We see this debate on a daily basis some where concerning the E-10 gas.
We have three Scag Tiger Cats with Kawasaki engines, 5 Echo Seedeaters, several other pieces of equipment as well.
FROM MY EXPERIENCE your problems are not from the E-10 gas but rather they are from letting the gas sit for long periods of time.
I have tried using the non ethanol gas. I have tried using the higher octane fuels. I have found that running regular E-10 which is the most readily available gives me the best results because it is first of all so readily available. Second because the turn over at the stations is so much larger that it stays fresher.
I try to purchase gas at only one of three places. Again because they turn over large quantities of gas and theirs has not been sitting in the ground for extended periods of time. Since we have been doing this we have experienced little to no fuel related issues.
While trying to keep Non- Ethanol gas I find that many times the gas is not pumped in the volume that the regular gas is and therefore it has caused me more problems than regular E-10 gas has.
We normally mix 5 gallons of 2 cycle mix gas a week and at times more.
We normally keep 2 five gallon cans of regular gas on the trailer and will most times fill the cans and the mowers at the pump and then refill the mowers out of the cans and then refill both the mowers and the cans at the same time again.........
Regarding gas sitting for a long time — on my end, I filled the cans, immediately filled the mower and I think it took a week to feel the first sputter. The next week it died, so it took about 3 or 4 hours of mowing to totally clog the fuel filter.
As for the gas sitting in the gas stations tanks...that would be hard to know. But I live in a small county where there are 5 gas station total. (And 3 traffic lights). I buy gas from the busiest station — BP. But as I understand it, all of the gas in our region comes from the same Marathon distributor....they seem to have a monopoly which becomes a problem when gas prices rise. We tend to pay a lot more for gas that surrounding states.
What puzzles me is that I have been mowing my place for 13 years and buying gas mostly from the same place and this has never happened. That's why I question the theories about E-10 or old gas in general. If it were a common explanation, it seems like this would happen more often. I'm really tempted to take this stuff and have it analyzed and see what it is.