Petrol - stabilising

[TeeDee]

As this thread has been resurrected, I thought I would share my latest discovery with the Aspen I use. Just before Christmas I filled and used a pedestrian tractor I have, but very rarely use. It's been sat unused for maybe 3 years and the tank was empty (any fuel in there had evaporated). I put some Aspen 4 stroke in there and after a few pulls to get the fuel through the engine, the thing started and ran fine for the hour or so I needed it to

That was all great and as I expected. What I didn't expect was that when I looked at the bottle, the label faded in the sun despite being stored in a lean to shed, I noticed that it was from the batch I bought 14 years ago!

So that's unleaded petrol, in a bottle that is still good after 14 years!

Thats pretty amazing really.

 

[demented dale]

Am I right in saying that petrol did used to store for much longer and that these days modern additives shorten shelf life? DD xx

 

[GreyCat]

Aspen is a special formulation, not just no ethanol but also less of the cyclic components that can also degrade.

Official shelf life as bought for Aspen 4 is 5 years..... but its not the easiest stuff to find I the shops, thankfully there is a retailer near me but the cost tends to put many off.

GC

 

[demented dale]

Aspen is a special formulation, not just no ethanol but also less of the cyclic components that can also degrade.

Official shelf life as bought for Aspen 4 is 5 years..... but its not the easiest stuff to find I the shops, thankfully there is a retailer near me but the cost tends to put many off.

GC

My mate uses it for his strimmer. I nearly fainted when he told me the price. xxx

 

[Dave Budd]

Aspen is a special formulation, not just no ethanol but also less of the cyclic components that can also degrade.

Official shelf life as bought for Aspen 4 is 5 years..... but its not the easiest stuff to find I the shops, thankfully there is a retailer near me but the cost tends to put many off.

GC

I buy it online, you can get a single litre or a pallet load from most garden machinery places online or in person,. Even Ebay!

There are other versions around now too such as Stihl's Motomix, anywhere that sells a chainsaw or strimmer will likely stock one or the other.

 

[Dave Budd]

My mate uses it for his strimmer. I nearly fainted when he told me the price. xxx

you're not going to run a car on it, but for a small engine tool that you only use for a number of hours annually it's not horrendous. It is much nicer to use (fumes etc) and the maintenance costs of the machine are reduced even if only a little.

 

[demented dale]

yeh. thats a point. x

 

[slowworm]

Part of the cost is road duty and vat on that tax, so over £3 on a 5l can of alkylate petrol.

I did use Aspen but now use Stihl MotoMix and Moto4Plus as it's easier to get hold of. As has been said, I don't need to drain or run dry machinery and I've not had any carbs gum up or things not start due to poor fuel. Some people seem happy with pump fuel, as an occasional user of equipment I'm happy to use the alkylate fuels.

I think most of the machines I've got recommend alkylate fuels are used as well and if needing a 2 stoke fuel a ready mixed fuel means if anything goes wrong I know I've not mixed the fuel wrong!