What's the best fuel for chainsaws?

[Woodworks]

E10 from Texaco and decent oil for the 2 stroke machines. Never had a problem even when sat in machines for months.

 

Used our 4stroke hand held post knocker yesterday for the first time since the spring and started first pull without changing the fuel. 

 

 

[devon TWiG]

10 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

E10 from Texaco and decent oil for the 2 stroke machines. Never had a problem even when sat in machines for months.

 

Used our 4stroke hand held post knocker yesterday for the first time since the spring and started first pull without changing the fuel. 

 

 

must be special petrol in  Devon !!  I have the same non problem , but then it hardly ever rains here and the atmosphere is so dry I suspect our fuel does not absorb water !!😂

[Woodworks]

14 minutes ago, devon TWiG said:

must be special petrol in  Devon !!  I have the same non problem , but then it hardly ever rains here and the atmosphere is so dry I suspect our fuel does not absorb water !!😂

Yes, I dont know.

 

I get through a fair bit of fuel so its very fresh when it goes into the machines but the big saws and few other bits sit around for months between uses. 

[spudulike]

4 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

If you're buying once a week you won't, and modern saws are designed to be fine on E10. There have been tales on here of people's 088 seizing, as it is brought out rarely and hence has fuel that's sat in it.

 

Not really a "tale" but the vast majority of 088/880s I have had in have been seized or "nipped up" down to being left on the shelf with half a tank of fuel in them and then used 6 months later, not filled up with new fuel and they have gone POP. This is the petrol degrading the 2T oil in the fuel mix over the time the saw is left on the shelf..mostly because saws like this don't get used that often.

The other common issue with the 088/880 is the oiler not functioning correctly due to the oiler arm slipping on the nylon gear so these are the common things I always check on these saws.

[spudulike]

Back to the Aspen....one common issue is the hardening of fuel lines. This shows up especially well on MS200Ts where there is an interference push fit on the fuel line with the fuel tank to make the seal. When the fuel line shrinks, you get a weep and then a leak of fuel around the fuel line. Seen this many times on Aspen changes and also on MS200ts left with no fuel in their tanks for many months.

I had one customer move to Aspen and complained most of his kit had stopped working. We had a few of the above issues but mostly a quick carb strip, clean and readjust got most of his kit working. 

I guess a lot of it is people in the know just do the tweaks that work once the change is done and those that don't know, make a drama out of it. Much depends on your relationship with your repair service guy.

 

 

 

[Mark_Skyland]

11 hours ago, aspenarb said:

I was always led to believe that you should not use high octane fuel in a two stroke, I use the cheap gear at the pumps, batch mix about 40ltrs at a time twice a week. Cant say I have ever seen a problem with water in the fuel.

 

Bob

Using a decent two stroke oil combined with a fast turn around of the fuel is a good thing and it's probably the reason why you don't have any issues. Old fuel and/or cheap oil arent a good mix. You should see or should I say smell some of the fuel I empty out of seldom used machines, it smells like paint stripper and looks like toilet water.

 

Aspen or the equivalent certainly isn't for everyone but it has its place, mainly for homeowners. Some pro users won't use it as their main fuel mainly due to cost which is understandable but they do use it for machines like hedge trimmers. Not often used and can cause a fair bit of stinky bouncing back straight into your face emmisions.

 

Btw, it's certainly not any kind of sales pitch at all as we make far more money on two stroke sales than we do on alkyate fuel and we can't ship it so it's shop sales only but I think it's worth looking into it for some users.

 

 

[Dan Maynard]

13 hours ago, spudulike said:

Not really a "tale" but the vast majority of 088/880s I have had in have been seized or "nipped up" down to being left on the shelf with half a tank of fuel in them and then used 6 months later, not filled up with new fuel and they have gone POP.

This is what I meant, should have said reports rather than tales. Not had it happen to me as don't own an 088.

[aspenarb]

I think the bigger saws like the 088 suffer in the hands of the mechanically unsympathetic, no saw is 100% duty cycle,these bigger saws with big bars and with a chain in less than optimum condition are often relentlessly dogged into big butts with no respite.No small to medium sized saw has to poke up with the kind of abuse these big saws do.

 

Bob 

[doobin]

11 hours ago, Mark_Skyland said:

Using a decent two stroke oil combined with a fast turn around of the fuel is a good thing and it's probably the reason why you don't have any issues. Old fuel and/or cheap oil arent a good mix. You should see or should I say smell some of the fuel I empty out of seldom used machines, it smells like paint stripper and looks like toilet water.

 

Aspen or the equivalent certainly isn't for everyone but it has its place, mainly for homeowners. Some pro users won't use it as their main fuel mainly due to cost which is understandable but they do use it for machines like hedge trimmers. Not often used and can cause a fair bit of stinky bouncing back straight into your face emmisions.

 

Btw, it's certainly not any kind of sales pitch at all as we make far more money on two stroke sales than we do on alkyate fuel and we can't ship it so it's shop sales only but I think it's worth looking into it for some users.

 

 

That’s exactly how I see it 

[Scuttlefish]

I run a 1993 Makita  DCS 6000 i ie,  Dolmar,  changed to Aspen 2 years ago , actually runs better and no problems so far- used to run it on E5 plus a decent Stilh ( Red ) oil.