DRYGAS

[jimainiac]

It's Winter here in Maine, time to be proactive and put some drygas in the pickups, just to be on the safe side. In the first truck, I had some Cristy brand bottles. Read the label, the 12 ounce bottle said to add to ten gallons of gas. It's a 34 gallon tank, so I figured two bottles, better than nothing but really should be three or four. In the second truck there were some bottles of Heet brand 12 ounce bottles. That label said it treats 20 gallons of gas. That truck also has a 34 gallon tank, so I put two bottles in that one, too. Both brands were isopropyl alcohol, both 12 ounce bottles.
So the question is, what gives? I wonder which label was the more correct one? For what appears to be pretty much the same product, that's a pretty big difference.
By the way, the Cristy brand's label says it contains an Exxon trade secret. Maybe that makes it more ineffective.

 

[Diamondpilot]

To be honest I think its a gimmick. Here in Indiana all gas sold as of Jan 1 1010 must have 10% or more Ethanol in it which is Alcohol. Even though it just became the law we have not been able to get real gas within a 30 mile radius of my house for the past 4 years. I hate it. Tough on airplanes and boats. Most stations started changing over 6-7 years ago and inturn our mpg went down. We have tons of Bio Diesel Pumps and E85 gas pumps also so you have to be careful what you put in your tank.

I ran Bio in my truck for some time and noticed no difference but now its more money than strait diesel so I make sure that is what I get. I also ran E85 in my F-150 for 1 year and averaged 11mpg and with 87 octane that contained 10% ethanol I averaged 15.5mpg. It was a wash losing 30% range because the fuel was about 35% cheaper so I bought it since it was a home grown product but it has since gone up in price and is now only 15% cheaper than 87 octane so it now cost more money to use.

I live 4 miles from a Bio-Diesel plant. I went there 3 years ago to buy fuel and they would not sell it to the public. I was going to buy 900 gallons in 3 tanks I had on a trailer. The guy running the place told me they sell 85% of the fuel made here in Indiana to Germany. Yes, Germany. I can not remember the numbers exactly but it was something like regular diesel was $4.25 per gallon at the time. Strait Bio was $4.50 per gallon and it cost them something like $6.25 per gallon to produce it. They got a state credit for something like $2.00 a gallon to make it(hence being able to sell it for $4.50). They then loaded it on trucks and transported it to New York where it was later loaded on barges and shipped to Germany where it was sold for something like $8.00 per gallon. It was the only way they could make money. Crazy!

Sorry for the rant. I am not a fan of the bio thing. Using food products to make fuel is crap. There are better ways.

Chris

 

[jimainiac]

Diamondpilot, that's an interesting thought about the fact that there might already be alcohol in the gas. I'll have to check the sticker on the gas pump. Traditionally, it's always been a good idea to add drygas in the winter to avoid gas line freezeups and rough idling from moisture, but it didn't make sense that one brand claims it treats 10 gallons and the other says it does 20 gallons. It drives me nuts when two apparrantly just about identical products claim way different results.

That's a crazy story about the locally made bio diesel going to Germany, but I guess nothing would surprise me these days...

 

[RalphVa]

Adding dry gas, usually an alcohol, will keep any water that drops out from freezing. However, it will not keep you from having engine misses due to water unless the material has a special additive (maybe like that Exxon one) to keep the alcohol/water mix from separating out as a separate phase. This is because alcohol will dissolve in gasoline to some extent, but alcohol/water mixes (and the alcohol will want to "grab" the water) don't mix very well.

A lot of winter blends already have alcohol in them AND they may very well have an additive that keeps the water/alcohol from coming out of solution as a separate phase.

This is a similar situation to use of dormant oil or orchard spray oil. All these dissolve in water and must be used in a dilute solution. However, they all contain an additive (probably a detergent) that allows the oil (which is a very light diesel) to dissolve in water.

 

[Egon]

So the question is, what gives

Simple, spend your money and stimulate the economy!!

 

[mrutkaus]

I imagine the 10% alcohol in almost all gas these days has prevented a lot of water/ice problems for people who ordinarily never even think of putting additives in their tank.

Mike

 

[Soundguy]

In areas with ethanol gas.. I'm surprised there is a market for 'dry gas' products....

ethanol is pretty thirsty..

soundguy

 

[jimainiac]

I looked at the gas pump and it says ten percent ethanol. The drygas that I used was isopropyl alcohol. I wonder if one kind works better than the other for absorbing water, or if all kinds of alcohol work the same in that regard. It seems like they market the isopropyl as being better than the methyl alcohol in the drygases. (At least they charge more for it). I haven't had a gas line freeze up in years, but I thought it was because I added the drygas before the fact. That would be good if the addition of ethanol makes it unnecessary.

 

[20 20]

I used dry gas regularly for years, haven't used any in about 4 yrs now.

 

[TheGoose]

I never heard of drygas before this thread.