Gas in Cans - Storage Life?

[giles45shop]

So we have the first hurricane/tropical storm headed this way and trying to help the in-laws get ready. Apparently he bought gas with 10% ethanol about a year ago, stored in five 5 gallon cans. The Google box indicates this is questionable, so trying to decide a course of action. Ideally, I would get rid of the old gas and buy new ethanol-free, but no real easy way to dispose of it, as they live in town. Other option was pick up new plastic gas cans, and bring the old ones back to the farm to get rid of the old gas. Of course new plastic cans are $25 each

Just wondering if the old gas has a chance of being usable, or if there is some kind of stabilizer I could add to the old gas to rejuvenate it? Generator is a basic 13 KW powered by a Briggs or similar?

My FIL is in a wheel chair and MIL is 72, and they live about 50 miles away, so want to have a plan with a pretty high degree of success.

 

[Tin Roof]

In some areas of the Midwest it’s difficult to get non-ethanol gas. We store it for a year or more all the time. If you would feel better with putting an additive in the gas go ahead, but I doubt there will be any issues with that gas.

 

[Takotruckin]

In some areas of the Midwest it’s difficult to get non-ethanol gas. We store it for a year or more all the time. If you would feel better with putting an additive in the gas go ahead, but I doubt there will be any issues with that gas.

Same. Only issue I would be concerned about is that me fuel has likely absorbed some moisture, so they shouldn’t leave it sitting in the generator for long or it will corrode the carb and stuff.

 

[PAToyota]

I add the Sta-bil ethanol treatment to the can I keep for the lawn equipment as soon as I fill it up. After a year plus, I'd say that what you have is likely junk. Unless you want to do a bonfire with it, I'd add a bit of it to new gas and slowly use it up that way.

 

[ExWrench]

Gas with ethanol that's a year old in non-airtight cans will have water bubbles at the bottom, or at least run ****ty - maybe ****ty enough to make the genset not run. If they need to depend on it, I'd leave 'em with non-ethanol gas, preferably in an airtight can (Eagle safety can, NATO jerry can, etc.).

 

[[486]]

sealed steel cans that hold pressure will make it good indefinitely

unsealed, the good **** will evaporate off and if enough water does get in all the alcohol will drop out of solution and sit in the bottom causing the octane rating to be about 70

I had an old onan cck that absolutely loved old evaporated off gas that had had water in it at one time, seemed like the worse gas you fed it the better it started. Most everything else, you only really affect cold starting.

look in the cans and see if there's any separation going on, if there is then best way I've come across to separate it with garbage you got laying around is to dump it into a washer fluid jug, then invert that so the water goes to the funnel shaped top, then crack the lid just a little bit and the water will come out first. dump the gas into a clean can and repeat until you've got all of it separated out

if its just old and the light fractions got evaporated off, then starting fluid is your friend.

 

[87manche]

pour the old gas into a half full car tank.

refill gas can.
done.

 

[cj3a]

Who is going to fill the generator for them? I make a mess on a good day.

 

[Filthy McChevy]

I wouldn't worry that much about it but you could put Heet or Isopropyl Alcohol in to help burn off any water. To me gas isn't bad until it smells like Paint thinner.

Is HEET better than Seafoam for Water in Fuel? Let's find out!

 

[bgaidan]

I try to not run old-ish gas in my small engines, but I'll run it through the bigger mowers all day long. I try to keep my longer term storage in my jerry cans and use the plastic ones for day to day. I also keep one jerry can with non-ethanol to use in the weedeaters, saws and smaller engines.

Still seems like I'm having to **** with cleaning carbs way more than I should be.

 

[87manche]

I try to not run old-ish gas in my small engines, but I'll run it through the bigger mowers all day long. I try to keep my longer term storage in my jerry cans and use the plastic ones for day to day. I also keep one jerry can with non-ethanol to use in the weedeaters, saws and smaller engines.

Still seems like I'm having to **** with cleaning carbs way more than I should be.

I've found that EFI gives no ****s.

and battery powered push mowers and weedeaters are great.

I only have big small engines to deal with now, and they're not nearly the PITA a ****ing 5HP push mower is.

 

[bgaidan]

I've found that EFI gives no ****s.

and battery powered push mowers and weedeaters are great.

I only have big small engines to deal with now, and they're not nearly the PITA a ****ing 5HP push mower is.

I have 15 acres. It takes a solid 2 hours to do the whole property with the trimmer. It takes 3 hours to mow if I'm hauling ass. I tried a battery trimmer at my old place and it couldn't even handle the light trimming around the fence, house and driveway....that was only 1.25 acres. Batteries work great if you live on a postage stamp. They don't work for me.

 

[87manche]

I have 15 acres. It takes a solid 2 hours to do the whole property with the trimmer. It takes 3 hours to mow if I'm hauling ass. I tried a battery trimmer at my old place and it couldn't even handle the light trimming around the fence, house and driveway....that was only 1.25 acres. Batteries work great if you live on a postage stamp. They don't work for me.

