Personal Insurance Blog

During a recent trip to the “fix it” shop I learned of the probable reason that my lawn mower – as well as my lawn tractor and snow blower— wasn’t properly working.  Although I flirted with the possibility that a poltergeist was haunting all my gas-powered tools, it turns out that changes in fuel composition are to blame. The transition from pure gasoline to a mix of gasoline and ethanol were the culprits that had brought about the unforeseen damage to the engines.

Why does ethanol damage my lawn equipment?

Ethanol attracts moisture, which rapidly deteriorates fuel.    My “fix it” shop offered the following solution: run the lawn mower/snow blower/etc until it’s almost out of gas or drain the fuel when not in use.  I consulted some articles on the subject that suggested the problems to be more extensive, but I’m going to employ the simple solution above to do the trick.

Why bother preventing ethanol damage?

Maintaining expensive tools even with the simplest of procedures will save you trouble and money in the future. Insurance doesn’t and shouldn’t cover everything, including a small engine with moisture damage, so I hope this tip acts as your insurance against this problem!

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