Do you use ethanol free gas in your snowblower?

Dave Merrill

Dave Merrill

Legend!
I finally had to replace my 30 year old Craftsman track drive snowblower, transmission went, not cost effective to fix. Bought a used one from a local big hardware store that's been one of the shop machines for the past season. 1/4 - 1/3 the price of new, gone over and tuned up by their snowblower whisperer, I'm happy.

That guy highly recommends ethanol free gas for all snowblowers, in spite of the cost. I've never done that.

Do you folks use it?
 
Dave Merrill said:
I finally had to replace my 30 year old Craftsman track drive snowblower, transmission went, not cost effective to fix. Bought a used one from a local big hardware store that's been one of the shop machines for the past season. 1/4 - 1/3 the price of new, gone over and tuned up by their snowblower whisperer, I'm happy.

That guy highly recommends ethanol free gas for all snowblowers, in spite of the cost. I've never done that.

Do you folks use it?
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Yes, it's worth it.
 
This is short and sweet once you get past the “Good ol’ Boy” beginning. This is the main reason. Small engines in equipment that tend to sit for periods in between uses is where it becomes bad. There are treatments, but once you spend that money for the good stuff it probably equals the cost of non ethanol fuel. I should add the older the engine the more likely it will react adversely. Many newer (high end) small engines actually recommend ethanol, but no higher than 10%. So you might get variable opinions. Best to error on the side of caution.
 
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Yeah supposedly ethanol free gas is supposed to be better for small engines like mowers and snow blowers since it absorbs less moisture over time in engines that get only intermittent use. Never compared them myself though.

What causes a lot of people grief is their gas cans. They typically sit unused for long periods of time and the gas gets funky. I've had a few mechanics recommend using as small of a gas can as is practical and refill it more often to help keep the gas fresh. If you buy a big can and only refill it once or twice a year to avoid trips to the station, the gas is definitely going to get funky and eventually cause engine trouble. Don't get me started on those moronic "safety" spouts they're putting on cans now too. I've spilled SO much more gas since those idiotic things have come around.
 
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mr_fender said:
Yeah supposedly ethanol free gas is supposed to be better for small engines like mowers and snow blowers since it absorbs less moisture over time in engines that get only intermittent use. Never compared them myself though.

What causes a lot of people grief is their gas cans. They typically sit unused for long periods of time and the gas gets funky. I've had a few mechanics recommend using as small of a gas can as is practical and refill it more often to help keep the gas fresh. If you buy a big can and only refill it once or twice a year to avoid trips to the station, the gas is definitely going to get funky and eventually cause engine trouble. Don't get me started on those moronic "safety" spouts they're putting on cans now too. I'm spilled SO much more gas since those idiotic things have come around.
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Definitely true. I know I’m even guilty of letting gas sit too long. Most small engine guys say after 30 days put it in your car and get new. Smaller cans is good advice.
 
Hadn't needed our snowblower for 3 to 4 years, and like a dumb-@ss I just left it be after it's last use. Fast forward to this year and we got a storm that left us with 6" on the driveway. To my surprise, the darn thing started right up and ran like I just used it yesterday.........pretty good reason to use non-ethanol gas.......it works as advertised! big grin.png
 
FractalAudio said:
What I do, since ethanol free is readily available around here, is before I put the snowblower away for the season I shut off the fuel line and run the engine until it dies.

This empties the float bowl and keeps the ethanol and water from destroying the carburetor.
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Problem is you don't know when it's the end of the season, so it always ends up sitting around for a while.
 
Admin M@ said:
That's exactly what I do.
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Same.

I will run ethanol-free gas in my small 2-stroke engines, because I can't close the fuel lines and run dry the carbs, but ethanol gas with additive in larger 4-stroke where I can shut off the fuel line and let the carb run dry. At the end of a season, I'll dump the treated gas in my gas cans into my cars.

The ethanol-free stuff is expensive though, from my local hardware store. ~$20 a gallon.
 
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