That viral 'water test' video for gas quality is complete garbage

I saw that TikTok yesterday where a guy claims you can test your gas by adding water to a cup of it. I tried it with 87 octane from a Shell station in Austin and all I got was a weird sludge, nothing like his results. Has anyone actually found a real way to check for bad gas at the pump?

3 comments

3 Comments

murray.robert18d ago

Stick a fork in my tank and see if it's done, I guess.

murray.robert19d ago

And honestly that's the thing with a lot of these viral hacks (they pop up everywhere, not just gas). People find some weird trick that works on one specific setup and suddenly it's supposed to be universal. I've seen it with checking if eggs are fresh, testing if your phone charger is fake, even that salad spinner life hack for drying lettuce. They all work in a perfect YouTube kitchen, but in my real life (with my actual dirty eggs and janky charger) it just makes a mess. The only real way I've found to spot bad gas is to pay attention to how your car runs directly after filling up. If it stumbles or knocks right after a fresh tank, that's a better sign than any water test.

karen_carter18d ago

Cracked myself up thinking about the time I tried that egg float test and ended up with a counter full of 3-day-old hardboiled eggs that I was too scared to eat. My car's gas problems are the same way, I just rely on the old stumble-and-knock test and hope for the best.