Shelf life for diesel fuel additives

[gilabill]

If this topic has already been covered before, please point me at it. I did a search for "shelf life" and only found discussions on fuel and oil.

So, is there an effective shelf life for the diesel fuel lubricity/cetane additives like say Opti-Lube or Stanadyne or Power Service? This is useful info to me because I don't use that much diesel fuel but could sure save money and shipping on larger quantities of additive. I just got my JD 3720 about two months ago and want to use an additive, mostly based on comments here at this site. It seems I can get five years worth (at my usage rate) of some of them for only about twice the price of a smaller bottle that might last a year or so, but don't want to get caught with a large stock of bum diesel additive three years from now either.

At a chainsaw site, I once saw a discussion about how Sta-Bil fuel stabilizer was only good for a couple of years or so shelf life, especially if not kept in a cool environment. This surprised me--an unstable fuel stabilizer. They said you can tell on Sta-Bil if it changes from being red to turning reddish-brown. This info may have been only anecdotal, but someone may have called Sta-Bil, can't recall. But diesel fuel additive is not primarily a stabilizer (some brands claim to have this function) the way I look at it, more of a supplemental lubricant, so I don't think that there is a parallel here for sure. Seems like you sure would want to keep the cap closed tight, though, because of volatile goodies in it.

Anybody have any reliable data or repeatable experience with this sort of thing? Does it say anything on the bottle? Does it matter? Thanks.

 

[redharley]

I wouldn't keep additives around for longer than the second season for sure and if on that second season when you go for the bottle and any evaporated throw it out.I've seen a thrid of quart bottle's evaporate after the second year wouldn't want to be hoping my tractor started on a cold day with that.At the price of 5-10 bucks a qt which treats 100 plus gals of fuel just a qt a year should take care of are needs for most winter's I would guess.

 

[tsteahr]

Two years according to the stabil site. I have found it to stop being effective after abount two years, but I did not notice any change in color.

Gold Eagle - STA-BIL

 

[LBrown59]

If this topic has already been covered before, please point me at it. .

There was a thread fairly recently with almost the exact same title as this one.
Don't know where it was .

 

[SteveInMD]

I think you need an additive additive to extend it's shelf life.

 

[Bedlam]

LOL Steve.
I saw some marked way down at Wally World wonder.
Anyone know if there is a date on the bottles?

 

[redharley]

Don't know about a date, most likly is one on there if you or someone could find out.Just buy your supply at your local truckstop, floor stock there get's turned over pretty fast this time of year.

 

[gilabill]

Hey thanks for the suggestions. Think I will just buy one bottle of PS, probably summer formula because it doesn't get real cold here, every so often at W-M and be done with it.

Steve, you are right: We should all get together and develop and market a TBN diesel fuel additive stabilizer so that one could purchase large quantities of the additive at low cost and then add a stabilizer periodically to keep it "fresh." Not sure what would keep the additive stabilizer stabilized, but maybe we could work that out with another form of snake oil. FWIW, I have rattlesnakes all over my property. Hmmm...literally, snake oil, but with a touch of Gila Monster oil...I must think...

Anyway, thanks again to all. My mind is made up--sort of.

 

[Williy]

I used the white bottle PS and use it year round.
I am always ready if it gets cold.

willy