Gasoline storage at home?

O

oguruma

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Jan 3, 2010
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I am looking to keep a small amount (probably 20 gallons or so) of unleaded gas stored at my home. It would be stored in an out-building in my back yard, but I am curious what the most cost-effective way to store it would be. Is it safe to store it in plastic gas cans for 6 months to a year? Why or why not? I have heard the metal "safety" cans are the best way, but at $50 a piece, it is more than I am wanting to spend.,
 
I keep about 50 gallons stored in 6 gallon cans. I like to have it on hand to run my generators, as we have had extended power outages from wind and ice storms. When there is a power outage or some kind of disaster, you don't want to be running around trying to find gas.

I think that the gas would not lose its mojo for at least 6 months. Its probably good for a year or more if you at Sta-bil, which have used. But I can attest that the gas gets "bad" over time and will no longer run a gas engine.

I see no reason not to store gas in plastic cans. Just make sure you use it before it goes bad. I'm in the process now of taking several cans to the recycling center because I let it go bad. I need to use it in my vehicle when it hits the age of 6 months, or use Sta-bil and keep it maybe no more than a year.

In terms of safety, my only consideration is to open the small vent cap on the containers when they are stored in the shed in hot weather, as that vapor tries to expand and might balloon out the cans.
 
I've been thinking doing the same. I was debating storin it in a plastic or metal drum with a pump or spigot on it. Never thought about stability, so I'm glad I saw this thread. BTW, definately would keep it a ways from the house. What do you think of burying it partially sub terra firma?
 
Modern gasoline is very stable and no additive is necessary for upto a year. Just cycle it through your car. If you have four five-gallon cans, mark the first "January/May/September," the second "February/June/October," the third "March/July/November," and the last "April/August/December." Once a month, dump the can for that month into your car and then refill it. This way, no gas is ever more than four months old. No problems.

It is important to fill the cans all the way up. Air space can allow water to condense.
 
Make sure that your gas cans are air tight and do not vent fumes. If you smell gas in you storage area then gas is venting and it will go stale fast, not to mention posing a serious fire hazzard. Gas cans are designed to hold fuel and vapor under pressure, if it cannot then the fuel is slowly boiling off the good stuff and the remaining fuel will lose its volatility and become much like paint thinner with time. The problem is worse during warm weather.
 
Bufford, if what you say is true - which I don't doubt - it sounds like I am shortening the life span of my gas reserves by allowing them to vent.
 
I stock/store 4 different fuels in Plastic without additives and never had any trouble with it.

I hear of people having trouble with old fuel for small engines, chainsaws, diesel (gelling), etc. but ether I've been lucky for decades or buying the highest grade of Gasoline/Fuel I can get has been paying off. Don't go cheap on stored fuel, is my rule.
 
FWIW, I used to run aviation fuel (spendy) in my generator. It would not produce the soot and so forth of regular gas. I did it mostly as a goof, because someone had recommended it and my dad was able to score some aviation fuel - whatever that is. I think it may be higher octane.
 
Unless I needed it to be portable I would just buy a tank of whatever size I wanted. There are many options. You can get plastic tanks meant for boats, although some with a coast guard rating can be pricey. A thirty gallon drum lined for solvent/fuel use can be had for less than thirty dollars used in many places. Combine that with a barrel cradle and a valve you will have safe storage that is easily accessible.

There are some really good high end plastic fuel containers available. They are as expensive as metal and subject to picking up a static charge. They work very well and are durable but the static charge build up danger is very real.

The absolute cheapest way that is safe would be to find a farm store that has poly tanks that are rated for hydrocarbon storage. They come in many shapes and usually don't require any kind of stand. Around here a small one is less than two dollars per gallon of storage and they get cheaper per gallon the larger they get.
 
powernoodle said:
FWIW, I used to run aviation fuel (spendy) in my generator. It would not produce the soot and so forth of regular gas. I did it mostly as a goof, because someone had recommended it and my dad was able to score some aviation fuel - whatever that is. I think it may be higher octane.
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I don't think burning AvGas (or any aviation fuel) in a generator would be good for it for long. I burned a lawnmower out using kerosene instead of gas one time; I have to assume the same principals would apply?

I'm thinking back to my days in naval aviation, and what I learned from the aircraft fuel guys on our ship.

If I remember correctly, motor (car) fuels are the 85-87-89 octane we have today, and aviation fuels can be much higher, up to 100 octane. (Jet fuels are more like kerosene, whatever octane that would be.)

Aviation fuels sometimes have a lead-type additive, so they burn consistently (stable combustion?). There's probably a lot more to this that I can't even begin to remember now. I remember that mixing the types (MoGas, AvGas, JGas, etc.) ain't good - all kinds of nasty little problems: stalls at altitude, cruddy build-up in the engine, internal damage, etc.

~Chris
 
Yeah, that aviation fuel thing was pretty much for giggles, though it did run well.
 
Aviation fuel is really high octane, higher than racing fuel. The added lead in fuels are for anti-knock purposes.

Source: My dad, collector car restorer and engineer.
 
Gollnick said:
Modern gasoline is very stable and no additive is necessary for upto a year. Just cycle it through your car. If you have four five-gallon cans, mark the first "January/May/September," the second "February/June/October," the third "March/July/November," and the last "April/August/December." Once a month, dump the can for that month into your car and then refill it. This way, no gas is ever more than four months old. No problems.

