Not an earth-shaking issue perhaps, but still one of concern for some of us. If you do anything that involves small gasoline powered engines, like lawn mowers, brush chippers, snow blowers, emergency generators, garden tillers, boats, etc. there's a question that needs to be answered. How well do these machines work when the only gasoline you can get for them is mixed with 10% ethanol?
I've got some older lawn and garden tools that were built before ethanol started turning up in everything. And it's not good. Worse, even brand new equipment doesn't seem to be happy burning the stuff. I've been shopping for a new lawn tractor, and fuel turns out to be a problem whenever I ask the salesmen about it. I've been told to try using higher octane gas, or buy a stabilizer additive to mix with the gas.
There seems to be a growing awareness of this problem out there; I've been doing some digging and found some troubling reports. And while it's easy to sneer at suburban white folk with their power toys, it's not always a laughing matter. I'd like to hear from anyone else at Kos who has run into problems. (More below the fold)
First, let me give a few scenarios where fuel problems are not a joke. Say you're someone trying to raise some of your own food and you have a large garden. A tiller of some kind can make a huge difference in how big a plot you can handle, especially if you're older and not up to a lot of pitchfork and hoeing work turning over ground.
Suppose you go boating on weekends, get out in the middle of a lake or out in the ocean, and your motor dies and won't run? What happens if it starts leaking fuel and catches fire?
I've got over 500 feet of driveway. Global warming isn't kicking in fast enough to help me clear my driveway when the snowblower goes out during a Noreaster.
Suppose you have a need for emergency power. Common scenario: power goes out in a thunder storm, and you need to run pumps to keep your basement from flooding, your freezers from thawing, etc. What happens when you go to start up that emergency generator and it stops running after 30 minutes and won't restart - or won't run at all because gaskets and other things in the fuel line have been eaten by the ethanol?
Here's some quick hits just searching on ethanol small engine problems
Ethanol In Gasoline Reportedly Wreaking Havoc On Small Engines
Is fuel with an increased level of ethanol a problem for small gas engines?
Ethanol Damaging Mowers and Other Small Engines, Mechanics Say
Ethanol fueling problems in small engines
The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service is somewhat equivocal on the issue. (PDF file), but they do get into the possible problems in a little more detail.
Now, my understanding is that ethanol was added to gasoline partly to replace MTBE for cleaner burning - but there's the renewable energy argument also which points out ethanol saves oil because it can be made from plants. That argument elides over the problem that the midwest corn lobby loves to sell corn-derived ethanol, and that growing corn for ethanol in the first place uses up huge amounts of oil.
There's a push to mix more and more ethanol into gas. If there are problems now, they're only going to get worse. So, what are Kossacks seeing and hearing on this? Thanks for your time.