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

     Just recently in New Brunswick , Canada, our regular gas is  a 10% ethanol mixture,   I realize that in the USA, you have had  E85 , a mixture of   85% ethanol ,15% gasoline.  I was just wondering how these  fuels work   in the  the 4 cycle  gasoline engines used in lawnmowers , snow blowers etc.  Here ,the ethanol is not used in the premium gasolines, so I am using that until I find out more about ethanol .

p.s. - one other big issue I forgot to mention is that ethanol collects water over time.  If you have to use ethanol, you don't want to leave it in equipment that you store during the off-season.  By the same token, avoid purchasing ethanol fuels from out-of-the-way filling stations that may have their fuel sitting for a few weeks (or months!), as that gives the fuel more time to absorb water.  Net result is much poorer performance from your power equipment, if it runs at all.

I could go on and on about ethanol issues, but I think you get my point.

I've been using E10 fuel for many years (10 at least) and have not encountered ANY of the mechanical woes you've mentioned and I have tons of OPE as well as numerous other machines such as motorcycles, ATVs, outboard motors etc.   Proper fuel management will go a long way to keeping E10 fuel from absorbing moisture.   Just keep stored fuel in air tight containers and keep fuel tanks topped up. 

I agree with all of the other points you've made about the economics of ethanol as a fuel source.  It's as much of a scam as is windmills for generating electricity in a country full of large rivers!

My John Deere manuals say that E10 is fine...but not to use fuel with more than 10% ethanol.  I wonder if using fuel with 15% ethanol will void warranties. 

Paul7 wrote:

If the manual say not to ... you can pretty much guarantee your warranty will be voided.