What do you folks do with your portable gasoline generators to avoid stale fuel problems?
I'm talking 1000-2400 VA generators that you take out to a tower site when there's a power shortage. And when power comes back on, there could be from zero to a full tank of gas in the generator, and it could be a week or a year before you use it again. I have a couple Honda inverter type generators, and I'm bad about just taking them back to the shop and letting them sit until next time I need them. They've always started. I think it helps that the Hondas have a fuel shutoff valve between the tank and the carburetor, and also a shutoff for the fuel cap vent. I also suspect the Hondas actually pump fuel from the tank to the float bowl rather than gravity feed but I'm not sure about that. I don't however drain the carburetor after use, and in Illinois you can't by E0 pump gas. It has to be E10, unless you buy outrageously expensive gas in cans like TruFuel. I guess we have to put lousy gas in our small engines to help the farmers sell their corn. Should I be emptying the fuel tank after every use? Am I OK to leave gas in the generator if I add Sta-Bil to the gas in the can I use to fill the generator? Should I fill the generator to the top before storing it rather than leave it half full? Or am I overthinking this? I know I left about an inch of gas in my snowblower tank after last winter and it really didn't want to start this year. I pumped out the fuel tank, refilled it with TruFuel, drained the float bowl several times, finally got it to start but it ran like crap for 2-3 minutes. I think it wasn't varnish but water in the gas from the alcohol pulling moisture out of the air, but I'm not sure.
-- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
