While battery-powered lawnmowers are becoming more popular, with machines getting lighter and running times getting longer, many lawnmowers and other garden machinery still run on fuel.
It’s important to use the right fuel for your lawnmower or strimmer, blower, chainsaw, etc. Use the wrong type and your machine won’t run well. You’ll be forking out for maintenance far too often and having to foot the bill for a new machine before you know it.
To help you make the right choice and spend your money wisely, the GoToMow team has put together this buying guide to buying fuel for your lawnmower and other garden machinery.
Which fuels do lawnmowers and other garden machinery run on?
Lawnmowers and other garden machinery can run on either unleaded petrol or diesel. Most standard lawnmowers and garden machinery use petrol, while diesel is usually used only for commercial or heavy-duty professional-use machines, such as ride-on tractor lawnmowers.
In terms of petrol, lawnmowers and other garden machinery run on either two-stroke fuel or four-stroke fuel. Two-stroke fuel is unleaded petrol mixed with two-stroke oil and is generally used for handheld machines such as chainsaws, blowers and strimmers. You need to mix the fuel and oil yourself.
Four-stroke fuel is the petrol you get from a normal petrol station that you put in your car. It’s mostly used in rotary mowers and small engine-powered machines such as scarifiers and wood chippers.
There are some variations to this fuel use. For example, Honda do handheld machines that run on four-stroke fuel, which means you don’t need to mix the fuel and oil, making it simpler to use the machines.
Tips on using fuel with your garden machinery
You should always use fresh fuel in your garden machinery, whether it’s lawnmowers or hedgetrimmers, blowers, etc. Fresh fuel is fuel from a petrol station that is less than three months old.
Therefore, it is recommended that you do not buy more fuel than you can use within a three-month period. Fuel that is older than three months would have gone off, making your machinery difficult to start and will run poorly.
This just makes life harder for you. The most common fault with garden machinery, whether it’s a two-stroke fuelled trimmer or four-stroke fuelled walk-behind lawnmower, is old fuel going off. This is especially the case with two-stroke fuelled machinery – the combination of old fuel and oil can be particularly damaging.
Why you should use alkylate petrol for your garden machinery
While using regular fuel from a petrol station is OK, it is not recommended. Instead, you should buy alkylate petrol. It’s a bit more expensive but the benefits are well worth the extra cash. This applies to machines that run on two-stroke and four-stroke fuel.
Alkylate petrol, such as that from Aspen, is widely recommended because it’s cleaner than regular petrol, has minimal odour, has a long shelf life and is better for the environment. Your garden machinery will start more easily and run much better, with minimal or no smoke.
If you use alkylate fuel, you don’t have to worry about leaving it in your garden machinery, which means you don’t have the hassle and cost of draining and cleaning the fuel tank or taking your machines to a repair shop to have it done.
