Hess Gas

One brand is pretty much the same as the other. The amount of ethanol, however, will affect your milage. Most places are selling E10. Sometimes the pump is not labelled, but whether that means there is no ethanol is questionable. It may mean the station did not bother to label it.

As drivers become more sophisticated, places that do not have ethanol in the mix are advertising that fact.

 

Don't know anything about Hess gas except those classic toy trucks, and always felt bad Leon Hess never made it to see his Jets go all the way.

 

I tend to avoid it because I don't get as good FE with Hess Gas as I do with other brands. I don't know exactly why that is, but I've seen it in both tanks I've had to buy at Hess stations. When given my druthers, I invariably get gas at Costco.

 

Perhaps the Hess estate is cutting corners to make Favre's payroll.

 

My first tank I got over 52mpg. My next two with Hess gas didn't break 50mpg. I switched to Sunoco and now I get 54-57mpg. Part of that is due to inflating my tires, but at least 4mpg is from switching from Hess gas (in the Philadelphia area).

 

Why not just try your next tank from a different brand, then compare?

As the weather cools, your MPG will drop dramatically, no matter what brand of gas you use.

 

do not know, but that's pretty much what I saw, but I already had the tires at 42/40. I can't think of a particularly good chemical reason for this difference. Hess uses ethanol as is oxygenated ingredient, which is the same as most other places, so that's likely not the case.

I don't generally hold much faith in the snake oil they add, but I suppose other companies could be adding something that was resulting in faster, more complete combustion, etc. That's a guess, not supported by anything of substance.

It's been suggested that there may be a strong psychological influence in this. I'd love to try and test that some time. It'd take a couple of cars and a little planning, but it could be done. Double-blind studies aren't hard, they just require a bit of protocol.

 

IMO blocking the grill & driving at slower constant speeds will produce better results. I switched to Shell to get the 5% rebate from their MasterCard. Now with that said I got my first 70mpg (calculated) tank driving mostly interstate at around the posted speed limits on Sunoco gas. I stopped in Ashland(?) VA to top off so I wouldn't need to buy gas in Winston-Salem, NC. Overall the 1000+ mile round trip was 56.7mpg (calculated). Too many variables to attribute gains or losses to one particular cause.

In NJ I believe all gas contains ethanol. Since the percentages aren't disclosed the consumer has no idea exactly how much in any given brand.

 

I'm in clinical pharmaceutical development. I'm very familiar with double blind studies. I can tell you emphatically that Hess gas negatively impacts mileage. I even tested this on my last tank. I intentionally drove like an idiot. Accelerated hard, braked often, did not attempt to glide...I still got close to 50mpg for those 50+ miles.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't even get past 48.5 mpg on the second tank that was 100% Hess (i.e. second straight fillup at Hess, no residuals from the other station). As soon as I switched to Sunoco, my mileage shot up. Keep in mind, my fillup was out of convenience, not because I suspected Hess to be below standard. I came to that conclusion after I saw the results.

 

I live in NY, but cross the border to buy cheaper gas in Jersey. I have only bought Hess once and can't verify if that is the reason my mileage dipped (from 52-ish tanks to a 47 tank). There were other factors -- construction on a bridge that messed up my glides, some extra highway trips, rain, etc. But I had regularly used Sunoco (like Nooaah suggested) and have since returned to Sunoco -- they wash my windows, old skool style!

So FWIW, I'd throw my hat in the Sunoco ring. Try it out; try Shell, Citgo, keep conditions the same in as many other ways as you can. There is a small difference, and it's fun to experiment.