To reduce our dependence on foreign oil, more gasoline blended with ten percent ethanol is being sold. Gasoline that contains ethanol does not have as long a shelf life in your snow blower or generator. So you need to keep that gas fresh. Jimmy Gosnell of Four All Seasons equipment near Linglestown says the key to keeping seldom used power equipment ready, is to keep the fuel fresh. Now that more and more gas pumps are serving up gas with ten percent ethanol you shouldn't let the gas sit around for months.

"Mainly because the ethanol is an alcohol base which attracts water," says Gosnell. "Water's not good for anything in regards to a gasoline burning engine."

Gosnell says water in the fuel can lead to corrosion and engine failure. So when you need your snow blower or power generator after a storm they may not be ready. He says drain the gas each month and replace it with fresh fuel. The drained fuel can go in your car since it will be diluted in the car's larger gas tank. That's only true for four cycle engines. Gas that's mixed with oil from two-cycle power equipment should not be put in your car's tank after draining.

Lots of viewers are complaining to us about getting fewer miles per gallon when using fuel with ethanol. A new Dodge pickup we're testing is a "flex-fuel" design and can use E-85 ethanol which is 85 percent ethanol. The truck's fuel mileage using regular gas is about 19 miles per gallon. When using the 85 percent ethanol, the mileage dropped to about 14 miles per gallon.

Classic Honda motorcycle owner John Wood of Lower Swatara Township says using ten percent ethanol in his cycle makes it run rough and get much less mileage.
"I was getting in the low fifties miles per gallon and when I was running regular gas," says Wood. "On the ten percent ethanol the miles per gallon dropped to the upper thirties to low forties and I couldn't figure out why."

His 1983 Honda motorcycle likes one-hundred-percent gasoline only. It's usually older engines that don't run as well on ethanol.
Wood says if it gets too tough to find gas without ethanol the cycle may have to go. "The only thing I can see with me is putting the bike up for sale to a collector."