Sta-bill or Run it Dry?

We had a vigorous debate at work last night after I mentioned that I was going to "summerize" my snowblower by filling it with gas with Sta-Bil added. Others argued that running an engine completely dry was better.

I've done the Sta-Bil thing for many, many years and never had a problem, so that's what I'm sticking with even though I know a few months of sitting around won't gum anything up. A quarter ounce of Sta-Bil is just good, cheap insurance.

I always figured that a dry fuel system was asking for seals and gaskets to dry out and invited rust and corrosion in the tank, etc.

What do you guys do?

Sta-bil has worked for decades to our entire family...(Dad, Brother, me)

Boats, Snow machines, snow blowers, mowers, trimmers, chainsaws

Stabile never run it dry

Both. Stabilize and fill the tank. Turn the fuel off and run the carb dry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wulf202

Both. Stabilize and fill the tank. Turn the fuel off and run the carb dry.

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^^^I have done this on my mowers and snowblower for years.
Never any issue and my highwheel Craftsman mower is 20+ years old.

I run my stuff dry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BPTactical

^^^I have done this on my mowers and snowblower for years.
Never any issue and my highwheel Craftsman mower is 20+ years old.

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Me too, with the exception of running the carb. dry. Both my snow blower & lawnmower have the fuel shut off tied into the throttle/ kill switch.

I've run my mower dry every year, and am always amazed that it starts on the first pull the next summer.

I never leave anything my tank. The only exception is Motomix or Mogas from the Longmont airport. Real gas with no ethanol.

Use sta bil and run them dry anyways. Tis what I do.

Sent from my SM-T813 using Tapatalk

A belt and suspenders guy...

And if you want extra insurance, run ethanol free fuel...

My 2-strokes (chain saws, weed whacker) get only ethanol-free fuel...

Generators should, too. Unless you run them dry...

I read then follow the inst. on the bottle, it's worked for us the past 35 yrs.

Sold the snowblower when we moved to the new house (much smaller driveway and the driveway faces South, so no need for a snow blower) but for the 9 years I had a snowblower I'd always top off the tank and run a little bit of Sta-Bil in it. AFAIK there was no way on mine to shut off the fuel so rather than run the carb dry I'd just run it until I was sure there was some sta-bil in the carb. It always started right up when I needed it.

I did the same thing with the new lawnmower in October, I guess probably some time next month I'll see if that worked out as well but there's no reason to think it won't.

I only winterized a bike one time, that was in 2003 when I lived in Wyoming. But it stayed winterized with Sta-bil for 20 months (September 03 to April 05) and fired right up when we put a battery to it and pushed the starter. So I guess I'd say I'm a big believer in the value of sta-bil.