How Stable is STA-BIL??

[Puddin' Man]

I got this container of STA-BIL, maybe 6 years old, in a 4 oz can like the old lighter fluid cans (with a squirt spout). Sez 4 oz treats 5 gal's of gas. Maybe 3 oz left. Can looks fine, no rust or anything.

I squirted a bit into a glass container. Yellow in color, no evident contamination.

The instructions say to discard after a bit. Most of the instructions on most of the stuff in this world are subject to the "Squirrelly BS" consideration. :-)

I don't necessarily trust this stuff, but ...

Would you use it for small 4-stroke motors, 3-4 mos. winter storage?

Cheers, Puddin'

"Take Yo' Hand Out My Pocket (I Ain't Got Nothing What Belongs To You)!" - Rice Miller, who probably never even _heard_ of GW Bush, Paulson, etc

[salty]

It's the color of automatic transmission fluid (bright red) when it's new. I doubt it would hurt anything, but it might have lost it's effectiveness. It's certainly not the right color.

[Puddin' Man]

I'm aware that the new STA-BIL on the store shelf is red. But it has a different mix ratio, so I assume it's a different formulation.

Anybody know what color it was on the shelf 6-8 years ago?

P

"Take Yo' Hand Out My Pocket (I Ain't Got Nothing What Belongs To You)!" - Rice Miller, who probably never even _heard_ of GW Bush, Paulson, etc

[James Sweet]

If in doubt, throw it out. Why risk having to throw out some gasoline or disassemble and clean a carburetor? I hate to throw away something useful, but this is like holding onto expired food or medicine, if it's not moldy or stinky it probably won't hurt you, but why chance it?

[salty]

RED!

[dpb]

...

Hardly worth the bother imo. For that short a time period unless it's in a hot location (which wouldn't seem likely for winter storage :) ), the loss of volatility in gasoline wouldn't be sufficient to matter much if the container is tightly closed.

In my 60+ years I've never had an issue w/ any engine over the winter simply closing the fuel line and running them dry so carb doesn't sit full and leaving tank as is. Spring use a little fresh to refill carb and they're fine.

As others said, highly unlikely it would hurt anything, probably would have some effect but it really isn't of much need ime certainly for less than 6-months.

--

[mkirsch1]

All this over a $6 bottle of fuel stabilizer...

[Ralph Mowery]

All this over a $6 bottle of fuel stabilizer...

Just about as bad as the discussion on a couple of dollars of old glue. When protecting a big item or doing a big project I would not want to use stuff over a year old that may or may not work as expected.

[ds549]

ive got some quarts of stabil that are yellow in color.

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[HeyBub]

Were they once red? Long, long ago?

[ds549]

when we buy quarts or gallons of stabil its yellow , not red like in stores.

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