Disposing of Old 2-Cycle Gas

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When is 2 cycle gas "bad"? Fuel stabilizer is often added to 2 cycle oil. The quality of that stabilizer varies of course. Gas longevity depends on storage conditions and refinery additive package.

I started to watch a youtube video that spent at least 10 minutes explaining how to get "up to two years" from gasoline. I usually need no help getting 3 years in the dry and somewhat cool Colorado environment.

Having said that I don't let 2 cycle gas sit for over a year - as a rule.
 
When is 2 cycle gas "bad"? Fuel stabilizer is often added to 2 cycle oil. The quality of that stabilizer varies of course. Gas longevity depends on storage conditions and refinery additive package.

I started to watch a youtube video that spent at least 10 minutes explaining how to get "up to two years" from gasoline. I usually need no help getting 3 years in the dry and somewhat cool Colorado environment.

Having said that I don't let 2 cycle gas sit for over a year - as a rule.
It is 99% how it's stored. I have yet to find a brand of gas that doesn't behave the same as the rest. I can keep regular pump gas well over a year in a sealed barrel. As long as it's air tight, it will last a long time. From time to time I have to relieve pressure or vacuum from it, but I try to limit that to as little as possible. I probably don't have to, but losing 55 gallons of gas inside my building one hot summer day would really piss me off - I err on the side of caution there. With ethanol dilution of today's gasoline, any exposure to the atmosphere starts the clock ticking. Ethanol absorbs any moisture from the air like a sponge, and there's only so much moisture it can hold before it falls out of suspension.

Same with gas cans. Got to keep the caps TIGHT. I had one customer that stored his gas for all his lawn equipment in a gas can ... with NO CAP!! Used to be able to do that when I was a kid back when we had REAL gasoline, but definitely not nowadays. He was in my shop at least once a week - sometimes twice - all season long. Kept finding earwigs in all his equipment tanks! One day I decided to go to his house to see how he was storing the gas. Not only was the cap missing, but there were all of 100 earwigs dead at the bottom of the can! I don't know if he was tossing them in there to kill them, if they crawled in on their own (doubtful), someone was sabotaging him, or his kids were putting them in there. STRANGE! Once I told him to buy all new gas cans, he'd only have to come by here to get stuff winterized, or batteries recharged. His stress level went WAY down.
 
Do they not sell non ethanol gas where you're from?
Not at the pump. You can buy it at Home Depot, any other hardware stores, some gas station stores, and at outdoor power equipment and powersports dealers in the quart, half gallon, and 5-gallon cans. Comes out to well over $10 a gallon in most cases. You can get it at any airport for $5-$6 a gallon, but 100LL is leaded, so you'll eventually have to deal with lead fouling, or run an expensive anti-lead-fouling additive for aircraft, such as TCP (Roughly $50 a quart, but it works).

It's cheaper and easier to take a pile of gas cans, or a couple barrels and fill them up in a state that actually sells it at the pump, even factoring in fuel for the long drive.

https://www.pure-gas.org is a great site for finding them out of state. All the ones listed there for MA are all of the above businesses in cans. None of them are from a pump.

Last time I was in OH, I filled up my gas can with 90 octane ethanol free. Was nice having its own dedicated pump! MA is run by friggin MORONS, so it will never happen here. God forbid anything is convenient for the working man.
 
Not at the pump. You can buy it at Home Depot, any other hardware stores, some gas station stores, and at outdoor power equipment and powersports dealers in the quart, half gallon, and 5-gallon cans. Comes out to well over $10 a gallon in most cases. You can get it at any airport for $5-$6 a gallon, but 100LL is leaded, so you'll eventually have to deal with lead fouling, or run an expensive anti-lead-fouling additive for aircraft, such as TCP (Roughly $50 a quart, but it works).

It's cheaper and easier to take a pile of gas cans, or a couple barrels and fill them up in a state that actually sells it at the pump, even factoring in fuel for the long drive.

https://www.pure-gas.org is a great site for finding them out of state. All the ones listed there for MA are all of the above businesses in cans. None of them are from a pump.
I was paying 2.99 for 90 octane rec fuel it has since jumped up to 3.59-79 a gal in michigan. 5$ a quart is crazy. Luckily the 10-12 5 gal cans I filled last year have went up in value
 
Not at the pump. You can buy it at Home Depot, any other hardware stores, some gas station stores, and at outdoor power equipment and powersports dealers in the quart, half gallon, and 5-gallon cans. Comes out to well over $10 a gallon in most cases. You can get it at any airport for $5-$6 a gallon, but 100LL is leaded, so you'll eventually have to deal with lead fouling, or run an expensive anti-lead-fouling additive for aircraft, such as TCP (Roughly $50 a quart, but it works).
Man that sucks. All the gas station near me here in Idaho have it at the pump. When I lived in Ohio, I had to put more effort into finding it but it was still readily available.
 
I was paying 2.99 for 90 octane rec fuel it has since jumped up to 3.59-79 a gal in michigan. 5$ a quart is crazy. Luckily the 10-12 5 gal cans I filled last year have went up in value
I paid $2.99 the last time I filled my barrel. Between that, the neighbor's 10 gallons, and topping off my truck, I spent $200 at that store. Looks like it'll be just about $400 for the same amount now ... :angry:
 
There are lots of ways to dispose of stale old gas.

1. Put it in your oil-burning furnace. That's what I do. Or find someone like me that really likes waste oil/gas.
2. Mix with your waste oil and turn it in at the auto store. Most of them accept all recycled fluids.
3. If a small quantity, toss it into your diesel-burning truck or tractor for "winterizer". You probably ought to only do that in the winter time.
4. Add to your car with gas engine. It'll smell bad, but you aren't likely to notice it, if small quantities are added to a reasonably full tank.

Last, but possibly best method: put it in the gas can that you leave out to see who is stealing your gas. Then watch all your friends and neighbors to see who has engine problems. This might be a bonus plan if you don't trust your buddies at the next GTG.
 
I save, and collect from the neighbors, old gas.
There is no better solvent than gasoline for de-crudding engine parts,
And I bought a pump sprayer thats hydrocarbon safe, to spray it on those wire grass weeds that grow with a vengeance.
Its a light spray and our master gardener once stated thats its safer than roundup in the long term.
Bobmo
 

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