Do I really need to drain the gas before storing my mower for winter?

Stabilizer is cheap, so I just dump some in and run it a minute. Draining it dry every fall feels like extra work for a basic push mower. Mine sat two winters with treated gas and started on the second pull.

Stabilizer isn’t the miracle cure people make it out to be. I used it one year and the mower still ran rough in spring until I dumped that old gas and put fresh in. Running it dry has worked better for me, takes five minutes.

I just leave whatever’s in the tank and deal with it in spring. The one time it went bad, it was because the gas sat since the previous fall, and I ended up pulling the carb apart to clean that green junk out. Now I dump in a splash of Seafoam before parking it. Never touched a drain plug in my life.

I used to just park mine too and one spring it wouldn’t start, so now I dump whatever’s left into my car and run the mower until it quits. Takes me like five minutes and I haven’t had a spring headache since. The stabilizer thing works too, I just never remember to buy it.

I don’t buy the whole “you must run it dry” thing. I’ve left gas sitting in my mower over winter plenty of times and it fires up fine in spring, so it’s not some guaranteed disaster if you skip it.

Running it dry seems like extra work for a basic push mower. I get why people do it with boats or generators that sit way longer, but a mower is usually back in service by spring anyway.

I used to dump the leftover gas into my truck and let the mower run until it quit, mostly because my dad did it that way. Then one year I skipped all that and just left a half tank sitting in the shed from October to April. It started on the second pull. No stabilizer, nothing fancy.

Now I just add a splash of stabilizer to the can when I fill it up in the fall and leave whatever’s in the tank. Takes ten seconds and I don’t have to mess with draining anything.

I don’t know if that matters for a cheap mower honestly, but it’s worked for me the last few seasons.

I don’t bother with either one on my push mower. Last few years I’ve just topped off the tank in spring and it starts on the second pull. Maybe I’ve been lucky but that’s my routine.

I tend to go the stabilizer route mostly because I like having the mower ready to go the first nice day in spring instead of messing with a clogged carb. My dad used to run his dry every single fall and he never had issues either, so I really think both work. What I’ve noticed is that the gas itself matters more than people let on. One year I left the same old can of gas in there from summer and it was rough starting in spring. Since then I just make a point of using fresh gas for the last mow or two and adding the stabilizer then. That’s my little routine and it’s worked well for me. How long does your mower usually sit, just the winter months or longer?