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Fuel stabilizer - serious test!

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Bryanj:
Common fault on Yamaha tanks Ted

Skoti:
Was going to rush out and buy some Sta-bil fuel additive after reading this thread.

That is until I watched this comparison test recently posted over on Access Norton.

https://youtu.be/mRGRWwPC3lA


It's a simple test from a lady that's run a lawn mower repair shop for over 10 years and seems legit...

Any thoughts?

McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
I just watched the video clip, on face value the Stab-il does not work,  hard to argue with her findings.

I do know that adding more neat anti-freeze than recommended to water has an invertion point. The basic mantra when I studied chemistry was, adding a substance to a liquid elevates the boiling point and depresses the freezing point. Different situation here so I digress.

Also some surfactants become less effective if you add too much of the product. A case in point is washing powder, doubling the amount of recommended powder actually reduces the effectiveness of some detergents.

I decided to see if I could reproduce her experiment,sorry I can't be bothered to make a video.
I poured about 25 ml of Stab-il that I bought earlier this year and added about 5 ml of neat water and shook the test tube so it dispersed. The clear pink colour went cloudy as the water appeared to form bit of a mixture , after 5 minutes I saw that the water had indeed seperated to the bottom as per her video, not instant but not good.

So she is right, or is she?
Is it a realistic situation to add neat water if fuel stabalizers are designed to react with  Ethanol to prevent it becoming Hygroscopic?

It would have been a more convincing test if using Ethanol instead of water had the same outcome.

My experience with Wynns Dry Fuel was that after 9 years my Yamaha petrol tank was fine.

The last interesting feature is she is not paid or sponsored though clearly you come away with the idea that Stab-il does not work but that Ethanol Shield does - at least on water!

McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
The closest I have to Ethanol is Methylated Spirits, so I added about 5 ml of Meths to about 20ml of Stab-il it disperses out immediately, no shaking needed.

I don't think I have  proves anything except I have too much time on my hands..
Mr Google says the so called Phase Seperation when Ethanol attracts water for E10 - it can hold up to 0.41% water in solution
E10: Can hold up to 0.41% water in solution. E15: Can hold up to 0.85% water in solution.
It does not appear to be linear so E5 will be quite small.

I'm not sure even if water is held in solution in E10 petrol that itself can cause an issue, isn't it when there is too much water that the separtion phase is reached forming a globule at the bottom of you tank.

Mikep328:
 I have seen non-stabilized E10 totally clog carbs over winter storage - requiring manual disassembly/cleaning to restore them to operating condition.  I have used Stabil for 20 years and had E10 fuel/Stabil in a tank for 2+ years with no issue.  Probably any fuel stabilizer will do the job but Stabil is the only brand I have used and since it works, I have no reason to try something else.  But I believe that SOME brand of fuel stabilizer should be added for long term storage of ethanol-treated fuel. 

FWIW I know that condensation is often said to cause water in fuel over time. I've never had an issue over the years using stabilizer.  As I said, vehicles stored for 2+ years started as if running the day prior so clearly there was no water or degradation of the fuel.   Re condensation, here is an interesting article:
https://www.yachtsurvey.com/myth_of_condensation_in_fuel_tanks.htm

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