or ordinances are not standard across the country. And this can affect whether or not a station even offers free air/water.

Most of the time the air pump is out of view of the operators.
Again, why would someone else turn it on? It's just air and water.

>It's just air and water.
If you have a free water spigot and electrical outlets, homeless will camp around that. When that happens, the neighborhood all around starts to get urine and poop and the complaints get directed against the places enabling homeless to stay in the neighborhood.. The homeless vehicles will go and fill their tanks from it too if there isn't a coin-operated time limit switch.

I remember when many shops had both exterior power outlets and water spigots visible. Nowadays, stores are built without any exterior power outlets. My city hall has a parking garage. Homeless in their cars were parking in the garage and using the outlets. So the outlets got locks on them. The homeless cut off the locks. The city responded by removing all the electric outlets and even patching all the holes with concrete patch. So sad for a nice new parking garage.

Wtf is the water?
Is it to wash your car or does it suck up water?

Intended to be used for radiators and washer bottles.

>that'll be $1.50
It's just 75 cents here for five minutes of access time.

Literally just drive to a Walmart tire and lube, they'll air up your tires for free and maybe even give you washer fluid if you ask nicely.

Why would you air up your tires after driving on them unless there's a leak?

>Wtf is the water?
The reason why gas stations have water/air is a remnant from the old days of gas stations having full service. In many places, such is available only because state law requires it be available.

Now, as for the old days when full service stations existed, it was part of full service gas to check your washer fluid level and air, then add something to top it off.

Something that you whippersnappers don't bother to think about, because history is something that few bother to consider, is that radiators back then didn't use overflow containers. Near the very end of full service in all usa states, cars were transitioning to overflow containers.

Because overflow containers were no in wide use then, topping off the radiator was done. It wasn't ideal to use tap water, but owners typically would add more concentrated coolant to the mix as well. Coolant concentration was undergoing a transition as well. Prior to overflow cannisters, coolant was often sold as concentrate where you added more water to come up with the final mixture percentage. After overflow cannisters became the norm, pre-mix became the dominant format sold in stores with concentrate completely disappearing off the shelves of many stores chains.

Times change. Maybe in the future the air/water stations will also disappear from stations as state legislatures get lobbied successfully.

This. Just ask the dude behind the counter to turn it on.

>I mix your coolant with tap water everyday, and you can't stop me.

Only in the US.
Here we have free air, water and unprotected electrical outlets, never seen homeless people around it.
The only place I see homeless people is in front of supermarkets, trying to sell you the homeless newspaper.

All of the Bell Tires in my area (in Michigan) have free air. Just put in the PSI you want, fill'er up and it'll beep when it reaches the preset PSI

i have two compressors that i cba to drag out to my car so i went to the gas station

get at me

>Literally just drive to a Walmart tire and lube, they'll air up your tires for free
Some of the tire stores local to me such as Sam's Club will patch tires for free as a membership benefit even if the tires are not bought from Sam's Club. Does Costco do that for its members? It's actually a patch and not a plug. That's pretty nice since it involves removing the tire from the rim and searching for the nail or screw that made a hole.

>i have two compressors
I don't like how loud my portable 12 volt air compressor is, so I use a bycycle pump instead. The air compressor remains on the shelf. The car came with its own 12v air compressor and can of FixFlat since it didn't have a spare donut tire. I haven't tested the 12v compressor to verify if it works. I guess I should before the 3 year new car bumper/bumper warranty runs out.

Water could be used for RVs or large campers.
Thats one thing I could think it being used for.

The sewage dump stations usually have water for slushing shit out but I doubt it's potable. I wouldn't drink from one of those gas station water pumps either.

Australian here, I have never heard of a servo that didn't offer free for for your tyres. The worst I've seen is some places have so many abos that they keep this piece inside.

>The worst I've seen is some places have so many abos that they keep this piece inside.
I'm in the USA. I've seen self-serve air pumps missing those because the hose was cut. Do these things have theft value? It doesn't seem like there is enough valuable metal in them to sell to the recycler for money. I know copper wire and pipe continues to be stolen.

who do i tip?
the machine?

>99.9% of bikes here use schrader or presta valves
>friend decides to buy dunlop tubes
>gets annoyed when his pump wont fit
>gets annoyed when local petrol station pumps dont fit
>gets mad when he has to order a fucking adapter
>"oh they are so much better at holding air user"

Everyone also seems to be shit scared of presta valves because they are so complicated apparently

NJfag reporting in with that free air and free ATM

I'm sorry, I'm too busy being able to actually pump my own gas
t. every other state but you and Oregon

>shitty circle K station lets you get free air if you buy gas
>don't really need any of there shit grade fuel but need air
>ask for $5 on whatever pump and if I can have air
>by the time I finish fueling air shuts off
>a month later I just stole my neighbors air compressor and never looked back

>White and wealthy AF area
>BP station in a brick building
>Has an old-school auto filler
>Turn the dial to the pressure you want and it automatically fills it up to that point with a ding
>If the mechanic isn't doing anything he'll run out and do it for you
Feels classy AF.

Nah, they either steal it for personal use or for shits and giggles.

This will be the next meme thing in Japan, I know it.

>not filling your tires with helium for maximum speed

>helium for maximum speed
While the use of helium reduces your unsprung weight, it would need to be from commercial helium tanks. The helium sold to the general public contains at least 20% air/oxygen now due to government intervention. By putting air into the mixture, people are no longer able to use helium tanks to commit suicide painlessly. Suicide with those helium tanks will now be full of painful gasping and choking sensations.

Leave it to the government to make painless things much more painful. Even in ironic ways the government doesn't disappoint.

>he paid all this money on compressors just to not use them because his air hose is an inadequate length

>get at me
Just like you, ironically, We don't have to lift a finger. You are already wasting your own resources.