Aspen

[Stere]

Why is there no company in competiton with aspen? Seems they have 100% monopoly on there product type which can't be good for price.

 

Is it just that alkalyte fuel is so niche no one else makes it or something or do they have the patent on it etc?

Edited March 5, 2018 by Stere
grammar

[Rough Hewn]

Stihl do motomix.
Same stuff, same price.

[Shaunpaul]

Anyone had issues running on aspen after using 2 stroke in same saws? Had loads of starting issues with chainsaws, then newish hs82 hedge trimmers wouldn't start at all. Dropped them off at a well known Stihl repairer/dealer, he simply poured aspen out, put 2 stroke in and fired them up. Told me it's crap don't use it!!!

[Darrin Turnbull]

it's certainly not cr*p.

[Rough Hewn]

Hmmm

[Sveriges]

It’s not uncommon for machines to need a slight tune to run on aspen as obviously it’s different to pump fuel. It’s certainly not crap it has many benefits over pump fuel and your dealer is obviously ignorant to the fact despite stilhl selling a similar product. 

 

Husqvarna have also launched their range of fuels. It’s not the same as aspen but shares the same common benefits of using alkalyte fuel. Aspen is the market leader as they have been doing it for years but there is other alternatives. 

[Shaunpaul]

5 minutes ago, Sveriges said:

It’s not uncommon for machines to need a slight tune to run on aspen as obviously it’s different to pump fuel. It’s certainly not crap it has many benefits over pump fuel and your dealer is obviously ignorant to the fact despite stilhl selling a similar product. 

 

Husqvarna have also launched their range of fuels. It’s not the same as aspen but shares the same common benefits of using alkalyte fuel. Aspen is the market leader as they have been doing it for years but there is other alternatives. 

Thanks for that, will give it another go then. Thought it was strange after reading other past posts on here raving about it. Is the tuning something I can do myself?

[Stubby]

23 minutes ago, Shaunpaul said:

Thanks for that, will give it another go then. Thought it was strange after reading other past posts on here raving about it. Is the tuning something I can do myself?

If you have been running pump fuel in there machines for a significant time it might be worth changing the carb diaphragms and any other rubber components that could be affected by the pump fuel . The Aspen wont attack the rubber like pump fuel but the pump fuel will remove the coating put on to keep the rubber supple and then go on to keep it supple before it degrades .  If you then switch to Aspen the coating is removed and the rubber degrades ( through no fault of the Aspen ) although some people think it is . If you use Aspen from the get go there is no problem .  

[GardenKit]

14 hours ago, Stere said:

Why is there no company in competiton with aspen? Seems they have 100% monopoly on there product type which can't be good for price.

 

Is it just that alkalyte fuel is so niche no one else makes it or something or do they have the patent on it etc?

The so called 'monopoly' that Aspen has had in the UK is now much less of a monopoly than before, with both Stihl and Husqvarna bringing their own products to the market place.

 

My initial thoughts as an Aspen dealer were that the availability these alternative fuels would compromise the sales of Aspen, after all, it stands to reason that the more slices taken from a cake, the smaller the slices become.

 

But then on reflection, the fact that both of the major saw manufacturers are getting seriously behind Alkylate fuel is giving much more credibility to Alkylate and encouraging many more operators to swap to alkylate.

 

So the 'cake' becomes bigger and the volume of Alkylate fuel sold in the UK is set to soar and each brand will have to be competitive to achieve and maintain market share.

 

Sales of Aspen fuel have risen dramatically over the last few years and remains the best seller throughout UK and the rest of Europe.

[GardenKit]

14 hours ago, Shaunpaul said:

Anyone had issues running on aspen after using 2 stroke in same saws? Had loads of starting issues with chainsaws, then newish hs82 hedge trimmers wouldn't start at all. Dropped them off at a well known Stihl repairer/dealer, he simply poured aspen out, put 2 stroke in and fired them up. Told me it's crap don't use it!!!

This sort of attitude from a dealer/repairer really winds me up as it such just goes to show how totally ignorant some technicians are.

Aspen certainly is not 'crap' but some repairers certainly are.

 

As said by others, there are slight differences in vapour pressure and density between alkylate fuel and pump petrol, just as there are differences between different brands of pump petrol.

 

Its really not difficult for a good mechanic to make the slight adjustments for a machine to run on Alkylate fuel, or to repair the problems with the machine prior to converting to alkylate.

 

I have converted thousands (really) of customers machines to Aspen and have staked my business reputation (and hence my livelyhood) on this product. It certainly has not let me down and I would never willingly return to using pump fuel in my workshop.