On Thu, 29 May 2014 09:25:13 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

I was down at my local hardware / lawnmower shop getting a new chain for my Stihl.
(It was a cold winter, I thought I'd get a jump on the wood pile.)
They had these signs warning of the damage E10 ethanol fuels do to 2-cycle engines.
They wanted to sell me "special" ethanol free fuel at a huge markup.
First is this really a problem? I've been running my Stihl for years with basically no maintenance.
(The only thing I do is to run it dry at the end of my wood cutting season, so it doesn't sit all winter with gas in it.)

That's generally the key to maintenance-free 2-strokes. But I haven't
had any problem with year-old 2-stroke or regular gas here or back in
LoCal EVER. Everything fires right up, and I don't run the weed eater
(currently a Ryobi) dry. I do use it briefly every few months, even
in the winter, though. Maybe that makes a difference. I just fired up
my old Murray walk-behind mower on 2 year old gas and it took some
extra priming but fired right up. Nary a problem here in So. Oregon.


If it is a problem then why not just get ethanol free fuel at a gas station.
(there are a several in my area.)

Wondering what y'all do?

I run standard E10 in everything I own and have never had a problem.

The guys at Lewis Power Equipment say they have to repair chainsaws
all the time from E10 use. Unleaded ethanol-free premium is $4.99/gal
here in town, $1.20 more than regular unleaded. Lewis also states that
any gas which is more than a month old is considered bad, and tossable
at 3 months. I -totally- disagree with that sentiment. They're a
Stihl repair depot, too.

If you're not having problems, why change methods? At worst, you
might have to boil out a carb at some time in the future. But it's
good to know how to repair your engines, so get a repair book for it
and do the job yourself. It'll take you a couple hours the first time
and an hour the second. No worries.

--
....in order that a man may be happy, it is
necessary that he should not only be capable
of his work, but a good judge of his work.
-- John Ruskin