80v kobalt trimmer at my mother in laws place maintains 6 acres of orchard and fencline.

maybe yours sucked, but it gets over an hour of runtime on a battery.

pushmowers are just trimming tools if you already have a riding mower. 40 minutes of runtime on a battery.

and I don't have to deal with problems of my 70 year old mother having to start small engines.
she went out and bought the chainsaw too for light tree work, but obviously anything serious requires me going out there with actual saws.

 

[Wheelerfreak]

sealed steel cans that hold pressure will make it good indefinitely

This,I keep gas in NATO fuel cans for 1-2 years at a stretch sometimes and it has been fine. Regular 10%ish ethanol gas in a sealed NATO can with 2oz of Stabil and stored in a shed.

Now if they left **** gas in the tank of the genny then that likely absorbed water, and if they didn't shut off the gas petcock to the carb it could have ****ed the carb too.

 

[Wheelerfreak]

My FIL is in a wheel chair and MIL is 72, and they live about 50 miles away, so want to have a plan with a pretty high degree of success.

Get them one of these to make filling the genny easier. You can set the cans up on something and then all they need to do is use the shake syphon to fill it.

 

[bgaidan]

80v kobalt trimmer at my mother in laws place maintains 6 acres of orchard and fencline.

maybe yours sucked, but it gets over an hour of runtime on a battery.

pushmowers are just trimming tools if you already have a riding mower. 40 minutes of runtime on a battery.

and I don't have to deal with problems of my 70 year old mother having to start small engines.
she went out and bought the chainsaw too for light tree work, but obviously anything serious requires me going out there with actual saws.

Neat.

 

[rockmup]

pour the old gas into a half full car tank.

refill gas can.
done.

I keep 40 gallons of non ethanol fuel in my dump cans with Stabil and dump them in my cars every year and then refill. Zero issues after 15 yrs of doing it this way.

OP, you can set the generator to refill off a can just like a boat. Easy to do.

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

80v kobalt trimmer at my mother in laws place maintains 6 acres of orchard and fencline.

maybe yours sucked, but it gets over an hour of runtime on a battery.

pushmowers are just trimming tools if you already have a riding mower. 40 minutes of runtime on a battery.

and I don't have to deal with problems of my 70 year old mother having to start small engines.
she went out and bought the chainsaw too for light tree work, but obviously anything serious requires me going out there with actual saws.

battery mowers? .....I mock you

 

[MuntCuffin]

80v kobalt trimmer at my mother in laws place maintains 6 acres of orchard and fencline.

maybe yours sucked, but it gets over an hour of runtime on a battery.

pushmowers are just trimming tools if you already have a riding mower. 40 minutes of runtime on a battery.

and I don't have to deal with problems of my 70 year old mother having to start small engines.
she went out and bought the chainsaw too for light tree work, but obviously anything serious requires me going out there with actual saws.

That runtime gets shorter the older the battery gets. That battery has a finite abput of charge cycles on it. When a battery operated machine runs out of juice, you are stuck waiting for it to recharge.

You never see a commercial operation using electric, despite electric being a commercial option. Theres a reason for that.

 

[IowaOffRoad]

In some areas of the Midwest it’s difficult to get non-ethanol gas. We store it for a year or more all the time. If you would feel better with putting an additive in the gas go ahead, but I doubt there will be any issues with that gas.

What kind of can are you storing it in? Are you filling them as far as you can to eliminate the airspace? Sealed can that builds pressure? I have given advice on this previously based on personal and customer experience. My advice is no to ethanol, even if you have to get Avgas. This is due to most people leaving gas in vented containers (or fuel tanks) and leaving them half or less full. As its difficult to impress upon most people the necessity of procedure, and have little knowledge of how things work (possibly OP's parents) you have to assume lowest common denomenator. I too have stored fuel in cans, and stored modern sealed fuel system vehicles with ethanol blend gas and not had an issue. However, I have seen a multitude of issues arise from this practice, especially when doing the things I listed above.

So we have the first hurricane/tropical storm headed this way and trying to help the in-laws get ready. Apparently he bought gas with 10% ethanol about a year ago, stored in five 5 gallon cans. The Google box indicates this is questionable, so trying to decide a course of action. Ideally, I would get rid of the old gas and buy new ethanol-free, but no real easy way to dispose of it, as they live in town. Other option was pick up new plastic gas cans, and bring the old ones back to the farm to get rid of the old gas. Of course new plastic cans are $25 each

Just wondering if the old gas has a chance of being usable, or if there is some kind of stabilizer I could add to the old gas to rejuvenate it? Generator is a basic 13 KW powered by a Briggs or similar?

My FIL is in a wheel chair and MIL is 72, and they live about 50 miles away, so want to have a plan with a pretty high degree of success.

If you want bulletproof fuel storage, go get the canned (Edit: the pre-canned stuff they sell for like $12/gal in the stores) gas or Avgas. I know the first is expensive and the last is only slightly less so, but if you do that those generators will not have a fuel issue unless they get flooded with rain/flood water. And tell them to keep the tanks full of either gas. That canned gas is supposed to be shelf stable for 5 years unopened. What is your peace of mind worth?

