Garden Kit News Article - 10 March 2018

This is the time of year when we are busy servicing mowers and other garden machinery prior to the spring. Most of these machines will have been stored with petrol in the tank, something that most owners will think is perfectly reasonable.

But most people are blissfully unaware that the petrol is deteriorating in their precious machine and causing damage. The photo shows an example from a fuel bowl of an Atco cylinder mower we serviced this week. It had been working perfectly when last used at the end of last season, but over the winter the petrol has absorbed water into the ethanol content which had then "phase separated" into the nasty jelly that we can see here.

O course it has now been cleaned out, and as it was in a plastic bowl there has been no lasting damage. It would have been a totally different story had the petrol been left in an aluminium bowl or carburettor as severe corrosion would have resulted.

Save your machine from suffering this sort of damage by using only Aspen alkylate fuel.