Stabil.... All that Stable?

[5030]

There seems to be appearing on store shelves more than one Stabil mixture lately, plus there are other brands like (Briggs and Stratton Gas stabilizer) and Power Service....

I see there is the good old standby stinky red Stabil...
The Marine blue Stabil.....
The light orange Ethanol Stabil.....
Diesel Stabil.....

Power Service offers a diesel stabilizer product.....
They also offer a Biocide for B20 diesel.....

Caterpillar Engine offers fuel additives for diesels (at a price of course)....

What the heck is the difference?

As an aside, I've been using the old standby stinky red Stabil for years but I'm wondering with the new alcohol laced gasoline if the new light orange stuff is the way to go. I see it's appreciably more expensive (the orange versus the red).

Any experiences out there and what do you recommend?

Gunked up injection and/or carbs can be an expensive 'no start' proposition.

 

[BXinNH]

I have had very good luck for the last several years running the blue Marine Stabil in all my small engine equipment. I mix it a little stronger than the recommendation but have had no issues with bad fuel. My string trimmer and backpack blower sit for months at a time (over the winter) with 2 cycle fuel in the carbs. Both start on the second pull in the spring. In my Kubota I use a Summit product recommended by my dealer and have had no fuel issues there either. For what it's worth.

Matt.

 

[Bird]

I have no idea what the difference is, since I've only used the old red Stabil. It says it's for gasoline, including ethanol blends. And while it gives the amount to use (1 oz. for 2.5 gallons) for up to 1 year, it also says for up to 2 years to just use a double dose. So I haven't used quite a full double dose, but sometimes close to it, even though I don't keep it for 2 years.

 

[Patches]

I have no idea what the difference is, since I've only used the old red Stabil. It says it's for gasoline, including ethanol blends. And while it gives the amount to use (1 oz. for 2.5 gallons) for up to 1 year, it also says for up to 2 years to just use a double dose. So I haven't used quite a full double dose, but sometimes close to it, even though I don't keep it for 2 years.

I've used the "ole stand-by" red Stabil for some time now;in fact, when Maine first got ethanol laced fuel I e-mailed the company and got a return e-mail from the company president(?) explaining all he has been using in his small engines/boat is the red stabil, and they've had ethanol blended fuel for 20+ years. His statement to me was "unless in a marine invironment, the red stuff is all you need".

 

[Ductape]

If the alcohol blended fuel is such a problem, one has to wonder why the refineries / petroleum companies can't mix in some type of stabilizer. Would it really add much cost at the manufacturing level?

 

[dodge man]

I can understand where this question is coming from. Everyone says how great the Marine Stabil is, but who knows? I've never seen any testing where it shows fuel last longer. I've also wondered when you mix the stuff stronger the recomended amount, is that hard on engines and/or fuel systems?

 

[5030]

I have no idea what the difference is, since I've only used the old red Stabil. It says it's for gasoline, including ethanol blends. And while it gives the amount to use (1 oz. for 2.5 gallons) for up to 1 year, it also says for up to 2 years to just use a double dose. So I haven't used quite a full double dose, but sometimes close to it, even though I don't keep it for 2 years.

One thing I noticed right off on the back of the Marine Stabil bottle is the explicit direction to mark the date you open the bottle in the box right below that instruction....

Because it clearly states that an opened bottle of Marine Stabil is only good for one year after opening....

What gives with that?

The Marine (blue) also smells different, not nicer but different... I think the old red Stabil smells putrid.

If the old stinky red Stabil is fine for ethanol, why is there more than one variant and why is the marine (blue) so much more expensive....???

 

[Patches]

Because the American consumer is always looking for ways to spend more money;if red Stabil is good at $.25 an ounce, blue Stabil at $.75 an ounce MUST be 3 times as good :confused2:

 

[Ken45101]

If the alcohol blended fuel is such a problem, one has to wonder why the refineries / petroleum companies can't mix in some type of stabilizer. Would it really add much cost at the manufacturing level?

#1 - the alcohol is not blended at the refinery, it is not stable enough to ship from the refinery that way. The alcohol is blended by the distributor.

#2 - for most use (cars), it's used up in a couple of days or weeks at most and therefore a stablizer isn't needed.

#3 - it would raise the price/cut the profits.

Ken

 

[Bird]

One thing I noticed right off on the back of the Marine Stabil bottle is the explicit direction to mark the date you open the bottle in the box right below that instruction....

Because it clearly states that an opened bottle of Marine Stabil is only good for one year after opening....

What gives with that?

The Marine (blue) also smells different, not nicer but different... I think the old red Stabil smells putrid.

If the old stinky red Stabil is fine for ethanol, why is there more than one variant and why is the marine (blue) so much more expensive....???

Glad I never bought any blue. In the future I'll always buy the smallest bottle of red, because right now I'm using the red that is at least 3 years old and maybe twice that.:laughing:

 

[cdaigle430]

I thnk small engine manufacturers need step up to the plate here. Ethanol is here to stay unfortunately. Briggs, kholer and Tucemseh need to start building higher quality fuel systems or they will lose in the end. I wil never buy another small engine that runs on gas. Thats why I bought my Massey, soon I will be replacing my briggs snowblower with a pto front mount, husqvarna mower for the mf mmm, and briggs generator for a PTO generator.


