Just fired up the mighty Shindiawa T-27. Sat all winter in an unheated shop with a tank full of (wait for it) 10% ETOH fuel. Hit second pull and ran like a champ. Touched off the FS-130R. Same scenario cept it hit first pull. Same story for the FS-250 and FS-250R. I just don’t know what I am doing wrong. These machines have not been used in almost eight months. They should all need new carbs and have tanks full of orange juice jones.
Years ago, I bought into the ETOH boogeyman hype. I used to dump out fuel and run things dry for storage but one year I forgot to drain a trimmer and it sat all winter with a tank full of ethanol fuel. In the spring I discovered the error. Horrified, I dumped the fuel out expecting to see milk and honey, layers of separation, ungodly smells etc. To my astonishment, none of that occurred. Further, the fuel I dumped out looked and smelt better than the fresh fuel I put back in. I said to myself, “self, you got rocks in your head draining these stupid things”. I have not drained trimmer, blower, tiller or saw since and that was a long time ago. I have even used 3-year-old forgotten mix (dated) to do a spring cleanup. I ran gallons of that mix through the big Red Max blower. Never even hiccupped. Sorry but I cannot tow the “ETOH bad “mantra. I have not had one failure I can contribute directly to ETOH fuel.