Ethanol Laws & Availability: Utah, California and others
I'm going to write a summary to address several posts in this thread (instead of including quotes for each):
UTAH: Laws related to ethanol can be found at http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/c...070-940.htm#T3
See rule: R70-940-3.Labels.All motor fuel kept, offered or exposed for sale or sold containing at least one percent by volume ethanol must be labeled in a prominent, conspicuous manner," "This fuel contains up to 10% ETHANOL".
California: No longer requires pump labeling (long time). I confirmed again last month Nov. 2011, with Allan Morrison from CDFA, Supervising Chemist, Fuelsand Lubricants Laboratory,Petroleum Products Program,Division of MeasurementStandards, California Department of Food & Agriculture. All public gas sold contains ethanol- The amount varies anywhere between 2% (required) up to 10%, so probably worth testing percent with fuel-tester if you want to find stations with the lowest amount...(ACE, American Coalition for Ethanol still incorrectly lists California (STATUS REPORT) as requiring E10 pump labels -They do not.
Check ethanol-free station locations from Clear Gas - (New) California distributor of ethanol-free fuel (marine and aviation). http://cleargas.co/
Oregon: New interactive map for Premium 91 Octane ethanol-free stations: http://www.oregon.gov/OSMB/news/E10.shtml
They require pump labeling for over 1.5%; In 2009 they passed law to allow sale of premium ethanol-free (mostly for boaters).
We have other resources listed on our fueltestkit website on page titled: find_ethanol_free_gasoline
We also sell alcohol fuel test kits (AFTK), similar to EEA, and EEA also offers their test kits with our quik-check™ indicator solution (QCS instantly reveals presence of alcohol).
Their review of QCS, awhile ago, here: http://www.eaa.org/sportaviationmag/...quik_check.asp
If you need labeling laws for any other state, just ask.
There have been changes in a bunch of states in recent years - probably doesn't really matter since about 95% of all public gas sold now contains ethanol. And nobody really closely monitors the pumps for labels, so testing gas is the only way you can be sure fuel is ethanol-free, even in the states that require pump labeling.
Hope this helps- Good Luck!
Gail, Fuel-Testers Company
Minimal oversight - Test fuel for alcohol, 1 drop quik-check or...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
nrpetersen
Check your fuel sources even if they say they have ethanol free fuel. A local FBO (Northern WI) received a load of premium gasoline. A few weeks later my hangar mate's Cessna 140 (on wheels) swelled the inside of his fuel line. His engine stumbled on takeoff from Sky Harbor at the Duluth Lake Superior waterfront:eek:. I checked his fuel when he got home & found it to contain about 5 percent alcohol. I then called the FBOs where he had been refueling lately.
One FBO called back a few days later admitting that on checking, their fuel was contaminated and that their bulk truck had delivered the wrong fuel even though it was a certified load!.
The FBO then went thru their credit card receipts to try to contact everyone that had refueled from that batch but incredibly the credit card companies wouldn't release the names of the bad gas purchaser (security you know,,,,). There were 12 purchases they were unable to contact.
From that I'd say to verify that someone has checked each load for alcohol.
Oversight of quality of fuel sold? At best most states only require once a year certification and majority don't even require testing for alcohol- usually just octane and other parameters.
For years, everyday we receive reports of (ethanol in gas) mis-labeled, mis-blended, over blended and other incorrect fuel deliveries or fuel contamination -And we're not even a reporting agency! (We are an ethanol educator, advocate and sell alcohol fuel test kits)-
I thought by now all pilots owned a fuel tester to check for alcohol (?)- The model we (and EAA) sell was designed by an aircraft engineer probably close to 10 years ago- It's reusable and costs less than $10.
We include the tester in our gas test kits - looks like a test tube with permanent raised markings in 5% increments from 0 to 30%, made from alcohol resistant hard plastic.
If you're not using the tester, you should at least test with Quik-Check Solution (available only from Fuel-Testers and EAA)-
QC Indicator solution is very concentrated, just add 1 drop to fuel sample, agitate-shake it up.
Negative: No alcohol, fuel color won't change. Positive for alcohol: Sample will turn a bright Caribbean BLUE color. QCS will also read positive if fuel contains any water.
Available in 6ml (180 drops), 15ml (450 drops) and other dropper bottle sizes.
Only need 1 drop per test -Based on $10.75 cost of 15ml bottle size, cost per test= about 2 cents.
Let me know if I'm allowed to add a coupon code or link here, for free shipping or something, for those that want to try quik-check.