I would say all small gas engines are crap but I think it's just limited to briggs, tucemseh, khoeler and others. FACT-My Honda ATV and Honda motorcycle never, ever needed a fuel additive and I can let the gas sit in them all winter with 0 problems.

 

[Bird]

I thnk small engine manufacturers need step up to the plate here. Ethanol is here to stay unfortunately. Briggs, kholer and Tucemseh need to start building higher quality fuel systems or they will lose in the end. I wil never buy another small engine that runs on gas. Thats why I bought my Massey, soon I will be replacing my briggs snowblower with a pto front mount, husqvarna mower for the mf mmm, and briggs generator for a PTO generator.


I would say all small gas engines are crap but I think it's just limited to briggs, tucemseh, khoeler and others. FACT-My Honda ATV and Honda motorcycle never, ever needed a fuel additive and I can let the gas sit in them all winter with 0 problems.

I disagree. I think they're building some pretty good engines. Yes, I use Stabil. Is it necessary? I don't know.

Earlier this year, I traded in a 4 year old walk behind mower with a Briggs engine simply because I wanted the ZTR. Never had a fuel problem with the walk behind.

I replaced the spark plug in my six and a half year old Stihl string trimmer after the first year and decided that was not needed so I haven't done it since. I did put a new air filter in it this year. Not a single problem yet.

I bought my Mantis tiller direct from Mantis as a "fully refurbished" one over 4 years ago. No fuel problems there either.

I've not yet had my Kohler powered ZTR long enough to evaluate it.

So, yep, I'll take others' word that they've had problems attributed to ethanol and I don't like the ethanol myself because I know my car and pickup don't get quite as good mileage on it, but (knock on wood) I've not had a single problem that could be blamed on the ethanol or on the quality of the engines.

 

[JeffandTamara]

Had a power outage last week. Went to start up the Generator, and guess what,,,,Would not start... Sprayed in Starting Fluid,,,hit right away, so knew it was the Carb... Took it apart, it was awful. varnish and crap everywhere in the float bowl. I don't know what happened, but I Screwed up the float bowl gasket. It was about a good 1/4 inch too big to fit back into the bowl...I think that is another post....

I added Stabil to the gas and ran it for about 10 minutes last Fall, then turned off the gas shut off. I thought that was doing the right thing. Obviously not!!

Got a carb kit tonight, and will clean it out. I am sure it will run fine, but still not confident Stabil does much for longer term storage... I think I should try not turning the Gas Off and start it every 3 months or so, just to keep the varnish from accumulating so much...

 

[Bird]

I think I should try not turning the Gas Off and start it every 3 months or so

You should run it more often than that, and it should run under load. When I had RVs with generators, they recommended a 50% or more load for 30 minutes at least once a month.

And with the really big diesel generators in the Dallas City Hall with police and fire communications located there, we cut the power to the building for one hour every Sunday morning so those generators came on and ran an hour.

 

[oldyellr]

Well, I bought a 1000W/1300W United Power gas generator on sale a couple of years ago and haven't had to use it yet. I'm pretty sure I put Stabil in the gas originally. Just now I went out and tried to start it for the first time since I bought it. It wasn't any harder to start than when I bought it, after I found the engine on/off switch. I ran it under load for a bit, then shut off the fuel and let the carb run dry. From past experience with motorcycles, I've found that gas left in the float bowl. especially if the fuel isn't shut off, will keep evaporating and leave a helluva mess. BTW, I opened the gas cap and while it didn't smell as "fresh" as brand new gas, it certainly didn't smell like old, bad gas.

I suppose I ought to drain the gas and use it up in the lawnmower or car and replenish it with fresh gas dosed with more Stabil.

 

[Combustix]

I use the red stabil on all my small engines and my boat. Had the same gas in the 6 gallon can for 2 years with stabil on a 6 horse yamaha, and never had a problem getting it to run. I know I probably am pushing the envelope on that one. Everything else gets the red. I'm not so sure that I want to be smelling stabil don't want to get addicted:laughing:

 

[BobRip]

I have three generators. Two owner manuals say run every to weeks, one says run every three weeks. I run them all with a load every two weeks. Would you expect a car to run if you did not start it but every three months?

 

[oldyellr]

Would you expect a car to run if you did not start it but every three months?

Yes. My summer car sits in the garage all winter.

 

[BobRip]

Yes. My summer car sits in the garage all winter.

Does your generator stay in the same garage?

 

[Patches]

I fill my generator every fall with fresh Stabil(ized) fuel; some times we need it during the winter, sometimes not, but I siphon the fuel out in the fall and use it in my lawn vacuum/mowers and never had a problem starting any of the engines. As far as I'm concerned, the red Stabil is doing the job, and oh ya, I keep it in the snowmobiles also with no issues