There are a few old threads on this, but nothing in the last several years, so I figured I'd open the debate up again. Have at it!
Sometime back when ethanol became the norm as a gas additive, I started putting Sta-bil in my mix and four stroke tanks at every fill up. I think a mechanic told me or I read it somewhere in a manual that it was a good idea to alleviate the impacts of ethanol on small engine parts. I was running three chainsaws at the time, some blowers, trimmers, hedgers etc. The chainsaws I was running full time selling firewood but the other equipment saw less use, and things like the hedger might have gotten used three or four times a year. My thinking was that I didn't need to worry as much about leaving gas around for long times if it had the stabilizer in it. Truth is, I have several pieces of equipment that are 17-20 plus years old, still running well, had few issues, and have probably ran Sta-Bil thru nearly every tank since 2006 or so. I know ethanol free gas is preferrable, but just a few stations here carry it that are often out of the way depending on my project that day.
Recently an employee told me what I was doing was wrong and that I was actually doing harm to my engines by constantly running Sta Bil thru them. I pointed out that my equipment from 15 years ago is still running, and I have done very little maintenance on a few items. We argued about it a bit, and the next week he asked three people for their opinions: an equipmnet rental yard owner, a Stihl shop owner and the owners son. They all said that the stabilizer was not needed, and the rental owner said it would cause the powerheads to get too hot and eventually damage them...He said that two stroke oil already has stabilizers in it, and if anything, just to put a little two stroke in my straight gas if I am storing a long time.
Whatcha all think?
Sometime back when ethanol became the norm as a gas additive, I started putting Sta-bil in my mix and four stroke tanks at every fill up. I think a mechanic told me or I read it somewhere in a manual that it was a good idea to alleviate the impacts of ethanol on small engine parts. I was running three chainsaws at the time, some blowers, trimmers, hedgers etc. The chainsaws I was running full time selling firewood but the other equipment saw less use, and things like the hedger might have gotten used three or four times a year. My thinking was that I didn't need to worry as much about leaving gas around for long times if it had the stabilizer in it. Truth is, I have several pieces of equipment that are 17-20 plus years old, still running well, had few issues, and have probably ran Sta-Bil thru nearly every tank since 2006 or so. I know ethanol free gas is preferrable, but just a few stations here carry it that are often out of the way depending on my project that day.
Recently an employee told me what I was doing was wrong and that I was actually doing harm to my engines by constantly running Sta Bil thru them. I pointed out that my equipment from 15 years ago is still running, and I have done very little maintenance on a few items. We argued about it a bit, and the next week he asked three people for their opinions: an equipmnet rental yard owner, a Stihl shop owner and the owners son. They all said that the stabilizer was not needed, and the rental owner said it would cause the powerheads to get too hot and eventually damage them...He said that two stroke oil already has stabilizers in it, and if anything, just to put a little two stroke in my straight gas if I am storing a long time.
Whatcha all think?
