(KUTV) At Craig's Service Center in Salt Lake City, they tell me they have seen gas sales double ever since they added an ethanol free gas option for their customers. It's rare. The vast majority of gas stations in Utah only offer fuel that contains up to 10% ethanol. Ethanol, which in the United States is primarily produced using corn crops, is billed as a way to cut fuel costs and pollution. But does putting ethanol into small engines like snow-throwers or lawnmowers have any impact?I took your good question to Speeds Power Equipment in Salt Lake City. Mechanic Trevor Carpenter has been working on small engines for seven years and worked on car engines for a major Utah car dealership for several years before that. He says he has absolutely has seen an ethanol impact since it was introduced to fuel in 2007. He says people have been coming into Speeds, left and right, with fuel related issues. Trever says that because ethanol is an alcohol it acts like a cleaning solution inside engines. Ironically, that's a bad thing. He says ethanol removes the gunk from the inside of an engine but then often deposits that gunk where it doesn't belong.All the little debris and such that's helping to clean up is getting launched up into the jets and preventing the machine from getting the proper amount of fuel, he said.Additionally, as an alcohol ethanol burns hotter, says Trevor. We put together a test to see if that heat could be detected. Using two identical, brand new leaf blowers, we put standard, 10-percent ethanol gasoline into one and an ethanol free gasoline into the other. We waited for the machines to warn up then using a thermometer, read the temperature of the engine. We found that the blower without ethanol remained nearly 100 degrees cooler than the machine burning the 10-percent ethanol solution. Trever says the higher temps can be problematic.It kind of weakens the metal, he said.Trever says that he believes ethanol in car engines doesn't pose a big problem because most cars are equipped with computers that make sure the engine compensates for any problems caused by ethanol. He added that, because cars are driven every day, the fuel doesn't have a chance to sit still for very long compared to small engines. Snow throwers and lawnmowers are used seasonally and thus often sit for months.By adding water to a jar of 10-percent ethanol fuel, Trever demonstrated the problem that can arise from months of moisture seeping into a gas tank. While water in gas is never good, ethanol gas bonds with the water. You can see how the ethanol and water make a white, cloudy gunk. That gunk is bad for engines, Trevor said, and it leads to the biggest complaint they hear at Speeds. Most of the machines that we've had come through usually have a fuel related issue where my snow thrower won't start, my chainsaw's not running well, he said. Based on our tests, Trevor and other mechanics at Speeds recommend that if you have a choice to avoid ethanol-mixed fuel, do. They say, if you do put ethanol fuel in your small engine machines, the most important thing you can do is not let it sit for months with that fuel in there. When you're done with a piece of equipment for a season, get the fuel out by pouring it out or burn it off. Doing so will lengthen the life of a small engine, they say.By Matt GephardtProduced by Cindy St. ClairEdited by Amber MonioPhotography by Brian Morris(Copyright 2014 Sinclair Broadcasting Group)

• published: 06 Feb 2014
• views: 7892