
Originally Posted by
kb0nly
Bottom line... Circulate your fuel supply, treat it if you feel its necessary, i prefer Stabil as thats what i have been using for 20+ years as a just in case treatment and i can vouch for its effectiveness.
I have a generator, chainsaws, snowblower, trimmer, lawn tractor, trike, you name it. What i like to do is circulate the fuel around, 2-cycle engines get fresh fuel pretty continuously because i only mix it up as needed from a five gallon jug. I know the argument is well in an emergency.... In an emergency i can take the three minutes it takes to dump 2 cycle oil into one of my one gallon jugs and then dump in fuel from the five gallon jug and away we go. I dump some Stabil in it as well if i know i won't burn through that full gallon to do the job needed. So in effect the chainsaws get treated fuel all the time. For the generator i treat it and two times a year i drain the tank to another five gallon jug, usually fall and spring, i then dump in fresh fuel and treat it again and the drained fuel goes in the lawn tractor, trike, or even my vehicles to burn it off since they have a higher turn over rate then the backup generator. I have drained the generator and dumped it in my vehicle if the tank was low enough, five gallons of older treated fuel getting dilluted in an 18 gallon tank doesn't hurt anything.
To fend off condensation keep the tanks, jugs, cans, full... Air space means condensation space! I have one jug thats called a fuel saver, it has a small pump on the top that after you fill it to the line you give it a half dozen pumps and it creates a vacuum and sucks the air out. I don't know yet how effective this is, but i thought it was a neat novelty and mainly bought it because it has a really nice pump type squeeze handle, looks like your gas station nozzle but you pump the lever to transfer fuel, works great for all the small equipment i deal with.
I usually go through a five gallon jug every two weeks for various equipment i run on a regular basis. When your turning over your fuel fast enough you never get problems. If you plan on storing something for years run some treated fuel through it, drain it out, oil the cylinder through the plug hole, etc.. I don't suggest treating and leaving for five years, but a half to one year its not a problem if treated.