A lot of home owners in North Dakota are firing up their lawn mowers, garden tillers, chain saws, and more.
And many home owners are pulling on those starter cords and nothing is happening... they won't start.
Why is that?
Usually it's bad gas.
OK, it was good gas when it came out of the pump... 9 months ago when you bought it for your lawn mower last fall. There in lies the problem. Gasoline has a shelf life and it's about a month when it comes to today's lawn mowers and today's gas.
Today's lawn mowers are higher performance today then they were years ago and they demand higher quality fuel. Today's fuel, especially that with ethanol, seems to break down faster that the formula producers used in the past, thus the problem: Gas engines are getting more demanding and the gas produced today seems to be of lesser quality than the fuel of the past.
The best solution I can offer to avoid this situation is: #1) In the fall run your mower completely out of gas. Any gas left in the tank is going to turn bad and possibly gum up the carburetor. #2) Purchase only 1 gallon gas cans for storing gas for your mower. Us guys love those big military style 5 gallon cans because they (and we) are so macho but you are not going to use that gas fast enough before it passes it's shelf life.
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