JoesC5

I don't believe that for a minute.

From Top Tier site...."TOP TIER™ fuel marketers use TOP TIER™ for all octane grades of gasoline sold at their stations. So all grades provide enhanced cleaning power."

Unless a Top Tier dealer is selling ungraded gasoline(and I have never seen a pump selling ungraded gasoline), you can count on EVERY pump dispensing Top Tier gas of every grade, 93, 92, 89, 87 etc.

C7Joy

Best of both worlds. I have been running Citgo for the top-tier aspect and 93 octane. But I believe my car gets around 5% better mileage from non eth fuel.

There are several non top-tier stations around me that carry non-eth premium.

LDB

I didn’t say it was likely, I simply said it’s possible. I first realized this when travelling in a remote area, pulling into a major brand’s station that’s normally top tier, and finding the seemingly odd situation that the pumps were just marked regular and premium without any of that brand’s normal hoopla over its additive name and premium grade name. So when I got home, I followed up, and found that there are two exceptions for the rule that all gas at a top tier brand station must be top tier. The first exception is for situations like I ran into, namely, a remote area where top tier suppliers are not available, but the branded station was in existence before top tier came along. In that case, the pre-existing station can still show the brand on its sign out front. But no new stations of that brand are permitted in such areas, and the pumps of the pre-existing stations must be plain pumps just saying regular, premium, etc, without the brand hoopla. The second exception is for stations selling specialty gas. The possibility that was referenced when I was looking into it was a station selling ethanol free for marine gas. As with the prior example, in such situations, if the specialty gas is not top tier, the pump must be a plain pump just saying regular, or premium, or marine, etc, without that brand’s hoopla.

I have no idea how many such stations there are, or whether the OP’s station is in that situation. I simply mentioned it as a possibility. If the pump says Citgo, then unless the dealer is cheating, it’s top tier. But if it’s a plain pump just marked ethanol free premium, without the Citgo brand or hoopla on the pump itself, then there’s a fair chance it’s operating under the specialty gas exception and is not top tier.

I’d give you a public reference to the above info if I had one, but my information source was not top tier or the top tier web site. It was talking to a marketing specialist in my own oil company who was familiar with all the fine print in the top tier agreements.

Foosh

I recently saw the same thing in a rural area at a top tier station.

They had the pumps out front with the familiar corporate branding, and then they had an unmarked pump around the side where the only marking was "ethanol-free regular."

6spdC6

I have heard rumors that "by accident" that some times that up to 10% is actually closer to 15%. That comes for a friends son that drives the big gas delivery trucks to the stations. Give me real gas any time I can get it!

obxchartercaptain

Thanks for the heads up....the pumps at this station a DUAL with the 0% on the left and the 10& on the right and the CITGO emblem in the middle.

renoone

I had a Chevy Silverado Flexfuel that I ran E85 for a while to see how it worked. I took it in to the dealership and they asked me where I bought my E85. They said the ethanol content was over 97%. 85 is a minimum. There is now so called "limit" to the ethanol. They recommended I quit using it. Which I did. The only benefit I had from it was the smell! It did smell nice as it burned.

LDB

With that labeling, you should be ok. The worrisome thing would be a plain pump.

LDB

For what it’s worth, two things limit the availability of ethanol free gas. The smaller issue is a list of so-called non-attainment areas (ie, high air pollution), which must use RFG (reformulated gasoline). Those areas have absolutely no chance of ever seeing even a drop of non-ethanol gas. They are Houston, Chicago, Milwaukee, StLouis, and pretty much the entire eastern seaboard from the Washington DC to Boston metro areas. San Diego, LosAngeles, Sacramento, and Phoenix would have been in that group, but they had already adopted CARB (California Air Resources Board) standards which are even more stringent than the feds. Other than those areas, nothing directly prevents sale of ethanol-free gas. Trouble is, there’s an indirect “gotcha” which is the thing that forces most of the ethanol in.

The indirect “gotcha” is the ethanol mandate, whereby the feds, driven by the unholy alliance of farm state Republicans and environmentally misinformed Democrats, require that a certain number of gallons of ethanol be blended into the US gasoline supply. It’s not a percent mandate, it’s a gallons mandate, but since the demand for gasoline is only so many gallons, you do the arithmetic and find that most of the gasoline sold must be E10 to meet the gallons of ethanol mandate. In fact, what’s driving some to consider E15 is that even with the slowly increasing E85 sales helping a bit more each year to meet the mandated ethanol use, there’s enough upward creep in the mandated gallons of ethanol so that very soon, the targets will be missed. Something has to give, and it has to be some combination of four choices: 1) E0 goes away everywhere, not just the RFG areas in the prior paragraph, 2) some E10 becomes E15, 3) there’s an unexpected surge in E85 sales, or 4) the mandated gallons get reduced. If you don’t like options 1, 2, or 3, the only option that will work is 4, so write your congressman. And whatever you do, don’t be dumb enough to think its an Obama, or Democratic, or environmentalist problem, and thus there’s no need to write your congressman if he’s Republican. The conservative Republicans including Trump are equally guilty, with the only difference being that the basis for their stupidity is different, namely, being in the farm lobby’s pocket instead of the environmental lobby’s pocket.

JoesC5

I agree with you about the ethanol mandate "gotcha". Only six states actually require that ethanol be used, but all 50 have to, due to the mandate. Trump needs to cancel it. But I doubt that he will, with what he owes to Iowa.

Only Ted Cruz said anything in the preliminaries about getting rid of the ethanol mandate.

But, even with the mandate still in place, the number of stations selling ethanol free gas is rising, but most of the new retailers selling E0 are selling 87, were the volume is, not premium.

iclick

I use E10 in my ZTR mower and 2-cycle weed-eater, but just before the last use in the fall I put ¼-oz. of Stabil in the tank of both, as well as any remaining in the gas can. That will treat up to five gallons and the maker of Stabil okays it for E10. I also do the same in my small 4-cycle generator, kept on hand for hurricanes, that I routinely give a maintenance run once per year. It's now 25 YO and have used E10 and Stabil for the past 10 years. Never had a problem with any of them related to the fuel system.

LDB

Of course (and I’m sure you understand this) the problem with the increasing number of stations selling ethanol-free is arithmetic. It does us no good to praise such stations, or ask stations not currently selling it to start. The controlling problem is not the stations, it’s the arithmetic of the ever-increasing mandated gallons of ethanol. The marketers are not going to break the law. So if you go back to the option numbers of my post, if we don’t get relief from option #4, and the pipe-dream of option #3 doesn’t happen, then guess what? Choice A is option #1, where availability of ethanol free goes from slowly increasing to abruptly going away. Choice B is option #2, where some of us get E15 instead of E10, which makes us scream. That’s why I say write your congressman. I don’t want to be forced into a choice of either supporting an extremist the likes of Cruz or accepting permanent ethanol. I’d like to see the mainstream politicians reflect mainstream rational views, as opposed to their current lobby-driven stupidity.