Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Long-term storage of gas for standby power....

I'd like to store 30-40 gals of gas long-term to power a Honda generator to keep the fridge and freezer on if the grid goes down. Apparently anything with ethanol is terrible for small engines and doesn't last very long either (like maybe 6 months). Then, I was researching additives and frankly, it doesn't look like any of them work either. So, it looks like the best a guy can do is buy non-ethanol gas and rotate it with fresh gas so your stores are no more than about a year old. Is that the state of the art??

Yep. Or get a propane conversion kit for about $150. Propane in tanks lasts a lot longer.

You can use Stabil or other stabilizers, but ethanol is know killer of small engines. Propane is good to go for the long run.

I'll go with rotating the gas.

I use the same Yamaha stabilizer in all the gas I buy (up to 10% ethanol 87 Oct) and store for my boat motor, small gasoline powered yard tools, and generator. The gas in my generator is now about 18 months old and will start on the first pull. I will drain it soon and replace with fresh as 18 months is my maximum storage time by experimentation - so far everything I own will run reliably on stabilized 87 up to 18 months (I'm not willing to push it any further). I mix a few gallons of the old gas into a fresh tank of gas in my car and burn it out that way.

Seafoam vs Stabil ??????????

I read some stuff that basically says Stabil doesn't work either. I think there was a study done by the University of Nebraska and none of the fuel longevity products work very well, if at all. Mostly hype. I agree propane is the way to go. Problem is, my brand new Honda 7000eu generator is fuel injected! Don't want to mess with converting it to propane unless someone makes a kit for that engine, which it does not look like anyone does.

I'll check out the Yamaha product.

We've got a dual fuel generator. Propane and Gas. We have a bulk propane tank for the house that's plumbed to run the generator. I have 3 Jerry cans of non-ethenol gas as back up that I rotate out. I need to buy some more.

No ethanol, SeaFoam will stabilize for 2 years, per their literature. Do that and rotate on a reasonable timeline. Although, the propane or natural gas conversion for the gen set is the best idea for easy starting, long term plan.

If you have room to store it safely, buy a clean 55 gallon drum, fill it with gasoline, and every few months siphon or pump 10 gallons out and put it in your car. Replace it with fresh gas, and do the same thing again in a little while.
Jerry

If you want to stay with gasoline find ethanol free fuel, preferably premium and add the recommended amount of fuel stabilizer. I like Pride G.

I have a diesel, gas, and propane generator. Each one serves its purpose. I can go a year without starting the propane generator and it will start first time every time. The drawback is it uses a lot of propane, if you run off bottles it is expensive and a pain to swap out bottles. I have a 250 gallon tank, that makes it easy, but still expensive to run.

Looks like Genconnex makes a propane adapter for the Honda 7000is. Will check it out.

I keep a couple of gas cans filled with non ethanol for such an occasion. I run it through the lawn mower. That keeps it rotated. I don’t use any additives. I do drain the tank on the generator and run the carb dry each time I use it, because I don’t use it much.

Propane costs twice as much as gas, out here anyway.

Diesel fuel will last much longer than gasoline.

Buy ethanol free RV gas. Mix it 100:1 with Stihl chainsaw oil. Store full in stainless steel drum.Good for +2 years.

Aviation gas is more expensive but lasts quite a while. Your local airport will have all you can buy.

^^^ THIS ^^^

My personal experience is sta-bil won't be used by me again, sea foam is worth another try, & Marvel Mystry oil used out of frustration at first has worked well for me. But don't trust any of them for 6 months. Maybe the gas used to start has a big bearing?

But rotating is the only thing I trust. 30-40 gals. for the gen to start. Fill the truck with it about once a month & then immediately refill the gen, supply as to not get caught in between.

Hell, I had 5 gal of diesel on hand just to burn brush & stuff. Maybe it's been around longer that I realize, but it isn't worth a damn. I had to salt it with gas the other day to get it to light. I was careful but the gas wasn't that volatile either.