I think "fuel stabilizer" is snake oil. I used to use it but it didn't make a difference so I stopped wasting money on it. I really think if you used fresh gas vs fresh gas with Stabil in it, they would last the same amount of time. Stabil has an expiration date.
Anyways, the shut off has been installed for about a week and it is working great to achieve my purpose of running the carb dry.
Well, as I often say to everyone about lots of different things in life, it definitely depends on your area, climate, region etc and your mileage may vary.
But I can tell you in my climate.. fuel stabilizer certainly is not snake oil.
I use plain old sta-bil.
I don't buy their special marine or ethanol versions or whatever and I don't use the Walmart super tech stuff that has a slightly different color and I've never used startron or any other brand that I can remember.
I'm sure many of them are either the same or work the same but I will caution everyone that you need to use it for the long-term storage dose like it used to say on the back of the bottle.
It no longer says that now and they will just tell you to use that one ounce for every two and a half gallons but they used to say for long-term storage up to 2 years use it a ratio of 1 oz for every gallon of fuel.
This is how I use it and I make sure I always put the stabilizer into the gas can first with a nice tall 1 oz for every gallon of fuel and then add my fuel to it..
I have verifiable proof over and over that this works better than just fresh gas.
I have had generators with 10 horsepower engines and smaller sit for over 3 1/2 years and start right up in
two or three pulls.
I have at other engines or even the same engines previously set for under 2 years and not start because they did not have stabilized fuel in them.
I will also say there is a problem with trying to run your engine's dry or turning off a fuel shut off.
While, it is better than doing nothing, if you do that your way and I store my engines with fresh full stabilized fuel in them, you will have cracked and leaky fuel lines and needles and seat valves that do not shut off and flood at your carburetor that will have to be replaced or replace the carburetor before I will.
Gas is very bad and caustic today more so than it used to be.
When you dip rubber parts into it and then let it dry out repeatedly it starts to crack faster than if you just left it submerged in the fuel to begin with.
Decades ago we hardly had any problems with the needle valve and seats not shutting off properly but in the past 10 or 15 years we have a large amount of them for the rubber either dries out or the tip gets hardened or a groove in it or the brass seat just simply gets a bunch of microscopic pits in it that will no longer seal properly because of the fuel and more than that, the oxidation after the fuel goes away and the residue that is left and kind of corrosion like eating on the metal.
But like I tell customers who bring me a lawn mower that's 4 to 6 years old that's never been serviced and it starts and runs just fine.... I asked him if they use any type of fuel stabilizer anything like that and when they say "Nope. I just parked it when I'm done using it for the year"
I tell them to keep doing what you're doing because it's obviously working for you.
Unfortunately, about 85% of my customers especially at the beginning of the season have mowers that won't start or won't run properly who did that exact same thing, just walked away from them when they were done at the end of the year.
If these people will follow my advice and put fresh stabilized fuel in for the last mow of the year, about 95% of them will not have that problem the next.
Now you are correct that if they would all just go buy fresh gas and put it in about 45 to 50% would not have the problem either but it is not nearly as high of a percentage as adding the stabilizer.
None of this is typically necessary for riding mowers or engines over 14 or 15 horsepower because they have such larger jets and large amounts of fuel..
I've seen these things set for right about 3 years without running and fire up and be just fine by just adding some fresh gas to the top of the tank because the jets are huge compared to a push mower.
