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Ethanol corrodes metal. That's all I know from personal experience. I hate the stuff.
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Ethanol strikes again .
- Thread starter mmcmdl
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2020
- Messages
- 1,342
No. You live in a dry climate.
Alcohol is hydrophilic. Fancy word for "it sucks water out of the air".
Alcohol mixed with water is slightly acidic. It also dissolves anything that looks like a hydrocarbon. Water is referred to as the "universal solvent" by chemists, but mixing it with alcohol makes it even better.
So, if you live in Sunny Cali, you are unlikely to have a problem. In sweaty NC, you'll eventually have a mess.
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2017
- Messages
- 531
I live in the woods in Florida, and I have 4 chainsaws plus a trimmer, a utility cart, and some blowers. I know a little about bad gas, all from bitter experience.
1. Ethanol gas is garbage, and it really does clog carbs. It's a vote-buying scam, not a tool to help the environment. Iowa holds important primaries.
2. Non-ethanol gas is better than ethanol gas, but it's not perfect. There are things other than ethanol that will mess up carbs. You can clog your carb with non-ethanol gas.
3. The single most important thing to do is to run your equipment once a week or so. People who brag that their carbs never clog are generally people who use their machinery all the time. This includes about 3% of the population, so their advice is useless to the rest of us, and they usually don't realize it. They can be annoying. They think the rest of us are morons. "My saw always starts on the first pull!" Yeah, and you're a tree surgeon. Shut up.
I know you won't run your equipment every week. I don't, either. But it would help if we did.
4. Canned premix is great if you can afford it, but don't believe anyone who says it never clogs carbs. It does happen. Running premix through a machine before storing it is smart, but sometimes your carb will clog anyway.
5. Running machines dry before storage is a good idea, but you can still get clogs.
6. Sta-bil is useless. It only works when your machine sits perfectly motionless during storage. Biobor EB is way better, but you can still get clogs if you live in a humid area and don't use your machinery often. If you're a diehard Sta-bil fan, go ahead and use it and be mad at me, but it's a very bad product.
7. A sonic cleaner is a big help. Use gasoline as your solvent. Do not fill the cleaner with gas. Put it in a small container and put the carb or parts in the container. Then put the container in the cleaner.
8. Chinese carbs are available for many machines on Amazon and Ebay. For anywhere between $12 and $25, you can get a carb which is essentially the same as the also-Chinese carb your machine came with. You may think your saw with the European name has a European carb, but it doesn't. It's probably Chinese or Japanese. Buying extra carbs and switching them when needed can be very helpful.
9. Walbro Japanese carbs are a real pain, because the Chinese don't knock them off much. You can sometimes bring them to life with $9 rebuild kits. Some brands, like Echo, love Walbro carbs. I do not. It's probably worth it to find out who makes a machine's carb before buying the machine.
10. I'm considering keeping jars of gas around and plopping my carbs into them when I'm not using them. The few minutes it takes to remove or install a carb are much less trouble than the hours or days it takes to get a clogged machine working.
11. Don't buy an Echo CS-590 chainsaw. These things are notorious for refusing to start, and it isn't the owners' fault. Check Youtube if you don't believe me.
Hope this is helpful.
1. Ethanol gas is garbage, and it really does clog carbs. It's a vote-buying scam, not a tool to help the environment. Iowa holds important primaries.
2. Non-ethanol gas is better than ethanol gas, but it's not perfect. There are things other than ethanol that will mess up carbs. You can clog your carb with non-ethanol gas.
3. The single most important thing to do is to run your equipment once a week or so. People who brag that their carbs never clog are generally people who use their machinery all the time. This includes about 3% of the population, so their advice is useless to the rest of us, and they usually don't realize it. They can be annoying. They think the rest of us are morons. "My saw always starts on the first pull!" Yeah, and you're a tree surgeon. Shut up.
I know you won't run your equipment every week. I don't, either. But it would help if we did.
4. Canned premix is great if you can afford it, but don't believe anyone who says it never clogs carbs. It does happen. Running premix through a machine before storing it is smart, but sometimes your carb will clog anyway.
5. Running machines dry before storage is a good idea, but you can still get clogs.
6. Sta-bil is useless. It only works when your machine sits perfectly motionless during storage. Biobor EB is way better, but you can still get clogs if you live in a humid area and don't use your machinery often. If you're a diehard Sta-bil fan, go ahead and use it and be mad at me, but it's a very bad product.
7. A sonic cleaner is a big help. Use gasoline as your solvent. Do not fill the cleaner with gas. Put it in a small container and put the carb or parts in the container. Then put the container in the cleaner.
8. Chinese carbs are available for many machines on Amazon and Ebay. For anywhere between $12 and $25, you can get a carb which is essentially the same as the also-Chinese carb your machine came with. You may think your saw with the European name has a European carb, but it doesn't. It's probably Chinese or Japanese. Buying extra carbs and switching them when needed can be very helpful.
9. Walbro Japanese carbs are a real pain, because the Chinese don't knock them off much. You can sometimes bring them to life with $9 rebuild kits. Some brands, like Echo, love Walbro carbs. I do not. It's probably worth it to find out who makes a machine's carb before buying the machine.
10. I'm considering keeping jars of gas around and plopping my carbs into them when I'm not using them. The few minutes it takes to remove or install a carb are much less trouble than the hours or days it takes to get a clogged machine working.
11. Don't buy an Echo CS-590 chainsaw. These things are notorious for refusing to start, and it isn't the owners' fault. Check Youtube if you don't believe me.
Hope this is helpful.