Storing diesel? Long term?

Logistics and Transport
blue90
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Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2020 1:47 pm

Storing diesel? Long term?

Post by blue90 »

I believe it does have a shelf life, anyone store diesel?
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Panther
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Re: Storing diesel? Long term?

Post by Panther »

I am currently using diesel which has been stored for sixteen months. It seems fine. It is possible to buy special diesel fuel stabiliser if you want to store it for even longer.
There may be trouble ahead
But while there's moonlight and music
And love and romance
Let's face the music and dance
blue90
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Re: Storing diesel? Long term?

Post by blue90 »

How do you store it? I was thinking 50 gallon drums to stop contamination from effecting the entire store then rotating it by filling jerry cans at the pump and fuelling the Landy from the drum.
grenfell
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Re: Storing diesel? Long term?

Post by grenfell »

How much are you thinking of storing? Or perhaps how much do you use? The 50 gallon drums would seem a decent enough idea. I store mine in jerry cans and that decision is based on ease and that i don't use a huge amount so a 50 gallon drum would spend a lot of the time either partly full or being topped up by a few gallons a week.
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Panther
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Re: Storing diesel? Long term?

Post by Panther »

I have several 10 litre and 20 litre jerry cans. They are normally filled--stored--used in strict rotation, some being used every month and kept for a maximum of 1 year. It's only the lockdown restrictions and lack of wanting to go anywhere in the last few months which has led to storing fuel for longer than a year. It's reassuring to find that fuel kept for longer than that has not deteriorated and can still be used.

We are, of course, talking about diesel fuel. Storing petrol is a different matter. Whilst you're allowed to store larger amounts of diesel there are tight restrictions on the amount of petrol that can be stored. Only 10 litres in plastic cans or 20 litres in metal cans I think. (Please check on that; I might be out of date with those figures.) Petrol that's stored can deteriorate after just a few months but adding fuel stabiliser will extend its life to well over a year.
There may be trouble ahead
But while there's moonlight and music
And love and romance
Let's face the music and dance
Nurseandy
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Re: Storing diesel? Long term?

Post by Nurseandy »

My tuppence worth - I keep 2*10 litre plastic cans of diesel, they usually sit for a year until I feel I should use them so put them in the car and refill.
As for petrol I fill my motorbike at the start of winter and it sits until usually April/may time so maybe up to six months and always starts no problem. Depending on circumstance I may drain some out to use for chainsaw but then top up. It also may or may not get a couple of jaunts over the winter depending on snow/ice etc.