What Happens If You Put Premium Gas In A Lawn Mower?

Using premium gasoline with a higher octane rating can improve how certain designs of motor vehicle engines perform. But does that mean you should consider using it with other motors at your house, such as your lawn mower? For the most part, there is no reason to use premium high-octane fuel in a lawn mower. On rare occasions, a lawn mower manufacturer might recommend using high-octane gasoline, and you should always follow the manufacturer's guidelines for fuel usage. However, such guidelines are extremely rare.

Lawn mower motor manufacturers design their engines to run on regular-octane fuel. Making use of premium fuel is not going to provide any advantages because the lawn mower motor is not tuned to use it. Premium gasoline doesn't have a greater energy content than other types of gas, so it doesn't help engines that aren't tuned to use it. Consequently, you may end up wasting money by using premium gasoline. Depending on your location, you could expect to pay from around 5% to 20% more per gallon for high-octane fuel than regular fuel.

Premium fuel has an octane rating of 91 to 94. The octane rating for regular gas is usually 87. With a higher octane rating, the premium fuel is stabilized against premature spontaneous combustion, which can lead to damage in an engine. However, unless the motor is designed specifically to take advantage of premium gasoline, it simply doesn't see an improved efficiency compared to using regular gas.

So if you don't need to use premium gasoline in your lawn mower, does it matter what kind of fuel you use? It does matter, especially if it's old or stale gas. Gas can clog the fuel filter and engine valves as it ages. How often should you be changing your lawn mower gas? It can go stale in as little as 30 days. Removing the gas from the mower by either letting it run out or pouring it into an approved container is an important winter-season maintenance step when cleaning the lawn mower from top to bottom.

You should also use caution with gasoline that has ethanol added, as it could cause negative effects on the performance of a lawn mower engine. Ethanol-blended gasoline sometimes is considered premium gas, depending on your state of residence, as adding ethanol can give the fuel a higher octane rating.

However, the primary reason to avoid using some types of ethanol-blended fuel in your lawn mower is that it can cause engine corrosion and could draw water into the fuel tank, potentially damaging the mower engine's fuel system. Always pay attention to any guidelines for using ethanol-blended fuel from your lawn mower manufacturer, but most manufacturers allow E-10-blended fuel. E-15 or higher ethanol fuel blends are not recommended. Of course, you can avoid all these hassles and issues by making use of one of the best battery-powered lawn mowers instead of a gas-powered mower.