Which mower for hobby use

[openspaceman]

15 hours ago, pleasant said:

 

Fuel taps on Hondas left on or off won't make any difference if the fuel left in the tank or left inside the carb is old.

I don't buy that and while I flagged it up I think it needs a lot more time and other factors. Even before ethanol was added petrol evaporating in the carb would deposit lacquer over time. I was pointing out the E10 did it quicker, I assume because of organic impurities but I'm not sure.

 

AFAICS the petrol tap thing is significant even if the float and valve are in goof nick. I have seen it on a few occasions now, one with a mower I retrieved from a skip, nearly new condition cheap Honda clone which dumped fuel out of the carb as soon as it was put in. It was gummed up float needle valve, idle and main jets. It had no fuel tap. My reasoning is that if fuel is left in the tank the carb fills, it then evaporates in the carb, leaving residue, the float drops letting more fuel in and the process repeats. Over a long period the tank empties and the residue gums up the carb.

 

Since fitting an inline fuel tap I have no problem. I gave the mower to a niece.

[Muddy42]

I agree, fuel tap off wont do anything unless the engine has been run dry.  Ideally the tanks should be emptied because petrol doesn't last.

 

Every autumn, I drain the E5 fuel out of my mowers' fuel tanks (and use it elsewhere) then run the engine until it dies.  Then I leave the fuel caps off for a few days to evaporate everything then run the mower again on a splash of Aspen 4 stroke.   No fuel issues so far.

[pleasant]

7 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

I agree, fuel tap off wont do anything unless the engine has been run dry.  Ideally the tanks should be emptied because petrol doesn't last.

 

Every autumn, I drain the E5 fuel out of my mowers' fuel tanks (and use it elsewhere) then run the engine until it dies.  Then I leave the fuel caps off for a few days to evaporate everything then run the mower again on a splash of Aspen 4 stroke.   No fuel issues so far.

Yup, spot on. Followed my own advice for more than 20 years on my own machines which i use domestically. Run them dry when i know im not going to use them, then when I do, i use fresh fuel and never had a restarting issue the following spring. My (new) customers that dont know this have kept me in business for near 25 years now. 

 

I always make sure they always dispose of any unused fuel in their fuel cans over winter....had a few in the past that have taken my advice to run the engine dry before storage, then in the spring they grab the petrol can thats been in the shed for 4 months or so and wonder why it won't start....really defeated the object of running the old fuel dry if you're going to do that. No different than turning a fuel tap off, running it dry after, but still leaving old fuel in the tank, then turning the fuel tap on 4 months later and filling your carb with stale fuel.

 

Some customers are lucky and do get the odd machine to restart, so think we're bullshitting, but invariably one day they come to us and believe us in the end. 

Edited September 17 by pleasant

[sandspider]

I started using Briggs &  Stratton fuel saver in my various 2t and 4t kit last year. I didn't drain anything down for winter as I usually would, but everything has started this year without trouble. So far so good.

[Muddy42]

Yes I try and put the old fuel in the quad that gets used a lot in the winter.  Its amazing that we have managed for mess up petrol so badly.  It survived as a store of energy in the ground for millions of years and modern man has adding things to render it useless after a month.

 

I haven't yet gone down the route of using dyed water to remove ethanol but I'm tempted to try this one day! It would be interesting to see if Esso premium has ethanol in it yet. 

[GarethM]

Think you can do it with just tap water but rainwater is also RO/DI purity.

 

It's one of the reasons they recommend not drinking it exclusively due to a lack of minerals and such.

[scbk]

Honda Izy are good domestic mowers (steel deck so won't last forever)

 

My old man bought a domestic Honda brand new about the year 2000, I had to fit a new deck in 2015, it doesn't really get any tlc. Mower is still running great to this day

 

 

 

Just to keep taking this thread off topic, this video is pretty interesting:

 

 

[Rb21679]

3 hours ago, scbk said:

Honda Izy are good domestic mowers (steel deck so won't last forever)

 

My old man bought a domestic Honda brand new about the year 2000, I had to fit a new deck in 2015, it doesn't really get any tlc. Mower is still running great to this day

 

 

 

Just to keep taking this thread off topic, this video is pretty interesting:

 

 

Thanks yeh I should have dru storage and can accept it wint last forever 

 

I don't mind off topic lol. Personally I always use e5 with a stabilising compound but yous know a lot more than me by reading your insight

 

Best

 

R

[Muddy42]

On 17/09/2024 at 20:25, Rb21679 said:

Thanks yeh I should have dru storage and can accept it wint last forever 

 

I don't mind off topic lol. Personally I always use e5 with a stabilising compound but yous know a lot more than me by reading your insight

 

Best

 

R

Watch out - not everyone agrees those stabilizers work and they could just be snake oil.

[GarethM]

16 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

Watch out - not everyone agrees those stabilizers work and they could just be snake oil.

I wonder what the MSDS sheet says for it's ingredients.