What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Need a good ethanol tester

E

Ex Bonanza Bucko

Well Known Member
I ordered one from the EAA but it sucks.....too small, gradations on the tester hard to read etc.

If you know of a good one that is large enough to use daily and with dark marks on the glass I would love to know about it.

Also I have heard that 92 Octane gas here in Goofafornia has lower ethanol than the 87 Octane which is supposed to be 10%. Is that true?

Also do you know if one brand of gas has less ethanol than another. I have heard that Shell in Goofafornia has less than Chevron for example.

Thanks,
EBB
 
Best way to test for ethanol I've read about

is to put a drop of food coloring into a small quantity of fuel. If ethanol is present the food coloring will mix with it and the fuel will all turn color. If no ethanol, the food coloring will simply drop to the bottom of the fuel just like a drop of water. (think what a bit of water looks like in your fuel tester when you sump your tanks).This will not tell you the amount of ethanol present.

JimS
 
Ex Bonanza Bucko said:
I ordered one from the EAA but it sucks.....too small, gradations on the tester hard to read etc.

If you know of a good one that is large enough to use daily and with dark marks on the glass I would love to know about it.

Also I have heard that 92 Octane gas here in Goofafornia has lower ethanol than the 87 Octane which is supposed to be 10%. Is that true?

Also do you know if one brand of gas has less ethanol than another. I have heard that Shell in Goofafornia has less than Chevron for example.

Thanks,
EBB
Click to expand...

Well....after using the EAA tester satisfactorily for a year I'm sorry to hear it is no good....not sure what I'm going to do now..... ;)

I use it to verify that the 93 I purchase is indeed ethanol-free as advertised.
 
Last edited:
We ran 12,000 gallons of mogas through our various airplanes from 1998 - 2010, until moving to Texas where unpolluted gas is (paradoxically) ridiculously hard to find.

We tested every load thusly:

1. Squirt an ounce or two of gas into a coffee mug.
2. Drop 1/4 tablet of alka-seltzer in the gas.
3. If it fizzed, ethanol (or water) were present.
4. If it did not fizz, the gas was pure.

We never had any problems doing it that way, in 12 years of operations.

Ironically, living in Iowa (where all the stupid ethanol comes from), we had NO problem finding unpolluted gas. Here in Texas, where all the oil comes from, it's scarce as hen's teeth. Go figure. :rolleyes:
 
Sam Buchanan said:
Well....after using the EAA tester satisfactorily for a year I'm sorry to hear it is no good....not sure what I'm going to do now..... ;)

I use it to verify that the 93 I purchase is indeed ethanol-free as advertised.
Click to expand...

Mine works just fine as advertized also.
 
Alcohol Free?

For those of you who are living in a state where the govm't hasn't taken over, good for you but for those of us here in Taxyafornia, we have no legal source of ethanol free gas.

I too would like to know if there is an alternate ethanol tester available. Preferably one that would tell me (cheaply) what percentage of ethanol is in my gas. Anyone know of such a device?
 
OK, here goes. Get an old soda bottle or something similar that's about 16 ounces. Put an ounce of water in the bottom and mark a line on the outside of the bottle with a red (or color of your choice) sharpie. Add another ounce, make another mark with a different color (black). Keep adding ounces until you are up to 11. You're ready to go.

Now, empty the bottle and add back in the first ounce of water. Add fuel to the 11 ounce mark. Close the top and shake gently. Let settle for a few minutes. Look for the boundary between the two fluids, water + ethanol will be on the bottom, gasoline on the top and a clear demarcation between the two. If there is no ethanol in the fuel, then the boundary will be at one ounce. If the boundary is at the second mark, then you have 10% ethanol (you added 10 ounces of fuel to reach the 11-ounce mark, there was already an ounce of water in the bottle, so the ethanol partitions into the water, moving the boundary up to the second line, thus 1 part in 10 in the original fuel was ethanol - or water if you have contaminated fuel:D). You can make finer gradation marks if you want, but generally it is easy to estimate within a percent or two what the fraction of ethanol is in your fuel.

This is the simplest and cheapest method of determining the fraction of ethanol that I know of.

Greg
 
Simple & good

Greg, looks like you have the definitive answer. Great info - thanks very much. I really like simple!!!:cool:
 
I'm usually a pretty good ethanol tester, but unfortunately I cannot test it once it's been mixed with gasoline... (obligatory smiley goes here :D)

I imagine I'm not the only one here either. :p
 
Neal@F14 said:
I'm usually a pretty good ethanol tester, but unfortunately I cannot test it once it's been mixed with gasoline... (obligatory smiley goes here :D)

I imagine I'm not the only one here either. :p
Click to expand...

I guess I should have added that if there is no boundary, then you're probably in Brazil and should just drink the fuel instead of burning it.....but don't go flying afterward.
 
I use a test tube with the markings I made on it. No brainer. Rubber stopper to cork it. Great results. :)
P1010687.jpg
 
Greg Arehart said:
OK, here goes. Get an old soda bottle or something similar that's about 16 ounces. Put an ounce of water in the bottom and mark a line on the outside of the bottle with a red (or color of your choice) sharpie. Add another ounce, make another mark with a different color (black). Keep adding ounces until you are up to 11. You're ready to go.

Now, empty the bottle and add back in the first ounce of water. Add fuel to the 11 ounce mark. Close the top and shake gently. Let settle for a few minutes. Look for the boundary between the two fluids, water + ethanol will be on the bottom, gasoline on the top and a clear demarcation between the two. If there is no ethanol in the fuel, then the boundary will be at one ounce. If the boundary is at the second mark, then you have 10% ethanol (you added 10 ounces of fuel to reach the 11-ounce mark, there was already an ounce of water in the bottle, so the ethanol partitions into the water, moving the boundary up to the second line, thus 1 part in 10 in the original fuel was ethanol - or water if you have contaminated fuel:D). You can make finer gradation marks if you want, but generally it is easy to estimate within a percent or two what the fraction of ethanol is in your fuel.

This is the simplest and cheapest method of determining the fraction of ethanol that I know of.

Greg
Click to expand...

I did the same as Greg but I used a graduated syringe that I bought at the pet store or Tractor Supply. The same process applies as Greg suggested with less gas used. I also use it when I purchase the non-ethanol gas just to make sure it's as advertised.
 
Dan,

Great idea, pre-graduated and easy to just suck up the right amount of water/fuel. After testing, you can dump the water (since it will be in the bottom of the syringe, and then put the fuel back into the airplane! Probably one of those horse syringes would work well.

Cheers,
Greg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top