Premix vs gas station 2 stroke

   / Premix vs gas station 2 stroke #51  
I'm wondering if it's a regional thing, refinery related, climate? I don't know. I store the gas in sealed plastic jugs, if that makes a difference to anyone. I don't drain my tanks of fuel. The exception might be the chainsaws, as when I'm cutting firewood, if it runs out of gas for the 4th or 5th time of the day, I'm usually worn out, so I leave it empty.
I wonder the same thing. All of my gas engines will run fine on gas (+ethanol) right out of the pump. But how long till that gas goes "bad" is highly variable and seems to depend on lots of factors out of my control. The chainsaw is the canary in the coal mine. Recently it wouldn't start on gas that had only been in my 5 gal plastic container for 6 weeks. The mower still runs on it just fine, bigger engine I guess, but what changed that much in only 6 weeks??

Back to OP's original question -- the chainsaw definitely likes that expensive pre-mix high-octane ethanol-free stuff from the farm/ranch store. That gas keeps forever without adding anything, and won't vapor lock the saw in hot weather. Second best is buying ethanol-free gas from one of the two stations in town that sell it (at premium prices), although I don't what other baloney they put in.
 
   / Premix vs gas station 2 stroke #52  
I have no idea what this means.
It doesn't burn after 30 days?
It explodes instead?
Turns to rock?

Seriously, the premix or special canned stuff may make you feel better because it's less likely to g something up, but most people are going to look at you funny if you say stuff like this.

I personally use pump gas very successfully; I'll stabil gas in a generator that's almost never used, but that's about it, and the only time I had to clean a carb was on my wife's old motorcycle that hadn't been run in 5 years and I finally was getting around to selling it.

My rototiller is 15 years old now, never gotten into its carb. Starts second pull every spring, nothing special done. Other motored things are used from a little to much more often, but many are used with apparently "gas that's not good" very well.
It goes flat, even with stabilizer. 6 weeks max and it is worthless.
 
   / Premix vs gas station 2 stroke #54  
I have a whiteboard in my garage, I write oil changes and mile/hours on it. I also write done the date of my 2 stroke fuel and regular fuel cans were filled. It will last longer than that. I have had fuel related problems but it was always fuel cans or something stored with the tank 80% empty.
 
   / Premix vs gas station 2 stroke #55  
My local out door equipment provider provides an excellent document outlining the reason for being careful about fuels and durations, below is a snippet from there web site. Other things in the document (which I can't find at the moment) recommends if you are using Premium fuel (with no ethanol) to fill jugs is to put a few litres in your tank of your vehicle then fill your jugs this way you don't get any ethanol for sure from the previous person who may have used just regular fuel and is in the pump lines.

"If you have fuel left over from summer equipment then it is best to use it up in your vehicle. Fuel is blended for the average atmospheric conditions at the time of sale, so winter fuel is different than summer fuel. The formula used for blending fuel changes many times during the year. Unstabilized fuel loses 2-3 octane points per month. This is just one of the problems with old fuel."
 
   / Premix vs gas station 2 stroke #56  
It goes flat, even with stabilizer. 6 weeks max and it is worthless.

Don’t try pouring 6 week old gas onto a brush fire. You will quickly find out how not so worthless it flares up and causes damage.

Seriously.

MoKelly
 
   / Premix vs gas station 2 stroke #57  
It goes flat, even with stabilizer. 6 weeks max and it is worthless.
can confirm
43 day old gas
doused myself, lit a match and NOTHING

...
ok that's obviously a lie, and contains about the same amount of useful information as "flat"
...
maybe he's talking about helium gas?
I've never had helium stick around longer than 6 weeks either? flat balloon! flat!

....
caveat: just don't
 
   / Premix vs gas station 2 stroke #58  
I'd love to see a paper showing the science behind this alleged degradation of stored gas. I'm not saying I think you can store gas indefinitely, but I'm not likely to believe someone hawking bottled gas at 5-8x pump prices.

Show me the science, and make sure we're talking about the same type of gas, too (the closest thing I could find on the web was an article talking about aviation gas, and it was more concerned about the lead agent separating).
 
 
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