To everyone else: You CAN store ethanol gas, and as has been said, FI stuff seems to take it better. But even the FI stuff will eventually plug the fuel sock and fuel filter with varnish trying to do it. I can't prove it, but since the switch to 87 octane 10% ethanol happened, I think the base stock gasoline they use is of much lower quality, additive-wise. I personally NEVER had an issue with ethanol blend in under a year of storage until about 8 years ago in our area. Now I've experienced it, and have seen other fight it too. Especially farmers who are used to getting 200 gallon delivered every year in the same barrel that they have used for the last 3 decades. Usually a vented, gravity feed barrel that they just fill lawn mowers, jugs to mix 2 stroke gas in, or UTVs out of since all the real farm equipment has a diesel. You will work on their equipment multiple times, then go out to the farm and pull a fuel sample and the gas will be garbage. Usually won't evaporate and has varnish floating in it, even through the barrel filter. "But they just filled the barrel this spring!" Yep, but don't use it in your A John Deere or your Stihl chain saw, or I'm gonna bill ya for the 3rd carb rebuild in 2 years.

 

[grandeyota]

If it has been sitting sealed up in an airtight gas can for a year I’d just dump it in a vehicle.

Do they rent cars at all locally? Rentals make a great place to dispose of questionable gas.

I’ve just made a habit of filling up the cans with some marine sta-bil added at the beginning of hurricane season and using it in the cars towards the end of the year.

 

[Firstram]

Pour a quart of water in each 5 gal can of gas, mix it up thoroughly and let the water settle. Water will bond with the moisture laden alcohol and be easy to separate once settled. Mix the water free 82 octane gas thats left with fresher stuff and profit.

 

[Ummduh]

I've used ethanol gas in plastic cans for up to 2 years without any additives. Yea by the end of 2 years the lawn mower wasn't completely happy but it ran well enough to finish the tank off.

I don't ever do any of the **** people swear you have to do with small engines and I never have problems. Especially non ethanol gas.

The only thing I do is run the gas out of the tank and carb at the end of the season before I put it in storage.

 

[Chicken Corners]

battery mowers? .....I mock you

Ha, does your in efficient gas powered mower have headlights?

 

[giles45shop]

Thanks for all the replies and ideas! Just got back and they should be in decent shape. I was able to dump probably 15 gallons of 20+ into their vehicles which were 1/2 full of good gas. Went to the Wawa and topped off the remaining partial cans and empties with ethanol free. Also added Stabil to all the cans and got them a funnel to make filling easier- although I may still look at a siphon hose to make it even easier.

Topped off the generator which had a gallon or two of old gas and made sure it was running good. My MIL was able to get it started by herself, and I went over how to switch over to generator power. Fortunately, they have a transfer switch, so it's fairly simple. Everything is hooked up and ready to go. The storm track is now North and West of Tampa, so probably not an issue, but they are ready for the season.

I also drove both vehicles around for 15-20 minutes to make sure the old gas wouldn't adversely affect operation.

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

Ha, does your in efficient gas powered mower have headlights?

yes actually

...but that was a lol referring a previous thread

 

[Tin Roof]

I've used ethanol gas in plastic cans for up to 2 years without any additives. Yea by the end of 2 years the lawn mower wasn't completely happy but it ran well enough to finish the tank off.

I don't ever do any of the **** people swear you have to do with small engines and I never have problems. Especially non ethanol gas.

The only thing I do is run the gas out of the tank and carb at the end of the season before I put it in storage.

I don’t personally know anyone that does any of the prep **** for storing ethanol gas and none of them ever have issues.

 

[Paragon]

I don’t personally know anyone that does any of the prep **** for storing ethanol gas and none of them ever have issues.

Says an obvious corn farmer

there is no denying that ethanol blended gas kills small engine parts, especially fuel lines

 

[Filthy McChevy]

I have a little compressor I rigged up with a small gas motor and if I leave it with ethanol gas in the carb it gunks up the fuel bowl and I have to clean it out to get it to run.

 

[Tin Roof]

Says an obvious corn farmer

there is no denying that ethanol blended gas kills small engine parts, especially fuel lines

I'm not saying I love it, or that it doesn't potentially have long term negative affects. Ethanol gas is extremely common here, to the point of some gas stations not offering a non-ethanol option. There's gas cans sitting with gasp ethanol blended gas in them all over the midwest, some for long periods of time, and people still pour that gas into whatever they bought it for.... and it works.

I have ethanol blended gas in the tank of my generator that's been in there for at least a year. I didn't do any prep or treatment to the gas. I guarantee I can go in the garage and hit the start button and it'll start and run just fine.

Yes ethanol can cause issues, especially moisture and deteriorating lines/hoses, but I think some of the issues people have is from just plain ****ty gas, not that it contains ethanol. That's purely my opinion, from someone that has used ethanol gas for years.