It is important to fill the cans all the way up. Air space can allow water to condense.
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A very smart idea, and one which I will be adopting shortly. Thanks.

powernoodle said:
Bufford, if what you say is true - which I don't doubt - it sounds like I am shortening the life span of my gas reserves by allowing them to vent.
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Yes you are. What you're doing is essentially a fractional distillation of the more volatile compounds in the mix. Any gas can that passed the approval process should be capable of containing the vapor pressure of gasoline unless it's been compromised somehow. You're letting the best parts of the gas just blow away.
 
powernoodle said:
Bufford, if what you say is true - which I don't doubt - it sounds like I am shortening the life span of my gas reserves by allowing them to vent.
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No don't vent your gas cans, you are just venting off your hard earned $s. It is common for gas cans to get really hard and even round from the pressure during the day, but during the cool of night they will go in reverse and invert as vapor returns to its liquid form. That is the reason why gas cans are regulated for safety reasons.
 
I work in the marine parts and repair industry and have extensive experience with the problems of storing gas. We have found that the new ethanol enhance gas will begin phase separation at about the six week mark no matter what stabilizer you use. Granted our location on the coast does not help this situation, so if inland you may find the window is a bit larger. However, it has been made quite clear to me that storing gas is a thing of the past. Believe me when I say that 90% of our business is now focused around the damage ethanol gas does to marine engines when stored for extended periods of time. Once phase separation begins the gas begins to turn into a gel like substance that clogs fuel systems like you would not believe. We are regularly servicing engines that have less than 10 hours due to customers storing gas in their boats over the winter. Around here gas that has set for more than a month is considered trash and will be removed and disposed of.

You also must keep in mind that ethanol is an astringent(spelling?) and therefore literally sucks water into the solution which does not help with the phase separation, not to mention what that does to your engine.

In short, don't bother storing ethanol enhanced gas. There are places you can buy non-ethanol gas. Find one in your area and store that.

On another note, we have found after testing most stabilizers on the market stabil and startron are the worst yet most popular but there is a company (USA fuel services) that makes Gas-Shock which is quite good.
 
jnich005 said:
I work in the marine parts and repair industry and have extensive experience with the problems of storing gas. We have found that the new ethanol enhance gas will begin phase separation at about the six week mark no matter what stabilizer you use. Granted our location on the coast does not help this situation, so if inland you may find the window is a bit larger. However, it has been made quite clear to me that storing gas is a thing of the past. Believe me when I say that 90% of our business is now focused around the damage ethanol gas does to marine engines when stored for extended periods of time. Once phase separation begins the gas begins to turn into a gel like substance that clogs fuel systems like you would not believe. We are regularly servicing engines that have less than 10 hours due to customers storing gas in their boats over the winter. Around here gas that has set for more than a month is considered trash and will be removed and disposed of.

You also must keep in mind that ethanol is an astringent(spelling?) and therefore literally sucks water into the solution which does not help with the phase separation, not to mention what that does to your engine.

In short, don't bother storing ethanol enhanced gas. There are places you can buy non-ethanol gas. Find one in your area and store that.

On another note, we have found after testing most stabilizers on the market stabil and startron are the worst yet most popular but there is a company (USA fuel services) that makes Gas-Shock which is quite good.
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This. From everything I have read, this is the gospel on gas storage.

I have two Eagle 5 gallon safety cans. A type one and a type two. Both of which are filled with non-ethanol gasoline with Stabil. I will be on the lookout for that Gas-Shock stuff.

I keep it for evacuation purposes and for events like the tornado outbreak we recently had here in Alabama. I prefer the metal cans soley for the lack of fumes when transporting that gas home in the car.

I rotate my stock often and have noticed that since switching over to ethanol free gas, my mowers run a ton better and start on the first pull everytime.

YMMV.

http://pure-gas.org/
 
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When I was a kid we stored gas in the used Stay-puf (?) laundry softner 1 gal jugs. Never had a problem with them although my dad cautioned me not to pick any old plastic bottle and assume it would hold the gas. I can't think of the name but there is supposed to be a stabilizer that is better than Stab-il. If I remember I'll ask my friends what it was again.

If you get enthanol free gas I really don't see a problem with storage as long as you don't need premium grade fuel for your generator. The saw shop guys say not to use premium over a month old in the saws. They said there is so little oil in it anyway that dumping in the bit that's left wont hurt your car once it gets mixed with a whole tank of gasoline. I also know a guy that adds 1/2 gallon of diesel to his tank for every ten gallons of gas. Don't know if I'm ready to do that though.
 
Regular av gas for small planes is just high octane gas,not sure about octane rating anymore but at one time it was 115,it'll work fine in any gas engine and last I knew it still had lead or something similar in it that's better for small engines,the main thing would be the extra expense.
 
Back in the early 1990s Briggs and Stratton recommended that you didn't keep anymore gas around than you could use in 30 days time without fuel stabilizer in it.I don't think gas is as bad as it was back then but I wouldn't keep it longer than 6months even with stabilizer in it.Run it through your car and buy fresh.There is a lot of difference in gas in different areas of the country and I've seen some really messed up carburators from bad gas.If your looking to use this gas in something like a generator for home heating or anything to keep your family safe and comfortable,keep your gas fresh.If you are going to store it,store it in plastic,gas will attract condensation in a metal can.
 
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