Mower won't start if the gas has fuel stabilizer in it.. or maybe ethanol"???"

[kmp79]

Just curious if anyone else has had this issue. I have a practically brand new 125 cc mower that was only used twice last summer. I left gas in it but there was stabilizer in it (same stuff in my generator that ran fine). It wouldn't even try to start unless I sprayed carb cleaner directly into it and then it died after a few seconds. So I took everything apart and cleaned the bowl out and then added more stabilized fuel.. still wouldn't start.

So I went and got fresh 93 octane (no ethanol) and then it fired up and ran fine. So is it just that the smaller engines are too sensitive for the stabilizer or could it be that some stations have more ethanol than they claim? The cap says it can only handle up to e10. Oasn.. my last mower was the same size. It would run on the stabilized fuel but it was weaker (like lower rpm) than if I used just gas.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes.
A little is good.
The right amount is better and too much is bad.
Modern fuel has a small amount of highly volatile liquid so it will vapourise at or below room temperature.
This has to happen to allow the engine to start when cold.
Stabilizers do not stop this fraction from evaporating out of the fuel

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I see this every spring. The E10 sttracts wster, the gas loses it volatility, usually folks store the mower with gas that is already a month or 2 old and they dump some StaBil in the gas tank and don't run the engine for 5 minutes to get stabilized fuel into the carb. If you want your push mowers to work every spring run them empty and store them with no fuel in them. E10 fuel sucks! for storage. If the container is air tight it will last quite a while but if stored in something vented a couple months at best. I had a station near me that sold Efree gas. Now they changed that pump to E15. I may have to resort to making E10 into Efree again.