We're both saying the same thing, I think ... if not, clarify and I can show ya where you're wrong.
The fact remains:
pure gasoline + any water = phase separation, plugged carb, possibly dead engine
ethanol/gas blend + some water = solubilized water burned harmlessly in the engine.
I'm not saying you can't dump in a bucket of water and get the ethanol to separate, but for any nominal amount likely to accumulate under normal circumstances, assuming you actually put the gas cap back on, it is no issue.
Seals - yes, leather, natural rubber, latex of the 50's, 60's, 70's-ish vintage can have issues with ethanol. But really, the formulation of "gasoline" is so much different than it used to be, those materials would probably have issues with the modern stuff regardless.
Anything with modern materials... say the last 25-30 years is generally fine. Though standard disclaimer here...what usually happens is 10 or 15 year old parts wear out and suddenly it's an 'ethanol issue' ... we somewhat loose track of the fact 15 years is quite a long time for a part to be exposed to gasoline as well. Go look at a cheapo bottle of vodka...plastic, and it's not exactly breaking down due to the alcohol. Surely high end saw manufacturers can use materials as least as good as a disposable plastic bottle.
Regarding disclosure - no monetary interest / gain from ethanol what so ever. If we're going on location - I see "Western PA", so maybe I struck and oil/gas/coal nerve? If so, sorry about that - I'm not saying don't use gas, just that if it has a bit of ethanol, it's not going to make ya go blind, grow hair on your back and cause all the other nasty stuff usually attributed to it.
I have no direct connection to any oil/gas/coal/ethanol/"wet gas", etc., that would affect any investments of mine or my family. I stand to gain nothing from the success or failure of any particular fossil fuel, or fuel alternative that matter, other than what we all gain or lose as a country or region.
Yes, some ethanol is completely miscible in water. After a certain amount the ethanol can hold no more (saturation). At this point there is potential for not just the water to separate out in a "plug" but also the entire 10% of ethanol that had been present in the gasoline. It can take less than a tablespoon per gallon of gasoline for this to happen. Yikes!
That should be a good enough explanation. I am not going to teach organic chemistry here (although I have done so on more than one occasion ). The precise language and explanation is presented in my earlier post and should suffice for one who is curious to learn. [I did misstate when I wrote, "That's not phase separation...." I was thinking about the idea of "performing a separation" rather than the condition of "phase separation." Simply dumping some water into a tube of fuel and seeing two phases does not necessarily mean that you have properly performed a separation.]
Liquor bottle example: Just because a material (plastic liquor bottles in this case) doesn't seem to be affected by ethanol it doesn't mean that the liquor bottle material has the other necessary properties to be used in a chainsaw. If you've ever held a carburetor diaphragm in your hand you'd know that it's very thin, extremely pliable, yet strong enough not to tear or shatter during the vibrations--something a plastic liquor bottle can't come close to doing. To state it another way, why doesn't the liquor industry sell its booze in flexible bladders made of 2-cycle carburetor diaphragm material? Sometimes the "magic" material that we want simply doesn't exist at an economically viable price (yet).
Striking nerves: The only nerve you struck is with your slighting of the truth by not presenting all the facts, both positive and negative, and therefore proving yourself biased toward ethanol. I'm pretty sure I've had the same discussion with you in more than one forum. If not you, someone who presented the same old examples and reasoning. It is getting tedious.
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