Off-topic -- Pretty Darn Frosted about a Small Engine Repair

by AaronB, Monday, November 19, 2012, 11:16 (4333 days ago)

So I started having problems with my Echo brand string trimmer. The thing is less than a year old. I could get it to start and run for a minute or two, then it would sputter and lose power. I could limp it along on half-choke for another few minutes, then it would up and quit.

So I take it to a small engine shop and drop it off. It's a major shop in town, and also a dealer of small gas-powered equipment. I had forgotten about it for a week or so, but I just called them up today to see what was up with it.

Turns out that they'd tried to rebuild the carb, but that didn't fix it, so they put a new carburetor in the thing. The guy on the phone told me that the low-octane gas has additives in it that the high-octane gas doesn't have, and that these additives will damage carbs.

I didn't really believe that, though I suppose it could be true. There's crap in all the gas these days, no matter what the octane rating. I had been running 87-octane in it and I learned that that's a no-no, I should be running Premium... okay, fine, but that would hurt the piston and cylinder, not the carb.

The thing probably had only five or six tanks of gas through it in its entire lifetime, and I don't see how the fuel could have caused it to go south so fast. I think someone may be trying to snooker me.

-AaronB