In Norway, 98 is still ethanol free for older cars and engines only used seasonally like lawn mowers and snow plowers.
In Estonia, they straight up recommended getting alkylate petrol for lawn mowers and such when the law came that 95 should be 10% ethanol and 98 5%. That stuff is pretty expensive. But since the law had a loophole in it, nearly no chain sells ethanol in their fuels at this point (though there are a few that will sell you high ethanol content fuel for racecar use, I think it was E85)
95 is of course (up to) 10% and that’s completely fine for anything even remotely modern and in use every now and then.
GM’s Z22YH can’t handle it for an example. Opel used it in the Zafira B and Vectra C up till 2010. Once you upgrade it to use Renault’s F5R engine’s high pressure fuel pump for better reliability, it’ll work, since Renault/Bosch engineers were sober when it was designed, as opposed to GM/Siemens.
There are a few other manufacturers who claim their cars made in the 00s or early 10s don’t take E10, but I cba to look for the list. To me that’s still “remotely modern” since I grew up poor enough that my first car was older than myself lol
Like you said: hoses don’t like the ethanol, and it’s hydroscopic which is what can cause issues if left in for 6 months every year.
Technically I don’t think you should regularly leave fuel in that long even if it’s ethanol free. Though I’ve never had bad fuel kill any of my equipment, oddly enough. I’ve got a rototiller that gets used twice a year and it doesn’t even take the entire tank each time and I’ve never drained it. I’ve only used ethanol free on it though.
In Estonia, they straight up recommended getting alkylate petrol for lawn mowers and such when the law came that 95 should be 10% ethanol and 98 5%. That stuff is pretty expensive. But since the law had a loophole in it, nearly no chain sells ethanol in their fuels at this point (though there are a few that will sell you high ethanol content fuel for racecar use, I think it was E85)
GM’s Z22YH can’t handle it for an example. Opel used it in the Zafira B and Vectra C up till 2010. Once you upgrade it to use Renault’s F5R engine’s high pressure fuel pump for better reliability, it’ll work, since Renault/Bosch engineers were sober when it was designed, as opposed to GM/Siemens.
There are a few other manufacturers who claim their cars made in the 00s or early 10s don’t take E10, but I cba to look for the list. To me that’s still “remotely modern” since I grew up poor enough that my first car was older than myself lol
Technically I don’t think you should regularly leave fuel in that long even if it’s ethanol free. Though I’ve never had bad fuel kill any of my equipment, oddly enough. I’ve got a rototiller that gets used twice a year and it doesn’t even take the entire tank each time and I’ve never drained it. I’ve only used ethanol free on it though.