Snowblower Storage - Is this Safe?

[Stormin Mormon]

So, about 9 AM tomorrow, then?

[mm]

It was 1963 and there are a lot more plastics now than there used to be, but I put some gasoline in a disposable plastic bowl then, one that came with food in it, and the gas dissolved the plastic. It turned it into a puddle of plastic. Maybe fumes ccould damage your xmas decorations??? Mine was translucent white stuff.

OT, sort of. Did you know that if you put rubber things on a varnished (I think) dresser, the varnish will eat up the rubber? This was a dresser that was 20 or 40 years old, and some swimming goggles. I've seen it happen other times too.

[mm]

Do you empty the pan. Fumes will come from the pan. How about a trough from where the pan is to the outside of the shed?

But I don't think it will ignite if there is nothing to ignite it.

Don't be like the movies, smoking a cigarrette as you open the door. Or is that the cartoons?

[hrhofmann]

If there are any fumes in the garage, then when you go from the house into the garage or vice-versa, some of the fumes will go into the house.

[mm]

She moved it from the garage to the free-standing shed.

[salty]

Oh, it most certainly WILL. She's talking about the float needle. If that doesn't close and seat fully, the bowl floods and the overflow runs out.

[Steve Barker]

why not just dump the dam thin out and forget it?

[willshak]

Kate wrote the following:

Can you inspect it and find where it is leaking from? Perhaps the repair shop left something undone, like reinstalling a fuel line clamp?

[C & E]

See my comments between your sentences.

The early on suggestion of installing an in-line fuel filter is spot on, both for the obvious reason of filtration and for the fact that the line can be easily split in order to empty the tank and the carb. After 'emptying' the carb after the season ends be sure to start it and let it run until it's out of gas.

I have been storing all of my gas operated equipment as well as gas cans in a shed my entire adult life (age 58). Sheds are not generally so air tight as to be a danger. And, if yours is it should at least be ventilated. Place the vents high and low - the high ones to exhaust the heat in the summer as the lower ones allow cooler air in for convection. More important are the lower ones for the subject at hand - fumes. Gasoline fumes are heavier than air and settle to the floor as they spread out. I have never had an incident with electric starts. I've paid too much for my equipment to let them sit outside so, get the problem fixed and get it into the shed. Best of luck, Chuck

[Tony]

There is a flashback to my childhood. I have no idea why we didn't have a good old gasoline can for the lawn mowers. Instead we fought with an old piece of air hose and usually an empty dish detergent bottle to get a siphon going out of the family car(there was an art to it). The gasoline sometimes filled the bottle, and sometimes other plastic containers, spilled in the driveway, oh well, shit happens. Gasoline would dissolve certain plastics and when it did, there went another quart of gasoline into the ground. Oops.

Not to mention all the waste oil from oil changes got poured on weeds in the driveway. My oldest brother still lives there, and his well, well he's still living, I'm not sure if he drinks the water? Not making that an excuse to pollute! It's just how things were back then. Washing parts with gasoline with our hands soaked in it, even used the gasoline as a hand cleaner for greasy hands. And of course that was all leaded gasoline too! But back to plastic and gasoline, yes it dissolved certain plastics. Who back then would have ever thought we would have plastic gas tanks on our lawn mowers and even in cars?

That sounds like a fun experiment!