Just straight gas?
I was wondering if anyone is using Tool Fuel in their saw? My fire dept is looking to switch to Tool Fuel to cut down on maint. costs and repairs and lessen the amount of "stale" fuel.
--all I found looking is some FD equipment place sells it for 68 for five gallons and about what you said for the 55 gallon drum. Looks to be just canned straight gas with perhaps extra additives. I don't see any ref for premix stuff though.
With that said, wouldn't it be cheaper to just track down some of the remaining no-ethanol gas stations and just do a bulk tank with sta-bil or PRI-G for your dotgov needs? You guys must buy enough to have a tanker truck deliver it. I know I ran some PRI-G treated that was going on near four years old and it ran fine, ran it in GF's jeep ( a bunch,. got given 250 gallons of it to use for my work, which included freebie fuel for one trip to town per week), and my wheelhorse tractor, and mixed for a little Stihl saw that my employer at the time had. Of course that didn't have ethanol in it, just gasoline.
Premium no ethanol cost me 3.35/ one gallon today, made a batch of premix with it. No idea how long this will last, but I'll keep using it I guess, I went back and forth with that stuff, truckstop premium with ethanol, then back, just kept switching batches I had in different cans....the saw sounds lots better just sitting and idling with the no ethanol mix (echo premium syn oil 50:1). In the cut..I'm too deaf, seems to cut equally well if the chain is fresh sharpened. I don't see a huge difference, but idling, yes indeedy, it sounds better, maybe it is that four stroke sound you guys talk about. Just sounds "good" to me.
I think a lot of this problem, ethanol or not, with long term storage is how it is stored, which should be cool, never in the sun, in metal cans or a metal bulk tank. I also try to fill engine tanks right off the bat in the morning when it is the coolest. I hates a WHOOSH from a gas can when you open it up to pour, you know you are losing all the "good stuff" then.