shelf life of gasoline

[jmann]

I am thinking of cresting my own "strategic oil reserve." well, not really. But I think about the north east power outage in 2003, I am reminded that one of the biggest problems was that gas stations could not pump gas and so after several days, people could not get around anymore. not only that, but my family relied on a car to power its little black and white TV for updates during this event. (just think -- this will not work when NTSC broadcast is phased out feb 2009) Conincidentially, I was out of town visiting my favorite place in the world, San Fransisco, that week, and I had a great time.

In any case, I find that it may be an asset to have around 10 gallons of fuel sitting here in case some similar strange circumstance were to happen again. People who have riding mowers and similar contraptions already do this just, though not specifically for this purpose.

I have googled with some useful results, but I just wanted to get an opinion here.

[ESanders2]

Gas is only good for about 60 days, then it starts to form gummy deposits that can clog your fuel system. If you add fuel stabilizer to it ("Sta-Bil" being one of them) it's good for 12 months. I figured this out b/c I deploy for 70 days at a time to the middle east and my motorcycle and car sit while I'm away. I put Sta-Bil into them so the injectors and fuel lines don't get clogged.

[David Beale]

I've stored my RX-7 with a full tank every winter for 6 months at a time with no problems since 1998. I think that's a pretty good example that fuel is good for at least 6 months. I'm told fuel will last longer in a plastic tank - the metal in a metal tank acts like a catalyst.
Your best bet if you only want to keep 10 gal on hand, is to cycle it through your vehicle. That way it only sits around for a month or so. Two 5 gal plastic gas containers or five two gal. ones would work fine. You can even get cool hand operated fuel pumps that fit on the plastic cans. I often keep a 5 gal one filled over winter just in case of a massive power failure (all water pipes would freeze). I have a power generator I can use to get the furnace running. In the spring, the fuel goes into a vehicle.

DO NOT store the fuel in the garage or house! If there is a fire, even if the fuel didn't cause it, will probably impact on your insurance settlement. Use a garden shed or such to store the fuel, at least 20 ft from the house/garage.