By Russ and Tiña De Maris
For us, it was a hard-learned lesson. Keep your generator fuel fresh. We thought we did. After all, we frequent hot country in our RV, and don’t much care for RV parks. That means to keep cool, but avoid shore-power hookups, our portable generator gets a thorough running. Trouble is, it’s those off-travel times. We paid the penalty for the schoolboy’s lament, “I just didn’t think!”
Chased out of Arizona by the heat
We finally made our escape from Arizona’s grueling summer. Every year we say, “Next time, we’ll leave in May!” Hah! Things transpired—the stars didn’t align, and it was mostly doctor appointment timings. In any event, we left southern Arizona in the middle of a hot July day and headed north. Our first night WAS in an RV park—too far to reach the cool country in a day’s travel, but no place suitable for boondocking.
The next day took us into Nevada. Caliente, Nevada, is just too “caliente” [hot], but another half hour takes you uphill and into the “relative” cool. One of our favorite stopping points is in Pioche, an old mining town at about 6,000 feet. It was cool enough to do without the generator, but there were other items demanding 120-volt power, and since shade trees cut too much of our solar supply, the “utility man” of this writing pair was off to start the genny.
Missing genny says, “You didn’t keep your generator fuel fresh!”
Our trusty genny started, but reluctantly. From reluctant start, to the “Is it a hit, or a miss”—and a lot of “missing.” Something wasn’t right. A quick phone call to a long-suffering retired mechanic friend quickly answered the “why” part of our issue. Once Mike learned we’d had fuel in the generator back home, he drew us to that nasty, but necessary, reminder for generator owners. Fuel stabilizer.
Mr. Utility Man had failed to stabilize the fuel in the generator, and the resulting “old fuel” had gummed up the works. The thought of having to tear down the generator’s fuel system led to even more dreadful thoughts. Could Mr. Utility actually put the thing back together after a tear-down?
Sea Foam to the rescue
“Fear not!” responded Mike the Mechanic. “Sea Foam to the rescue!” We were a long way from the Pacific, but he clarified that Sea Foam was a commercial product that assures customers it “Cleans harmful fluid residues that cause erratic shifting or rough operation.” Our shifting was great, I could do that on my feet, but rough operation was a reality for our generator.
A few ounces poured down into the two-gallon genny fuel tank, a startup, and a run through the fuel tank brought noticeable results. Another fill-up with the addition of more Sea Foam and, hey, it’s like having a mechanic in your basement storage compartment. Mr. Utility now keeps a can of Sea Foam on hand.
Here’s a better—less traumatic—way to go
But even more useful, and a lot less traumatic, is simply keeping your generator fuel fresh. For us, that means adding fuel stabilizer like the one pictured above to our generator fuel.
If you’re smart, spend the extra money and dump the stabilizer in your gas can every time you put fuel in it. That way, you don’t have to worry about unstabilized fuel gumming up the works if for some reason your trip is cut short and you end up going weeks or months without running the watt-producer.
No doubt there are other products that can do the “gum deep cleaning” as well as any periodontist, but we know from experience that Sea Foam works.
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RVDT2710
I’ve been using ethanol-free gas in all of my small gas engines for years; both 2- and 4-stroke. Never had a problem after storing over the winter. Use this website to find it and don’t buy those hardware store quart cans unless you have a huge bank account.
I also use ethanol free gas and never had a problem with small engines. It’s more expensive, but worth the problem free issue.
The problem is that many generators are fed off the motorhome fuel tank.
Star Tron stabilizer is cheap enough that the whole tank can be stabilized and when the generator is run for a few minutes it is stabilized also.
John S. what a great website. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, seafoam rescued my nearly dead generator the same way. I used a very high concentration since the generator would barely run. I’ve been a bit better about using stabilizer as well as trying to use up any fuel over a year old.
Install a fuel cutoff valve in the fuel line if the genetic does not have one. Cut off the fuel. And run the carb dry.
Do not store gas for more than 6 months. Even with stabilizer, it will deteriorate.
One good hurricane will teach you that.
Genset not genetic. AI be gone.
And I don’t use auto-correct after telling my neighbor I had been using his wife for the past year. I really meant wifi.
🤣🤣 Have a great day, Impavid. 😀 –Diane
The problem with “running the carb dry” is the fuel bowl stays partly filled. It only goes below the level of the idle jet.
This can lead to the mysterious white powder from ethanol.
In my experience, it is better to use Star Tron stabilizer and leave the fuel bowl full.
I am a volunteer at a local animal rescue/humane society. We utilize 8 small gas engines in our maintenance department (me). I am adamant about using Stabil in any fuel brought onto our grounds. Before I started volunteering, nobody used anything. I had to rebuild or replace 10 carburetors. In the last 5 years, after mandating fuel stabilizer, we have had no fuel related motor problems.
I’ve used Stabil for years in every seasonal motor we have. Motorcycles, mowers, lawn equipment, RV etc. It always worked. Switched to Sea Foam last year for the cleaning properties to see what will happen. A couple of points to add. I always make sure the tanks are full and stay full. Condensation in a gas tank can only form in the air above the level of fuel. Don’t just ignore the motor for weeks or months at a time. Exercise them out of season, then top off the gas. Picture a snow blower running in front of my garage in July. If it’s electric start get a battery maintainer too.
I use Sta-Bil for ethanol gas in the car we store over the winter while we head south. Make sure the tank is at least 3/4 full and run the stabilized gas through the engine. The battery is on a maintainer. Always fires right up upon return.
I run the gas out of our small engines. And I converted our home emergency generator to run off of either propane or my preference, natural gas, (it can also still run on gasoline). Our portable RV generator is also dual fuel, and I have never used anything but propane. No fear of gumming. And as the only flammable is crank oil, I can store the generator under our RV’s bed. The propane cylinders stay outside.in their rack.
I do the same, propane only with hose to quick connect, A/C works great with my Easy Start
Sta-bil is the known brand, but very expensive. I switched to Star Tron stabilizer 8 years ago.
I can stabilize the whole 36 gallon tank and the generator for a low cost.
With Star Tron, I keep E10 ethanol emergency fuel in plastic jugs for two years, then I use it and refill. Have not had any problems in fluid injected and carbureted engines.
Thank you for the recommendation, Russ and Tina! You are not the first to recommend Sea Foam in something that I read. I do use gas stabilizer, in fact the one displayed in your article, and added it before we departed in mid-May. Still, reminders are important and necessary. Have a great day and safe travels!