Sam’s Club Gas Quality: Is it Any Good?

Sam’s Club gas is probably the cheapest you’re gonna find, but it might not have all the detergents and additives other gas stations have.

Sam’s Club gas stations are well known it gives gas fuel in unbranded gas stations thus, getting its fuel from many oil companies. However, it is debatable if they are selling gas that is of the best quality. 

For all Americans with a membership to Sam’s Club, it provides a convenient place to get good gas fuel for the tier vehicle’s engine. 

Is Sam’s Club gas good?

If you want to fill high-graded gasoline, then Sam’s Club might not be for you.

The gas at Sam’s Club usually meets EPA standards and often comes from the same places as other big gas stations, but it might not have all the extra additives for better performance. You can grab a water tester for like 10 bucks and check it out yourself.

If you’re looking for top-tier gas, you might want to check out other companies known for it, like Exxon and Chevron but if you just need to fill good quality gasoline and get it cheap, Sam’s Club is the place.

How to Find if a Gas Company Sells Quality Oil?

Gas quality can differ with different companies, and oil, such as natural gas, you can see, is made of many components of gases.

Their quality can be determined by how the density, volume, and percentage differ. Moreover, it might also depend on getting the correct calorific value.

So, to know if a company’s gas is a good quality gas, there are some policies that they should follow. They must cross the Top Tier standards. 

In 1995, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) set lower gas and additive concentration standards.

However, these gas standards were good when the Top Tier system of measurement got introduced in 2004. The Top Tier gas has to pass through a certain level of oil deposit control additives which comes more than the regular EPA standards.

Read more:


The Top Tier Certification Standard – What Are Its Benefits? 

So, carbon deposits and other harmful substances are one thing that the EPA wants to lower down. Even the American Automobile Association (AAA) found that the engine’s Top Tier deposits were less than 19 times in Top Tier certified gases. 

Hence, this helped the EPA immensely since the Top Tier due to fewer additives had the divers noticed improved fuel economy and fewer pollutants. Also, the cost of these gas is not too much and is only three cents compared to the other brands. 

Therefore, Top Tier certified brands are considered to be of superior quality gasoline. To achieve that proper certification and license, they should have adequate additive standard formulations on all octanes. 

Sam’s Club Quality of Gasoline

While the company does not disclose where it gets its gasoline, it assures a Satisfaction guarantee to its consumers. 

It is essential to note that Sam’s Club is not in the Top Tier and does not have its certification or license since the Club has more depositary additives and does not meet the Top Tier octave standards. 

So, they have their depository additives formulation and go by their testing methods regarding their fuel quality. Also, you might not find much information about how they maintain their gases. Hence, their gas quality has been debated and might be a mystery to some. 

However, Sam’s Club companies must follow the government’s basic guidelines, EPA, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and other official regulations.

 So, you cannot consider Sam’s Club to be exactly a low-quality gasoline as their gas usually comes from Murphy Oil. 

However, since they are not Top Tier, they are not considered as good a quality as other Top Tier retailers like Costco, which has the certification.

Benefits of Sam’s Club Gasoline

The company provides a satisfaction guarantee for Sam’s Club membership purchases. Getting your fuel gas from Sam’s Club leaves most of their customers satisfied since they can have easy service, fixed hours, and benefits for people using their membership cards. 

Moreover, additives are added only in some places, and they give a premium octane of 91. Most customers come to Sam’s Club since they save much as their gasoline prices are 10% to 12% cheaper than other gas stations. 

Also, this price gets lowered further if you are a regular member to the gas station. They are also not precisely bad quality; despite not being Top Tier, their fuel by customers is regarded as good.

They have an excellent additive package which is comparatively good from other local refiners. The company’s oil is made from Murphy Oil, which is considered a decent oil that contains petroleum, natural gas, and other natural liquids.

How to Buy Sam’s Club Gasoline?

To purchase gasoline from Sam’s Club, these are a few of the requirements you might need to follow, like containing a membership, payment methods, noticing their work hours and prices.

You need to get a Sam Club membership since the company does not sell any gas to people who do not have their membership. Also, you will not be allowed if you want to fill gas from the company’s work hours since Sam’s Club is not open for 24 hours. 

So, the company’s work timings are sharply from 9 AM to 7 PM on Sundays alone. The rest of the days are open from 6 AM to 9 PM, so it’s better to check the time before you go.

Moreover, the company’s membership costs come at two prices – regular membership for personal and business matters; is $45 per year whereas for “Sam’s Plus” membership it is $100 per year.

Then, you can pay through Sam’s Club Mastercard, and which contains a 5% cash pack on purchasing gasoline from them. Other than that, you get gift cards from both Walmart and Sam’s Club and Walmart Rewards cards. Other payment methods can be through credit cards, debit cards, cash, or checks.

What Other People Say: (From Reddit)

“First off, define “good quality gas” and define “bad” quality gas. You probably don’t even know the answer, because spoiler, it doesn’t matter unless you have a super car. I’m guessing you don’t because you’re getting gas at Sam’s club. Second off, We aren’t scientists. Buy some, spend thousands to test it, and find out. We don’t know and or care if the gas is “good” or not. All gas is heavily tested and regulated and a business that is found to have “bad” gas will probably not be in business.”

“Does it have all the detergents and additives that ConoShellEvron 66 has? Probably not. Does that make it worse, as in it’s poorly refined or has water? No. All else being equal, I’ll pick Costco over Sam’s, or if various pay-with-app discounts (like 10 cents off in the Conoco app) bring the price down to parity with Sam’s, I’ll choose those (because Costco and Conoco and most other high-end brands are Top Tier certified and have those extra detergents), but if Sam’s is the only thing around at a decent price, I have no objection to filling up with Sam’s gas, and you shouldn’t, either. It’s the same gas found at every major station, just with a different blend of additives.”

“I would think it would vary greatly from region to region, and which companies hold contracts for that Sam’s club in that particular region. There aren’t a huge amount of refineries in the USA. For example, most of the gas in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Tennessee is refined by Ashland/Marathon at the Ohio River plant. Quality always varies around this time because they switch from summer to winter blend, and the plant is in turnaround. IMHO I prefer Marathon because they do lots of quality control and Usher Transport has had a very long relationship with Marathon and can do end-user quality checks. My only advice is to try to vary which gas station you fill up at and try to avoid lessor-used gas stations. Water content isn’t an issue so much with the manufacturing process as it is with storage tanks at the retail level. This time of year with the large temperature swings storage tanks do condensate. It isn’t a huge issue with high volume product sell-through like there is at most Sam’s Clubs.”