cheezmunky
Senior member
- Sep 30, 2002
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Don't think so. 10% ethanol is 10% ethanol. If a station is using an ethanol blend, all their gas should have the same percentage of ethanol. And the storage of it over the winter is nothing to worry about. I do it every year, always have, zero problems, and everyone I know does, too.
Heck, my old Jeep sat over 5 years, and I got it running with the same gas that had been in the tank all that time. It stunk....smelled like old gas, but it ran and didn't hurt a damn thing.
Way, way over-blown is this gas storage thing.
But as I mentioned in my earlier post, if it makes you feel better, it's not going to hurt if you want to put some stabilizer in the tank. It's not needed, but it won't hurt.
That isn't true in my area. 87 and 89 are ethanol blends whereas 91 is ethanol free. I've never run into a problem regardless because I run the mower empty and dump the rest of the can into my car at the end of the season.
My brother, on the other hand, worked in a lawn mower/small engine repair shop from 2000-2010 and the number one cause of problems they saw at the beginning of each season was caused by ethanol in gas. When someone would bring in their mower that didn't run the first thing he'd do is empty the gas into a clear glass and look for water. The majority of the time they'd find water, fill the tank with new gas and it would run fine. A lot of the time in the older mowers it would also wreak havoc on carburetors and fuel lines that weren't meant for ethanol.
Of course, YMMV and it seems like you've been lucky and never seen a problem. I'm just trying to share the experience of someone who worked on hundreds of small engines a year.