Alkylate Petrol  > Why we highly recommend using it instead of regular pump petrol.

• Normal pump petrol contains an increasing amount of ethanol which is not only aggressive to plastic, rubber and soft metal but readily absorbs moisture from the air. This increases corrosion of vital parts in the fuel system resulting in poor running and starting problems. Regular pump petrol is 5% ethanol E5 but in September 2021 the government have said this will go up to 10% of ethanol E10 which means double the number of problems with people using it in their garden machinery.
• Alkylate Petrol has a long storage shelf life (at least 2 years) without any deterioration in quality. Normal pump petrol starts to go off within a few weeks. So, for example you can leave Alkylate Petrol in your lawn mower over winter and when it comes to spring it will be perfectly fine. Some people think that leaving the petrol tanks empty will help but this will actually dry out the carburetor diaphragms and result in engine problems.
• Reduces engine wear and prolongs machinery life.
• Specially designed for small engines, high quality and pure properties provide easier starting, cleaner burning and smoother running - optimising engine performance.
• XP Power 2 is premixed with fully synthetic 2-stroke oil and will work in any air cooled 2-stroke engine - this premixed formula eliminates the risk of incorrect mixtures.
• Contains no unsaturated hydrocarbons which means that there will be no build up of gum in carburettors. Valves and pistons will be kept cleaner with lower carbon build up, which as a result will lower maintenance costs.
• Virtually free from toxic substances which can cause headaches, fatigue, nausea, damage to the nervous system and in the long time can even lead to cancer. Using alkylate petrol creates a much healthier working environment compared to using regular pump fuel.
• Reduces carbon footprint as it has virtually no pollutants.

If you use pump petrol in your garden machinery you will get water in your fuel system which will cause running and starting issues. Ethanol E5 & E10 is hygroscopic so it will naturally attract moisture from the atmosphere. Only way to stop this is to use Alkylate Petrol in your machines.

Another example from our workshop from a lawn mower carburettor of why we don't recommend using E5 or E10 petrol in your machines.

This is a regular sight in our workshop with customers using regular pump petrol and not being able to start their machines. As you can see it has a large amount of water in it. Ethanol will naturally absorb moisture from the air.

 As you can see this fuel has water in it but it also has dirt in the fuel which also doesn't help. We always recommend using a funnel with a filter to stop any dirt from getting in the fuel system. We have these in the shop starting from £3.99.

This is an example of the damage caused in a carburettor by E5 5% ethanol that is in regular pump petrol. Ethanol is aggressive to metal which causes corrosion which then results in poor running and starting problems.

This is exactly the same spark plug which are both one year old. The one on the left has been running on regular pump petrol and you can see the carbon build up on the end of the spark plug. The spark plug on the right has been running on alkylate petrol and as you can see has a much lower carbon build up. This is because Alkylate petrol is a clean burn fuel.