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Posts: 538
Location: northern indiana | Is there a difference between alcohol free and ethanol free fuel? Can you explain what the difference is if there is one? Thanks. |
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Posts: 194
Location: Lake Elmo, MN | Ethanol is a form of alcohol with 2 carbon atoms surrounded by 5 hydrogen atoms and a hydroxyl group (OH). It is the same alcohol you drink when you crack open that beer on the boat, or down a scotch at the pub. It is a heavier hydrocarbon than methanol, which is the alcohol you DO NOT want to drink as it can cause blindness and/or death in humans.
BOTH are alcohols tho. SO....if a fuel says "alcohol free", you can know that there is no methanol OR ethanol in it.
Edited by PSAGuy 4/20/2015 10:42 AM
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Posts: 538
Location: northern indiana | Does that mean alcohol free fuel is better to run in small engines than ethanol free? |
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Posts: 194
Location: Lake Elmo, MN | If by "better" you mean the fuel combusts better and is less damaging to your engine over time....then yes.
Ethanol's benefit is primarily based on 2 things....
1) It's a low CO2 emitter, and thus does not hurt the environment as much (but quite frankly, it's a non-factor in a small engine)
2) It's readily available (made from corn) and is fairly inexpensive.
On the flip side, ethanol in concentrations over 10% have been shown to increase corrosion in an engine and cause long term problems.
Bottom line (and this is only my OPINION) is stay away from gasoline with ethanol content equal to , or over 10% if at all possible. E-10 and E15 fuels are in this category.
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | In the past I read many articles talking about how ethanol gas was ok to use in a boat motor, and even ok for storage as long as a fuel stabilizer was used.
I fish a lot, and during use never had a motor problem as I burned through the gas quickly enough.
I did have storage problems though, even after treating my gas. Ended up getting a little gummy something stuck in a carb jet twice. Since then I spend an extra little bit of money and buy gas without alcohol in it and have had no problems since. It might be easier for me, since a 50hp 4 stroke tiller doesn't use much gas, but the difference in dollars for me buying non oxy gas was not much at all for the year, and I appreciate the hassle free use and peace of mind it gives me.
Probably get better gas mileage with ethanol free gas anyway.
Tucker |
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| curleytail - 4/20/2015 12:52 PM
Probably get better gas mileage with ethanol free gas anyway.
Tucker
Yes, I think that's always true: gasohol gives you worse MPG than str8 gasoline. |
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Posts: 410
Location: Wakefield, MI | All of my small engines get ethanol free fuel. My generator will barely run with E10 (it will run, but it cycles like crazy, not exactly what you want a generator to do), my motorcycle doesn't much care for it either. |
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Posts: 246
Location: Grand Marais, MN | from a chemical and environmental point of view ethanol is not a very good fuel additive and I choose to avoid it for all of my engines when I can. Non oxygenated fuel is the same as no ethanol/no alcohol. I get better fuel economy without it and it's better on all my old engines. |
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