Movies make most things seem easier than they actually are: Fighting off gangs of ninjas one-by-one, solving impossible math problems on Harvard blackboards and, most importantly, siphoning gas with your mouth.

Wired’s How To wiki blog offers a step-by-step guide on how to use a few tools to transfer gasoline from one gas tank to another. The skill isn’t much fun to practice, but it’s useful to have if you ever wind up out of gas miles away from the nearest station.

Lesson one is to keep a siphon pump handy in order to avoid having to use your mouth. The device costs less than $10 and will avoid any incidental hospitalizations. Remember, kids. Gas doesn’t taste as great as it smells. You use the pump to transfer the gas into a container, which you’ll want to place lower than the gas tank to get gravity working in your favor.

If you’ve ever had to siphon gas, share your tale and tips in the comments.

Siphon [Wired]

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