Stored petrol.

I was chatting with a local young lad who has been struggling to find a decent job. He was saying he is looking into starting his own gardening business, but cost of various fuel driven power tools was holding up him moving forward.

I mentioned how I use my solar power bank to power my electric grass cutter, strimmer, hedge cutter, leaf blower, so another avenue for him to look down.

Also less equipment maintenance required and, no requirement to store and carry fuel and oils.

Stray spark or electric fault start the fire, Boris? Cateram is well melted 😩
 
Topmast said:
Hi everyone
Because of the number of petrol driven machines I have ,I always keep at least 5 gallons in hand as we never know when forest fires, power cuts etc. strike .so what is the best way to keep it in good condition. Thanks for any replies.
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Petrol deteriates over time and will become difficult to get the engine to start. We had this with our lawn mower. The five litre container I use was filled May 2025, when I came to use it this may, I couldn't start the mower. As far as I know, there is no way to stop the deteriation of fuel.
 
Rumour said:
Petrol deteriates over time and will become difficult to get the engine to start. We had this with our lawn mower. The five litre container I use was filled May 2025, when I came to use it this may, I couldn't start the mower. As far as I know, there is no way to stop the deteriation of fuel.
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Post #2? ;)
 
wildebus said:
I would buy some additive.
This stuff here is good - Briggs & Stratton Fuel Fit Additive/Stabiliser - and made by the company who make more air-cooled petrol engines than anyone else, so they should know a thing or two about it :)
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I’ve used the above in all x 3 generators, lawnmowers, chainsaws etc etc. Used a chainsaw last week that had stood for 2 years and started after 5 pulls.
Can highly recommend it.
 
I will add that I didn't just "google" an answer to post, and my reply was based on some experience of a product ....
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(looking at my previous order, the price is up around 80% over the last 7.5 years. Bit more than inflation!)
 
runnach said:
I was chatting with a local young lad who has been struggling to find a decent job. He was saying he is looking into starting his own gardening business, but cost of various fuel driven power tools was holding up him moving forward.
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Bit of an aside to the OP topic, but there is a local young lad in the Borders who has a 'side hustle' to his regular work - he does patio jet washing. We get him in every spring to blast the slabs and it looks so much better - as he has a really good power washer compared to my domestic Power Washer - that we (or mainly the OH) is happy to pay him the £100 or so to do the job.
I would think this is a bit of a niche job that he could make some reasonble money at even after investing some cash up front for an industrial level washer? Something to consider maybe?

And maybe extend the washing to fencing panels? The difference before and after after jet wash cleaning is often so dramatic, customers are usually so happy they will be back again and again!


runnach said:
I mentioned how I use my solar power bank to power my electric grass cutter, strimmer, hedge cutter, leaf blower, so another avenue for him to look down.

Also less equipment maintenance required and, no requirement to store and carry fuel and oils.

Stray spark or electric fault start the fire, Boris? Cateram is well melted 😩
Click to expand...
 
runnach said:
I was chatting with a local young lad who has been struggling to find a decent job. He was saying he is looking into starting his own gardening business, but cost of various fuel driven power tools was holding up him moving forward.

I mentioned how I use my solar power bank to power my electric grass cutter, strimmer, hedge cutter, leaf blower, so another avenue for him to look down.

Also less equipment maintenance required and, no requirement to store and carry fuel and oils.

Stray spark or electric fault start the fire, Boris? Cateram is well melted 😩
Click to expand...
It was actually started 5 doors away and spread down one side of the industrial estate. It was caused by a landscape gardener storing petrol for his machines.

The Caterham was well melted as you say, but the fuel tank and fuel lines stayed intact. Even the Cam covers melted and the fuel lines stayed between them survived.

My other unit was completely destroyed.

We were in Geneva at the time and turned out we were the only unit with any fire extinguishers etc..
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Boris7 said:
It was actually started 5 doors away and spread down one side of the industrial estate. It was caused by a landscape gardener storing petrol for his machines.

The Caterham was well melted as you say, but the fuel tank and fuel lines stayed intact. Even the Cam covers melted and the fuel lines stayed between them survived.

My other unit was completely destroyed.

We were in Geneva at the time and turned out we were the only unit with any fire extinguishers etc..View attachment 207761
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That is some mess, I hope the landscape business had insurance in place and insurers coughed up for everyone's loss?

Did investigators find out what caused fuel to ignite?
 
The fuel ignited because it was stored on a wooden mezzanine floor alongside a pallet of sponges right below a halogen light. They put the mezzanine in only 4 days earlier, put the Jerry cans up there and later that same day the sponges.

8 fire engines attended, but it was decided not to fight the fire for risk of explosion. That was based on poor info. Next to them was a carpet warehouse once that caught it spread quickly. The fire officer later said that she didn’t know our 2 warehouses were there ( no I’m not joking)

No they had no insurance, my insurance paid, but it was a proper fight, took 10 months for an initial payment, I was investigated personally as they thought I may have started it to claim the insurance, I’d been out of the country for 3 weeks. Took 4 years to get all the money from them.

The Caterham was rebuilt, its insurers took less than 24 hours to approve the claim.

The owner of the landscapers face no charges, he just walked away Scot free. I had him landscape my garden a while later and then refused to pay. He was right peed off, but his wife said he deserved it.
 
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