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I had a small engine mechanic acquaintance who seemed knowledgeable recommend that I always store my equipment full of fuel treated with Marine STA-BIL as opposed to regular storage STA-BIL. After doing that a couple of years, I ended up having to have the carburetor replaced in my snow blower. Very frustrating, because I thought I was babying it. The other mechanic who replaced the carb recommended that I run the carb empty when storing.

So I started doing some web searching to figure out what is the best way to store my equipment. I landed with something like this:

  • drain the tank
  • fill with fresh, treated gas
  • turn off shutoff valve
  • run machine till dies or stutters (manuals say not to let it stutter)

Also while searching, I saw this comment: "Marine Sta-bil plugged up our carbs and fuel tanks.. bad stuff." This other site says that that may be caused by the marine Sta-bil washing dirt and grime from the fuel system on old machines which ends up in the carburetor.

My question is this. Should I store my outdoor equipment with Marine STA-BIL? Does it matter? What's the difference?

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
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Frank Henard
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1 Answers1

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Use just regular Sta-bil (or whatever fuel stabilizer you want to use) in a concentrate which is good for a year. Do as you have in your check list and run your small engine out of fuel. I've had no issues with my small engines when I do it like this, even with leaving the fuel in the tank for the next year (Sta-bil treated, of course). It's what I recommend to everyone to do. If you don't have a cutoff valve, install one in the line between the tank and the carb. Just run it until the engine dies. My small engines haven't had issue one since I started doing this.

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
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