Why doesn't my snowblower start?

It’s that time of year again.  The first snow has fallen, and the snowblowers have been pulled out of storage.  Unfortunately, many of us pulled our snowblowers from storage to find that they wouldn’t start when we needed them most.  What a pain!

Why does this happen?  What causes a snowblower to just die?  How can we prevent this from happening?  These are all great questions.  Let’s take a look at them.

Why do our snowblowers fail us at the moment of truth?  I can not speak in terms of totality, but an overwhelming majority of snowblowers fail due to stale fuel.  Not stale like your potato chips, but stale in the sense that it has aged and degraded.  When gasoline sits for more than 30 days, it begins to degrade and breakdown.  It will still burn and is still extremely volatile, but as this happens, the fuel thickens slightly and leaves behind sticky deposits.  These sticky deposits can and do clog and gum up your carburetor. 

Carburetor with sticky deposit

Carburetors have several small ports and passages called jets.  In many cases, these jets are the size of a needle point.  The smallest fleck of dirt or slightest deposit of sticky fuel can cause many issues in the function and operations of the carburetor.  Malfunctioning carburetors are the most common cause of engine problems, with symptoms like failing to start or surging RPMs.  Have you ever needed to keep your choke on just to make the engine run normally.  That’s usually caused by dirty or gummed jets and is a good sign that the carburetor needs cleaned or replaced.    

Same carburetor from different angle

So how do we prevent this from happening?  The easiest and simplest answer is to run the engine out of fuel.  I know, that seems incredibly time consuming and wasteful; however, there are ways to hasten the process.  If your machine has a fuel shut off valve, you can turn the fuel off while the engine is running and allow it to pull the remaining fuel through the lines until they are clear.  If there isn’t a fuel shut off valve, you can purchase one and install it.  There are also fuel additives you can use to prolong the life of the fuel, but you must ensure all the fuel is treated, including the fuel in your carburetor which requires running the engine for a period after adding.    

If you’ve found yourself in the position where your snowblower won’t start or if you’re interested in having a fuel shut off valve installed, give us call at 907-414-0600.  From tune ups and oil changes to complete engine overhauls, Polar Tree and Engine Care is here for all your small engine needs.