Ethanol ate my lawnmower

[Cheeseball]

Repairman and small-business owner Rich Herder doesn't mince words about the damage ethanol in gasoline is doing to the small engines in outdoor power equipment. "It's the biggest disaster to hit gasoline in my lifetime," Herder says. He owns McIntyre's Locksmith & Lawnmower, a service business in Westfield, N.J. Founded in 1898 to refurbish saddles, the business today repairs more than 5000 machines a year?mostly pieces of outdoor power equipment, and many of them, according to Herder, damaged by the alcohol in today's gasoline, known as E10 for the 10 percent of alcohol it contains.

[Michael Dobony]

Here in Missouri the gas stations are REQUIRED to add alcohol to gasoline once the price hits a certain point. It has been years since there has been no alcohol in all regular and midrange gasoline here.

[Steve Barker]

And i've never had a bit of problem with it. My chainsaws are 20+ years old and my weedeater and blower are 5 years old. Never had a second of problem with any of them. Oh, wait, I did replace the fuel pickup hose on ONE of the chain saws. Dam! A $2 repair in 20 years.

[Frank]

It did in my snow thrower a few years ago. Older equipment has seals that are attacked by the higher solvent power of E10.

I remember when it was mandated in all gas stations around here and they had to close to clean out their tanks to put in E10. Similarly they cannot pipeline it because any deposits in tanks or pipes will have any insoluble crud contaminate the E10.

[bob haller]

ethanol cuts fuel mileage too........

[notbob]

Works for me, running linux and seamonkey (netscape) with noscript.

As for this alcohol nonsense, I don't buy it. On one hand we hear it's ruining our engines, otoh, it's been around fer at least two decades. One oil company was putting 10% in their gasoline as early as the late 80s, long before it was required. I ran it, by choice, in my V8 van because it reduced or eliminated ping over gasolines not containing alcohol. And pray tell, what's that additive we've been putting in our gas tanks, nearly forever, to alleviate water condensation accumulation? Could it be --gasp!-- alcohol?

My personal opinion about home/garden gas engine tools falling apart recently is, it's due more to increasingly cheapo crap quality than any alcohol in the gas.

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[Jules Richardson]

... when it kills your engine and you can't go anywhere ;-)

[bob haller]

a lifetime friend who runs a small gas engine repair place bames ethanol. its a big operation he should know..........

[clare]

Untill some cold day when the water load gets high enough that you suffer phase separation and the hooch falls out of suspension. It still won't freeze, but the car doesn't like running on 60-80 proof ethanol. You need to add "heet" to get the water and hooch back into the fuel mix.

[clare]

E10 drops fuel mileage about 5% because ethanol has only half the heat /energy content as Gasoline. 10% ethanol means 5% less energy in the same volume of fuel.

[clare]

And the ethanol is killing the old stuff too. "greenies" in the carb and fuel system were NEVER a problem before ethanol fuel - and the esimple expedient of NEVER running ethanol gas totally prevents it.

We are lucky enough here in Ontario Canada to still be able to buy "abstainers gas" from the Shell Premium pumps. I use it in all my small engine equipment except when I have surplus 100LL Avgas available.(generally premix for the 2 stroke stuff)

[notbob]

So, how come I ran 10% ethanol in my '74 Dodge van, an '87 Honda Si, and a couple stock HDs, for 10-20 yrs and never once suffered a single fuel system related problem? Zero! Zip! Nada!

Yet when my late brother passed on and I inherited a half dozen less than 5 yr old gas chain saws, trimmers, etc, not a single one worked cuz the fuel systems were totally rotted out. Brittle cracked fuel lines, rotted leaking primer bulbs, etc. I tossed 'em all for the junk they were.

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[Bernt Berger]

And the folks at Briggs&Stratten have this to say:

"It is also recommended that fuel is purchased in quantities that can be used within 30 days. This will assure fuel freshness and volatility tailored to the season.

NOTE: We DO NOT recommend the use of gasoline which contains alcohol, such as gasohol. Gasoline used MUST NOT contain more than 10 percent Ethanol and MUST be removed from the engine during storage if it is not already treated with our Fuel Stabilizer. DO NOT use gasoline containing Methanol. DO NOT use E85."

or

[clare]

Yes, but they are DESIGNED to run on straight Hooch. North American market engines are NOT

[Fatter Than Ever Moe]

All I know is what I read in the papers.... Someone is bound to mention this, might as well get it over with,