Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

My experience with an Ariens ST11528LE snow thrower and surging/stalling problems:

I bought an Ariens snow thrower in the fall of 2005 and I couldn't wait to use it.  The season went without a hitch and I was very impressed with my new machine.  It performed flawlessly.  I always add fuel stabilizer to the gas for any small engines that I own, therefore I added fuel stabilizer to the tank every time I refueled.  Then I stored it for the season.

The next fall, with the first snow fall, the engine surged and then stalled after about 5 minutes of operation.  After cooling down, it would start and then stall again after about 5 minutes.  I called the local dealer and arranged for the thrower to be picked up and serviced under warantee (or so I thought).  After the dealer disassembled the carburetor, cleaned and reinstalled it, it cost me about $75, not including $50 for transportation to/from the dealer.  The dealer told me that bad fuel was not covered under the warrantee.  I told the dealer that I had added fuel stabilizer to the gas before storage, but he said that I should have drained the gas.  I felt that I had been ripped off for $125.

The thrower worked just like new.  It was back to its new performance.  Then come the next fall and the Ariens did the same thing:  surging and stalling after about 5 minutes.  Well, I wasn't about to spend another $125 for repairs, so I thought that the main issue must be gas contamination, even though I had added stabilizer to the fuel.

Then I remembered a 250 HP outboard engine that was causing me missed firing problems that were solved with "Sea Foam".   I cleaned the Tecumseh engine with a big dose of Sea Foam and the problem went away.  I added about 2 to 3 oz of Sea Foam to the gas tank.  It at first ran rough, surging, and after about one minute I heard an improvement in the firing of the engine.  It continued to improve, and after about 5 minutes, the engine was running smooth without any surging or roughness.

I have since used the Ariens with the last snow fall without any problems.  The engine runs smooth and powerful, just like new.

You can purchase Sea Foam at any Napa dealer.

Hope this helps fellow snow throwers.  Let me know of any similar occurrences.

I am convinced from spending a day reading internet forums that the lean carburetor dictated by the EPA is causing a lot of problems with Ariens snow throwers.  Ariens should address this problem with an update on fuel additives, or more importantly, redesign their carbs to support the new restrictions.

I've been using PRI-G (super-concentrated not the small engine version) in all my OPE for years, 1 oz treats 16 gal it's the best stuff around.  Never had any problems with it and it mixes well in the winter too!

Their website is very good with tons of info, see the link below.

PRI Products Link

automatic1stdown wrote:

I'm curious as to what the temperature threshold is before Stabil won't mix. I have been using it for years and haven't had a problem.

Marc  

This is my 4th season using Stabil in my snowblower and it has almost always started on the first pull and has never had a problem running.

I have been thinking about this all morning and I did have an opened bottle of Stabil go bad .There was about a 1/3 of a bottle left and it became dark and viscous. Kind of like the thickness of 3 in 1 oil and no longer the color of Maraschino Cherry Juice. I chucked it but it makes me wonder about the shelf life once the seal is broken.

Marc  

mml4 wrote:
Thanks for that tip.  I just checked my Tecumseh and it did indeed have the drain pin on the bottom of the carb bowl.

automatic1stdown wrote:

I have used a product called Stor-N-Start for many years in my former snow throwers and have had no past problems with cold weather.  It is recommended for cold weather off season storage (like for lawn mowers).  It contains naphtha.  Sta-Bil contains a petroleum distillate, most likely naphtha, and a red colorant.

Sea Foam contains pale oil, naphtha, and IPA (my guess for IPA is isopropyl alcohol; ie., dry gas).  Since Sea Foam both removes carbon and stabilizes gas, I will switch to Sea Foam.

It is hard for me to believe that naphtha won't mix with gasoline in very cold weather.  However, this would be easy to test.  Just put some gas in a clear glass container and add some Sta-Bil, shake it up and observe any mixing problems.

mml4 wrote:
I just looked it up on the Sta-Bil web site.  The shelf life is two years once the bottle has been opened.

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