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Fuel cans, jugs. Equipment that sits. Going to try rinsing cans with gas after use

S

schiker

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Anyone rinse their jugs out and try to store them dry?

I have maybe (8) plastic fuel jugs. I have tops for them and never leave the tops off for long.

Before getting fuel I look inside and if they are "dirty" I clean them with carb cleaner and gasoline before getting fuel. When I say dirty they are stained and little brown flakes that I assume are maybe algae/fungus but are probably parts of residual fuel that have oxidized?

I am going to quit using the NO-spill diesel jugs because they get the most "stained" in the bottom. They are made of HDPE No. 2. The older Blitz jugs are a bit better No 4 plastic I will limit their use.

I have a Scepter No. 2 plastic that stays cleaner than blitz but its newer.

My newest jugs are Midwest brand No. 7 plastic ? They clean the easiest but still get some crud.

Yesterday I had to get some fuel and I thought let me try to rinse the cans out afterward with a little non-ethanol stabilized gas to rinse out any diesel and moisture before sealing them back up. Wonder if that will help them stay "clean" ?

I do add Stabil for diesel and Powerservice bio Kleen. Wish there was something that wasn't so concentrated for treating 5 gal jugs. Both say not to over treat so I just pour a litte in each jug approx 1/8-1/4 oz and some brand of fuel treatment to improve cetane and add lubricity.

If my jugs sit and get a decent test I'll try and report back. Just wondering if you dry your diesel jugs?

I have had my '72 Ford tractor ~ 25 years and it still runs fine no stoppage due to fuel algae problems. My ' 08 deere I have had for ~ 9 years. It has a plastic fuel tank. I have had no fuel issues yet but I do worry more about that one
 
short version:
Long term to deterioration of the plastic. Fuel is consuming the plastic. They are the same material. yes rinse it out with something strong- a mini pressure washer inside would be best. Store them dry and re-rinse. Long term fuel storage needs to be in steel or stainless steel containers sealed air tight.

My version:
Stuff doesn’t rust here, we don’t have enough humidity, no salt supply, so bare metal lasts centuries here. All my fuel cans that are metal never have any issues, no residual stuff regardless of what fuel was in it. But all my plastic ones get the staining layer of brown which if it builds up enough will flake off. And I have seen it from diesel, gas, 2stroke mix.

When working in the plastic to fuel place- we had sampling all the time of different grades of petroleum. The color changes through the different ones looked like a kid faked them with food coloring in water honestly. The heavier the fuel the darker it always was. It was never in any plastic- the plant it is steel, the sample containers were glass. Some got stored for years for long term sampling. We bought fuel from various stations as well for comparisons. None of it left the brown film on non-ethanol samples. The ethanol (both gas and diesel) would leave a light film in the glass- having stored it a year.

But the fuels we stored in plastic containers got the brown film from all the fuels, but much more of it from ethanol fuels, and especially the diesel.

There is something in the ethanol fuels that increases it- but we never sampled enough of the film and had it analyzed enough to be conclusive. We just knew our fuels produced less of it than real fuel, and way less the ethanol fuels.

The lighter and more unstable the fuel is, the faster it will break down other chemicals. Hence the ethanol eating fuel line that older fuels didn’t. I think the fuel in the plastic cans os slowly stripping the heavier molecular chain in the plastic by attaching carbon atoms, then as the chain becomes too long, it separates with leaving some of the carbon free - that carbon rich component is the brown material.

Think of it this way. An iceberg that has a pool of water on it. That is your plastic fuel tank. They are both made of the same thing and given time/heat they will both blend together. The longer the time and more heat will cause it to occur sooner. Just because the fuel doesn’t instantly melt the plastic doesn’t mean it won’t do it over time. It just happens very very slowly.

Ps
I think the 5 word thread is helping me.
 
Interesting didn’t think of the plastic contributing in that way. I know vinyl can allow growth of fungus or algae. Boat seats can get eat up with it due to moisture. A place I worked that mixed pvc to extrude it and molded it would add anti fungal chemistry to the blend Both tractors have filters.

I use the jingle check valve siphon hose for my boat gas. I use big spouts for the tractor jugs and installed metal tire stems removing the valve they pour quick.
 
Yeah, plastic is petroleum based from what I understand.

