Time to winterize your gas-powered garden equipment

SALT LAKE CITY — Now that the temperatures are consistently low and snow is falling in some areas, it’s time to put away those gas-powered garden equipment.

The last thing you would want is for your small gas engines to not start up when you’re ready to use them again in the spring.

So how do you winterize them properly? KSL Greenhouse Host Taun Beddes shared some tips.

 

Before storing your gas-powered garden equipment, make sure to clean them because there may be grass and leaves all over them.

“If you have an air compressor or a high pressure washer, you can clean them off because you don’t want them getting wedged in the electronics,” Taun said. “You can change your air filter if it needs it.”

Removing the ethanol fuel

Once they’re clean, you need to get all the ethanol fuel out. In small engines especially, any lingering ethanol can create a patina in the fuel system. Eventually, the equipment will need a carburetor replacement.

Taun said that’s why he uses ethanol-free fuel, which can be found at gas stations.

“All the instructions, no matter where you read, say to get the old gas out… I usually only have just maybe a measuring cup’s worth of fuel in there, and I just let it run until it goes dead.”

Once all the gas is out, there are two different ways you can go about the next step. Sometimes the instructions say to just leave it alone. Other times, they say to get a little more fuel, mix a fuel stabilizer like STA-BIL into it, put another half cup in your fuel tank, and start it back up to run it dry again.

“If you have any ethanol deposits, that STA-BIL will help dissolve them and get them up,” said Taun.

While these are two different methods, the one thing they have in common is that there should not be any ethanol-containing fuel in the carburetor going into the fall.

Other things to consider

One other thing you can do before storing your equipment is changing your spark plug.

If it’s been two or three years since you last changed it, you can get a new one at a hardware store.

“The instructions will say to take the spark plug out after you’ve drained the fuel and just put a couple of drops of motor oil down where the hole for the spark plug goes,” said Taun. “Then just pull the cord slowly two or three times because that leads to the piston and that just gets the piston lubricated. Put the new spark plug in and put things back together.”

Taun said it’s important to not store your small engine equipment outdoors, especially uncovered. The reason is because the rain and snow can degrade some of the components there.

“If you don’t have a shed to store them in, get an inexpensive tarp or something similar, and wrap it up so that it’s out of the weather.”

More from the KSL Greenhouse show:

• Video: Gardening basics: How to wrap tree trunks for winter sun protection
• Video: Gardening basics: How to wrap your trees for winter
• Video: Gardening basics: How to use leftover pumpkin seeds

KSL Greenhouse is on every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and on our website.