Anyone use Pacific Pride gas? It is the only one that I could find near me that wasn't a marina. I am looking for the ethanol free gas after reading how mileage is improved. I am a little skeptical of pacific pride, should I be? All the top tier gasoline near me have ethanol in them. I used this site to find stations Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada anyone know of other sites that list
What about UNBRANDED. Should I be leary of a small station that carries this? I guess my overall question, is it better to go with a top tier gas station and not have to worry about "sketchy" gas.
The ethanol-or-not status quite likely varies from location to location. The Pacific Pride stations nearest me are not on the Pure Gas list.
Yes I think it is good to be leary of no-name as it may not have the extra additives. Also generally the cost is higher which negates benefit. You're talking about maybe 1.5 MPG better due to the ethanol. Lately I am starting to get some data on weight/density of the gasoline by getting 1-gal extra in my lawn mower can. Conceivably the E0 also has more density, so that could get you more MPG. So in the interest of science, I would be tempted to try a fill-up too.
Nobody knows for sure. For that matter, nobody knows for sure that "top tier" stations ALWAYS have the gas that they advertise. I'd be a little leery of mom-and-pop stations but any big chain should be fine. A bottle of Techron at each oil change can give you much the same benefits as "top tier" gas and maybe at less cost too. Bottom line: Don't worry about it. Before long it might be near to impossible to find non-ethanol gas anywhere but a marina........and it might not have other additives that you need.
Most gas is transported in the same trucks... What you need to really pay attention to is how quick the turnover is at the station. Gas that's sitting for a while is bad no matter what brand it is.
My goal is not to get the best MPG, but to use the least gas. so going out of my way to buy E0 never makes sense for me.
E0 gas near me is outrageously priced, up to $1 more than E10 I find it's stocked at gas stations near boat storage or boat docks and not that common in other areas. Since some boats require E0 I guess station owners think they can charge what they want. If it was only .20 or .25 cents more, I would consider it.
E10 should give 3-4% less mileage than E0. So if it costs more than ~5% more, then it is wasted effort. At $3.50 a gallon, that works out to about $.18 So......if you are buying "premium" E0 and the cost is more than 18 cents higher that regular, then you are actually worse off cost wise......probably.
Plus the fact I can get between $.40 and $1 off per gallon at Kroeger on most fill-ups, my overall cost per mile for gas this year is under $.06/mile. Almost not worth having a hybrid! Just kidding...
The cost is higher because the "ethanol in gasoline" industry, with the EPA, has driven 100% gasoline to rarity, which increases its cost. However, pure-gas.org is on schedule to list 10,000 stations serving 100% gasoline within a year & a half. Florida's law, eliminating some restrictions on 100% gasoline, has seen 100% gasoline stations jump 13% in 3 quarters of a year. If each state in the country had as many 100% gasoline stations as Wisconsin, there would be 35,000 stations, presently. Several states have or soon will have 500 stations dispensing 100% gasoline. 100% gasoline gives 8% to 5% better mpg than gasoline blends that only have 10% ethanol. This shows the great weakness of ethanol in gasoline. Diesel engines need to use 100% diesel fuel, ethanol engines use 100% ethanol, & gasoline engines NEED TO USE 100% gasoline. High compression ratio (16:1) ethanol engines need ethanol for their greatest efficiency. However, low compression ratio (9:1 to 12:1) gasoline engines need gasoline AND ETHANOL LOSES ITS EFFICIENCY IN THOSE ENGINES.
As I understand it, all gas in the US is required by law to have a minimum amount of additives. The brand-name stuff usually has more additives for a cleaner engine as their selling point. As far as Pacific Pride, never even heard of it. I should go try some ethanol-free gas some day... Edit: I just checked that pure gas site, and considering I'm in Houston, the so-called "energy capital of the world", I only have one station near by with pure gas (at some racing fuel station), and it's really far from where I live. Oh well.
I generally agree with you...I feel there are actually two things causing lower MPG in US fuels: (1) reformulated gasoline and (2) ethanol. So if you live in a non-RFG region, and you can also get E0 in your area, then your Prius might get as much as 10% more MPG than mine (or at least your fuel energy content could be up to 10% more than mine - whether or not the Prius can take advantage of that...I don't know). I further feel that when EPA/Congress made these decisions years ago to reduce fuel energy content, nobody then was driving around in Prii to be able to say: "Hey wait a minute - I don't want to see 45 MPG on my Fuelly tag line when 50 MPG is possible...." so the advent of higher fuel economy vehicles might eventually cause some trend to get the energy back in fuel.
