I've had so much trouble with one of my chainsaws and a strimmer I've started using 98 RON for all two strokes

Several makers of garden appliances (two stroke and four stroke) tell you not to use petrol containing alcohol, irrespective of whether its octane rating is adequate.

SandyS, I can't offer technical expertise, but the traditional advice about always shutting down a small 2 or 4 stroke engine by switching the fuel tap to OFF, so that petrol, particularly 2-Stroke mix is not left in the carburettor/fuel jets/pipework for days/weeks/months/years seems to be more true today than it ever was.

Chainsaws, lawnmowers, outboard motors etc that are used daily, are far more reliable, than those used once a week or month or season.

Fuel additives billed as Carburettor Cleaners are better at preventing the build up of 'gums', but simply adding some to one tankfull is not going to clean out a long term build up. Whether it takes 2-3 tankfulls I don't know, but outboard mechanics should be good at cleaning carburettors. They can make more money by selling a new outboard, and 'repairing' the old one taken in part exchange!

Carburettor cleaners should clean the internals of the carburettor, not just make the outside look shiny!

Tinyco2. No worries. I was interested in the idea but don't believe it. It seems to suggest that animals choose to become domesticated.

A much better analysis of the subject occurs in Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs and Steel. There it is argued that the large mammals that have been domesticated share a number of characteristics that make them suitable. It also shows that humans have tried to domesticate many other species, but because they do not have one or more of those characteristics, all attempts fail. This clearly demonstrates that domestication is always because humans chose it.

Further to my Aug 26, 2016 at 7:48 PM is this video of Henrik Svenmark et. al.’s work.

h/t to WUWT commentator daveburton August 25, 2016 at 12:29 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3jXCo3BVuA

Sorry ACK, it was a few years ago I heard it or read it. It just stuck with me because as a theory it made sense. A lot of an animal's energy is expended in self protection. It must be a huge energy saving to feel protected and free to feed and breed in peace. Early farmers slept with their animals and saw off any predators and eventually when they were wiped out, everyone could sleep easy. Farm animals would have self selected for domestication - those that ran off or were too troublesome weren't part of the breeding programme. The DNA success of cats, dogs, cattle, pigs, goats and horses says it all. Domesticating birds was a slightly different matter. Robins might be very smart but chickens are complete bird brains. Pheasants are the same and ducks are not much better. Still we're not very bright either. It took us ages to stop seeing chickens as egg factories and realise the potential of a creature that can go from egg to roast dinner in six weeks, eat any old rubbish and above all taste fantastic.

I'm reluctant to the idea of reintroducing wolves etc to cure the deer explosion because wolves aren't daft. Domesticated sheep are a lot easier to catch than deer. We have human predators but they find sheep rustling too easy as well.

golf charlie
That's problems and the link is to the B-S additive, I bought some om the internet, but for my 2 stroke chainsaw in particular it hasn't really helped. even emptying the tank and running the engine until it clears as much fuel as possible doesn't guarantee an easy start next time. I have found a squirt of WD40 into the carburetor and leaving it until the next day improves things. Whether it does the engine any good is a debatable point. Plastic fuel pipes get dissolved which also gums up the entire fuel system.

Of course the bureaucrats will tell it's all rumour and hearsay and E10 is perfectly fine. For a modern car with components designed to cope with E10 and a computer controlled engine management system it might be; but my limited experimentation suggests it still costs more than it saves.