Skip to content
‹ Back to IndustriesProfessional AV

BAD GAS MEANS BAD PERFORMANCE FOR SMALL ENGINES

The small engines found in lawnmowers and four-wheelers perform best with fuel that is less than a month old. So if you’ve stored your lawnmower away for the season or haven’t used your ATV in a while, it’s essential to ensure bad gas doesn’t take a toll on the performance of your equipment. Replace Old…

This story was produced through MarketScale. See how Professional AV teams put it to work with Customer Stories & Case Studies.

·
Share
BAD GAS MEANS BAD PERFORMANCE FOR SMALL ENGINES

Free workspace

Turn your Professional AV expertise into content.

Record interviews, organize footage, and write with AI on a free trial of the MarketScale platform for qualifying companies. No demo required, no credit card.

Try it Free

The small engines found in lawnmowers and four-wheelers perform best with fuel that is less than a month old. So if you’ve stored your lawnmower away for the season or haven’t used your ATV in a while, it’s essential to ensure bad gas doesn’t take a toll on the performance of your equipment.

Replace Old Gasoline in Your Small Engine

Untreated gas typically has a shelf life of three months. Running your small engine with gasoline that has degraded may deteriorate rubber seals, fuel lines, and intricate metal parts. In addition, when hydrocarbons oxidize, they can create a gum that will clog gas lines and filters and leave deposits in the fuel system and carburetor. If your small engine exhibits hard to starting or runs rough, one of the quickest and easiest fixes is to replace the stale fuel. Exchanging it with fresh gas and spraying a light dose of starter fluid directly into the carburetor can improve performance immediately.

Upgrade or Downsize Your Gasoline Container

Over time, a poorly sealed fuel container will emit gas vapors, losing the volatile properties necessary to starting a cold engine. In addition, moisture may be absorbed over time, condensing on container walls, eventually descending to the bottom of the container. As the lower level of fuel is reached, you’re literally pouring a blend of old gas and water into your small engine. Further, storing too little gas in a container allows for surplus air that results in more rapid gas spoilage. Use a container properly sized for your needs and try to purchase only enough gas fuel to last for 30 days.

Use Fuel Stabilizer

When you’re done with your equipment for the season, be proactive—add a fuel stabilizer to both your storage container and gas tank to increase gasoline stability. Of course, using a fuel stabilizer regularly reduces the effects of water accumulation, slows the loss of volatile vapors, and keeps equipment running well all year round. A stabilizer actually works best when it’s added to fresh gas right at the pump, so make it a habit. Look for a product that includes antioxidant protection, corrosion inhibitors, detergent, and metal deactivators.

The Experts at Walbro Can Help

Contamination of your small engine’s fuel system by expired gasoline will cause frustrating performance problems, even long-term damage to your equipment. If you have questions about your small engine’s performance, Walbro can help. We’re a global market leader in engine management and fuel systems for the outdoor power equipment, recreational, marine, and personal transportation markets. Walbro manufactures carburetors, electronic fuel injection systems, ignition systems, fuel tanks, fuel pumps, valves, and fuel storage and distribution systems.

Shop Walbro’s full line of small engine products at https://shop.walbro.com/collections/products.

Read more at walbro.com

Your experts belong here

Every story in MarketScale Professional AV starts with a company putting its integrators, design engineers, and product specialists on the record. Buyers are already reading this topic. The only question is whose experts they find.

When a spec writer or facilities lead searches this category, your integrators are what they find instead of a competitor.

Book DemoSee how it works15 minutes, straight to a calendar.
B2B Weekly

The week in Professional AV, and sixteen other industries, every Monday.

Ten stories, one-line takes, five minutes. Free.

Professional AV: are you visible to AI?

Before they reach out, Professional AV buyers ask AI engines which vendors to trust. Explore how your experts, customers, and partners can become useful content for buyers and AI search.

Free Trial

You just read one Professional AV expert. Your company is full of them.

This article was produced through MarketScale. The same platform turns your integrators, design engineers, and product specialists into the articles, video, and social content Professional AV buyers are searching for. Start a free trial and see it with your own people. For qualifying companies, no credit card, no demo required.

NPS +73 · 1,000+ creators · 38+ countries

What your free trial includes

Hands-on access to the MarketScale platform
Media requests to your crowd, remote recording, AI writing tools
No demo required. No credit card.
For qualifying companies. Company confirmation required.

More Professional AV Insights

Telefónica fits its new Madrid broadcast monitoring room with an 11.4-meter Alfalite LED wall

Telefónica fits its new Madrid broadcast monitoring room with an 11.4-meter Alfalite LED wall

Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales has commissioned an 11.4-meter Alfalite UHD Finepix 1.2 LED wall for a new TSAmediaHUB monitoring room in Aravaca, Madrid. Servers feed it over NDI, so sources can be distributed centrally and layouts adapted to the needs of each operation.

  • 01Fed over NDI video-over-IP, Telefónica's Aravaca wall makes the arrangement of broadcast feeds a server setting that can be adapted for each operation.

Oct 3, 2026

Transcoding moves to the cloud. Intercom, tally and shading stay at the venue

Transcoding moves to the cloud. Intercom, tally and shading stay at the venue

Vendors draw the same line: transcoding and graphics move to the cloud, while intercom, tally and camera shading stay on site. Riedel says the connection back to on-site talent, cameras, tally and IFB can still undermine the production or the business case. Hybrid looks like where things settle.

  • 01Dillon’s analysis suggests hybrid cloud-plus-venue production is where things settle, making on-site hardware for latency-bound work a long-term facility plan item.
  • 02Interoperability standards such as SMPTE ST 2110 and NMOS handle the plumbing. The question to put to vendors now is how their systems provision, configure, tear down and monitor services alongside other vendors' gear.

Oct 1, 2026

Vindral shares an Emmy honour for frame-accurate browser monitoring

Vindral shares an Emmy honour for frame-accurate browser monitoring

Vindral shares an Emmy honour in a category described as web-based, frame-accurate, remote and distributed. Vindral shares the category with NBCUniversal, Disney, Amazon, CBS Sports, Grass Valley, Game Creek and SipRadius. The award recognises tools that keep production teams in separate locations frame-accurate in a browser, without specialised hardware.

  • 01The Emmy-recognised technical bar is that everyone on a distributed production sees the exact same frame at the exact same moment in an ordinary browser, with no specialised hardware.
  • 02Eight organizations share the award, and the release says the work being honored dates to the pandemic. The announcement doesn’t rank the honourees or include latency figures a buyer could benchmark.

Sep 28, 2026

Explore More Professional AV Insights

Read more expert perspectives from across Professional AV.

Browse Professional AV Hub

For B2B teams

Your experts could be publishing here

Stories like this one run on content MarketScale captures from real practitioners. See how your team's expertise becomes coverage in Professional AV and beyond.

Book a Demo

Or call us. No forms required. We pick up. 214-945-2512