Last one I bought but never used was broken in for a few hours then stored with regular gas and stabil mix. After a month the carb was clogged and I ended up having to buy a new carb. Neighbor borrowed it and killed it so now I have a brand new HF one in the garage.
I put oil in and pulled the starter rope a few times but am hesitant to even put gas in it. Is this the best way to keep it?
Is there a drain on the fuel tank, or a way to safely and easily install one? Ideally, I'd want to drain it after use and run it until the carb went dry. Well, I'd really prefer propane over gas, but that's clearly not an option at this point.
I bought mine in 2005, didn't add gas or oil until 2017 when we lost power after the hurricane. During that time, I moved 5 times, twice to a different state.
I think that the manufacturer prepares them for storage, so I didn't do anything other than put a tsp of oil in the cylinder and turn it over a couple of times. Mostly, I ignored it.
It's only ever had ethanol free gas with Stabil added to it, and it's stored with TruFuel in the tank (and carb).
Now that it's been run, I start it and warm it up about every six months. I'm due to run it again soon.
It really shouldn't be put in long term storage - exercise it regularly, like once a month or more. That will keep it running well, and ready for if and when you need it.
In reply to stuart in mn :
I'm sure that's good advice. I'm too lazy for that.
Every time I use mine I cut the fuel flow to the carb and run it dry. End of year or if I don't see near use then drain the tank. I have one I keep at the family house on Cape Cod that I pull the starter rope once in the spring and once in the fall to keep it moving, that had fogging oil in it a few years ago and has been dry other than oil since.
ETOH free gas is what keeps them running, same as power washers and weed wackers. I have stuff that is a decade old with zero work done to them but the second you run raw gas with ETOH in it they die after storage.
If your in a bind run straight gas till empty and then run it for about a half hour on the good stuff after that.
Finding straight gas in CA can be an issue. From the article posted recently, it looks like race gas is the only source (Avgas would be good also).
I just bought a new generator also and intend on doing a similar thing. Leaving gas in them seems silly unless you run them, regularly. I DO want to run it just to make sure it works (and I can return it), but will drain the gas ( probably do a minor flush with alcohol, then air out).
The carb does have a drain on the bottom (10 mm nut I believe), which of course will need some sort of pan or deflector to avoid just going into the ground. The gas line can be cut of, but I will either need to add a valve to switch to a drain line or swap out the feed line for a drain line.
Probably not a bad idea to feed some low velocity air through the tank and carb feed after dry to evaporate out as much gas as possible.
Of note: if you have access to Avgas, that will remain stable for a LONG time.
Being a small engine repair guy, I never had the problems that people describe with gas equipment. I bought a bottle of Sta-bil about 10 years ago and never opened it. I use plain old 87 octane with up to 15% ethanol.
I'm not saying it isn't a genuine issue (like I said, I worked in small engine repair for years), but here is my advice.
Pre-mix a can of stabilized gas. If you want to spend the money on ethanol-free, it won't hurt, but it won't help either. When you're done running the generator, don't turn off the ignition, turn off the gas and let it suck the rest out of the bowl. Park it. Done.
Since about 2008, all of the new carburetors and fuel lines are compatible with alcohol. They like to say "no E85" to cover their butts, but the headache of all the warranty claims that they had to deny was more of a PR hit than it was worth. For that reason, nearly all manufacturers just updated seals and things to be compatible with ethanol. The ethanol will dissolve far greater concentrations of water without being a detriment to it's composition, however the additional water in the fuel plus brass carb components likes to make "white rust." It's that crusty white stuff you often see in a bowl or jet.
It's important to note, however, that the ethanol itself is not the devil. It is allowing it to sit in a vented carburetor where it can absorb ambient water and make carb parts crusty. No fuel in the carb = no crusties. In my 2-stroke stuff, I don't even run the carbs dry. There is so little airspace or venting in a small 2-stroke carb that it rarely gets that crusty. Even if it does, it takes me 2 minutes to pull the bowl, run a wire up through the jet, clean the bowl, and put it back together. I just press the primer bulb to squirt fresh gas in the bowl and it fires up.
What really IS the devil is the new 2008 EPA emissions regulations. (well... not the regulations themselves, but the results of that regulation) They are calibrated to run pretty lean. In the old days, you could put maple syrup in Tecumseh and it would probably run. These days, the slightest "off" thing and they won't run right. People blame the ethanol when they should be blaming the combination of EPA regs and manufacturers making disposable equipment instead of proper engineering.
To go on what Curtis posts, it drives me crazy that power product makers get away with blaming the fuel when it's their problem that the materials are not robust to E10. More than once, I've had to take apart my carb and clean it out- mostly when it has run dry. For the most part, I will never buy that product line again because they choose to not be robust.
It's not as if the robustness issue was not known- methanol and ethanol has been in fuel for decades, and cars have been robust to it for a long time.
The fact that power product makers (mostly B&S being truthful) get away with blaming the fuel and EPA sucks. Everyone else deals with it just fine.
It will be interesting to try a HF power product, since they are not B&S.
I've lived off grid with generators for years. It's usually best to run them every once and awhile, it prevents a lot of things involving water and ethanol.
This generator has never had gas in it. I think it is the best way to store it, putting some oil in the cylinder and pulling the starter rope with the plug out every few months might help but honestly it is buried in the back of the garage so doing this would take an hour to get it and put it away!
alfadriver said:To go on what Curtis posts, it drives me crazy that power product makers get away with blaming the fuel when it's their problem that the materials are not robust to E10. More than once, I've had to take apart my carb and clean it out- mostly when it has run dry. For the most part, I will never buy that product line again because they choose to not be robust.
Agreed. Then they shove this E36 M3 down our throats like it is something we need... for $25/gal
... and what is one of the components in Stabilizer? Ethanol. I get a kick out of people who will go all over the place looking for ethanol-free gas, then they dump in a stabilizer that has ethanol in it.
... and how many times has a bottle of "fuel dryer" saved our butts on a cold winter morning? What is it? A bottle of ethanol.
In fact, Henry Ford originally designed his engines to run on ethanol, but it was about that time that crude oil cracking and distillation overtook alcohol production so he switched. Rudolph Diesel designed his compression ignition engine to run on peanut oil.
There is a whole different thread.... where would we be with climate change, fuel consumption, and global war if Henry Ford hadn't switched to gasoline?
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