How to Drain Gas from a Snowblower

The gas snowblower is a powerful tool to have in your arsenal for clearing snow off driveways, walkways, and sidewalks for homeowners who live in cold climates. Many prefer using snowblowers to snow shovels for this purpose, especially if they own large properties. But you do pay a price for this convenience in the form of maintenance; this includes draining the gas out of the snowblower when you are ready to store it away in the shed for another year. (If you want the convenience without the maintenance hassles, there is an alternative: Use an electric snowblower, instead.)

Draining the gas out of your gas-powered snowblower at the end of the winter yard maintenance season is a simple but necessary project. It involves very little in the way of supplies and tools, nor does it require great skill. In fact, your main challenges are in remembering to do the job at all and keeping safety in mind, first and foremost.

Do You Need to Drain a Snowblower?

Many people mix a fuel stabilizer into the gas tank of their snowblower to avoid having to drain the gas out before storing the unit away. But let's assume that you do not want to bother with buying a fuel stabilizer. You may want to simply drain the gas out of the tank, especially if you have only a bit of gas left in the tank.

Either way, leaving untreated gas in your tank for months and months is a bad idea. Caring for your unit properly at the end of snowblowing season is critically important. To be sure, the negative consequences of leaving untreated gas in the tank will not show up right away. That is why it is so easy to forget to undertake this project. But you could pay dearly down the line for a failure to drain the gas out of your machine. When you go to use your snowblower for the first time the following winter, you may find that it does not start up for you.

The problem is that regular fuel contains ethanol. Over time, the ethanol mixes with any water that may seep into the tank. Corrosion results, and you can experience clogging in your engine. You may end up having to bring the unit into a repair shop to have the engine cleaned so that the snowblower will start up again.

Before You Begin

Select a location outdoors. Since you are dealing with a flammable substance, you want to be away from heating units, open flame, etc. Running the unit indoors would expose you to carbon monoxide fumes.

The location should be flat. You are less likely to slip on a surface that is flat. The driveway is a less than ideal location for the job since you would have to perform clean-up if you should spill any gas (gas is harmful to pavement).

Safety Considerations

Snowblowers are powerful machines and dangerous if you forget about safety when you're around them. Never perform maintenance of any kind on a snowblower, gas or electric, while it's running. Always shut it off first.

If it has been running for a long time, it will be hot, and you could burn yourself when touching it. So give the unit a half hour to cool off before touching it. Even then, wear work gloves for superior safety. Don't run a gas-powered snowblower inside of a garage (carbon monoxide poisoning could result). Insert earplugs before you start up a snowblower; the engine is loud, and the noise could damage your hearing over time. Wear eye protection. Avoid wearing any loose-fitting clothing (especially long scarves) that could become entangled in the moving parts of the unit. Wear slip-resistant boots to avoid injuries when working on icy surfaces.