@Will L. a fella here at work just happened to ask me the question "how long will diesel last in storage un-treated" before algy and other nasty's start happening. maybe this will help the op in his thread, but I couldn't give the fella here a direct answer. would you be able to help me answer that one?
 
not petroleum based- 100% petroleum.
Hdpe
Ldpe
Pete
Are the 3 premiere plastics to make synthetic fuel or synthetic oil from. Take crude oil, refine it and remove 100% of the sulfur- that is 80% of making plastic and the best of it is those 3 plastics and why they are your “safest for foods” plastic. If anyone ever started plastics to fuel for diy stuff, zombie day, etc- only use those 3. NEVER EVER pvc. Heck- don

AK is 100% right.

if you can buy it without any ethanol/methanol then it is a lot longer. The old stuff was good for decades.

With ethanol, IF get out 100% of the water is impossible, but take out as much as possible and can get 98% then -add germicide. Use the additive like sta-bil. Sealed metal container. No sunlight. The you get 3 months to a year.

Wanna be super-prepped and store diesel for years you HAVE to get pure diesel. There are some places that sell gasoline like that but idk of any diesel places. None in southern Nv,Northern Az, Ca, southern Ut for sure. Or start learning how to do plastic to fuel...which, btw can also be used in tires to fuel but is SUPER HIGH amounts of sulfur. So it has it’s own problems. Think your valves, turbo, engine oil gets a lot of soot now- haha!
There is a place in Texas that makes it and sells it as heating oil. They just don’t advertise it as super high sulfur, but might advertise it as tires to heating oil. A gal owned it about a decade ago, down near San Antonio iirc. That will go away as more places pass laws saying heating oil has to be ultra low sulfur. Long term good I suppose because acid rain sux.
 
We had a 150 gallon tank in the basement in the furnace room, that filled from outside. Dad bought at a farm auction a 500 gallon on-ground diesel tank with a metered pump head on it that sat about 50' from the house, across the driveway next to the T-hanger so there was 110V for powering the pump. It was filled for "emergency backup" of the fuel oil tank in case of a blizzard or ice storm precluded the fuel oil truck from getting out to do a refill. Well, when we had to put in a new drinking water well because Nitrate (fertilizer) levels and the iron content (20 y.o. galvanized well casing was corroding) were both too high, that new well was at the aquifer at 225' deep (the old one was at 160') and great drinking water, dad took advantage of a Federal Tax Credit Carter's Administration had for home renewable/conservation energy improvements, and also had installed a water-to-water heat pump that took water from the new well and extracted (winter) or added (summer) heat to the water discharged into the old well, and between the heat pump and the glass doors and fan-powered heat exchangers on the fireplaces in the living room and the rec room downstairs, we barely used any heating oil out of the basement tank. Dad would just have them come fill/top off the 500 gallon tank mid-fall and again in the early spring and that would get filling vehicles (primarily the Peugeot and the Flixible) taken care of for the year. The 150 in the basement tank? Lasted for over 4 years with the heat pump and fireplace exchangers in use in the winter.
 
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I use a 5 gallon VP Fuel container and buy 5 gallon canned fuel for all my 2 stroke OPE equipment.
For regular gas usage I always treat with Stabil or some sort of fuel stabilizer. For lawn mowers and stuff where I'm going through it weekly.
I used to buy B99 and store it in those yellow 5 gallon plastic jugs. I still do when I buy it. That stuff is crazy for breaking things down. I haven't really noticed any degradationof any of my plastic fuel tanks. I'll keep a.look out though.
For Will's postings, it's like me reading a novel. LMFAO
 
Have noticed the occasional spec of mystery content in the fuel jugs as well. Even with that, have not run into any issues with the equipment. Do not worry about cleaning-out the occasional spec-o-stuf as all the equipment has a fuel filter of some kind.

Usually get fuel in a batch by loading up empties and doing a fuel station run. After that it will sit for up to a year in the shade. Both gas and diesel get turned over in a year. If the gas is getting close to the year mark, I dump it in a car and get fresh. I do not treat the gas with anything. I do add some lube to the diesel, but that is done when I fill the tractor.

If I really wanted to get gas that was rated to sit longer than a year, I'd go out the the local airport and get some 100LL, but that stuff is awfully expensive to run through the mower and other equipment. Also, cannot run it through the car.

Fuel jugs are all plastic where some were bought new, others were hand-me-down, and one was found in my back yard after it sat for an unknown time. The back-yard jug is obvious as it is faded, but in terms of the others it is tougher to tell their actual age. I have metal jugs, but they just do not get used.
 
Considering both Tecumseh and Briggs-Stratton, as well as Honda, Subaru, Cheng-Shin and several other small engine suppliers, have built their small engines (lawn mower and snowblower, power washer, etc.) to run perfectly fine on E-10 Regular for almost 10 years now, buying canned gas is just throwing good money away. As for chainsaws, weedeaters and blowers that are 2-stroke, adding the oil to attain your mix pretty much negates any effect that ethanol would have to the fuel mix.
 
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