Please excuse the slightly OT, however it does involve ethynol fuel.
This is a hypothetical story, as so far, my saw runs perfectly fine, but I have always wondered about this. I have a question, sort of, who is ultimately responsible for a chainsaw engine that fails while under warranty?
I have just bought a new Husqvarna chainsaw and purchased the three cans of fuel to increase the warranty to 4 years (yes, I realize that the warranty isn't worth the paper it's printed on). Looking through the buyer reviews on the Husqvarna website, anyone who complained about the engine failing due to scoring of the piston or cylinder was essentially told, by an employee of Husqvarna, that it was their fault that they missused the saw due to using ethynol fuel (even if they used the proper fuel/oil mix ratio) and the person should have used ethynol free fuel or the “canned” gas they sell, hence why they promote the use of said fuel to double the warranty I assume. Now using those reviews as a guide for my question:
If, after using the canned gas, lets say I go to the dealer and purchase Husqvarna 2 stroke oil, then go to the nearest gas station and get a gallon of regular gas, that, of course, has ethynol content. I then mix a container of oil into the gas and then fill up my chainsaw with the requred 50:1 gas/oil mix. I then use the saw and after a half hour, or so of cutting, I shut the saw off. When I go to restart the saw, it won't start and the pull-start seems very easy to pull (little or no compression). So I take the saw to the dealer and he says that because the engine is scored (or some other mechanical issue) it isn't covered under warranty and he (and Husqvarna) determine it's my fault for using ethynol gas, even though all gas up here (as far as I know) has ethynol content, regular or premium gas.
However, I had used all the proper oil/gas amounts, and properly maintained the saw etc. So again, who is at fault? Is it because the saw maunufacturer produced the saw to run only in very strict conditions and that even being off a tea-spoon or so of oil either way would cause catistrophic damage? Or is it the one who forced Husqvarna (or Stihl, Echo, Dolmar...) to such strict conditions? Or, is it my fault for using ethynol gas in the first place? Again, I had followed all the instructions in the manual and used proper gas and oil and the gas had (presumably) 10% or less ethynol, still allowed in the manual. After following all instructions, the saw engine still failed. Was it because of ethynol gas? If that were the case, then virtually all 2 stroke engines would fail, and we would be inundated with people screaming about engine failures and companies not honoring warranties on said items.
But who forced the gas staions to carry ethynol gas and who is the one who is the underlying cause of all this crap in the first place?
So when I buy my saw,
1 – I'm forced to buy ethynol gas (or pay outragious amounts for specialized fuels), even though it supposedly causes damage to engines.
2 – I can't adjust the carburetor because of some arbitrary ruling from some government agency which results in my saw running too lean from the factory, thereby causing the engine to run too hot, and potentially fail if run even very slightly outside of the set parameters.
I should think that if all the people who purchased equipment and who followed proper procedures, had their equipment still fail because of using inferior, or faulty gas (ethynol) then maybe a class action suit could be launched against 1/ the gas companies (for using ethynol), 2/ the equipment manufacturers (for not allowing proper carb adjustment and having the settings to lean) and 3/ the one who I think is most responsible, the EPA for forcing all this in the first place. Or is it very rare that ethynol is the exact cause of engine failure, and that it is most likely user error after all?