Have you ever had a bad bottle?

[moyesboy]

Generally, how consistent is fuel?
How likely are you to have a bad bottle or a bad box (meaning obviously down on power)?
This is irrespective of manufacturer. I'm wondering, generally, is fuel consistent or should I expect to get a bad bottle every now and then?

[Aidi]

I have gone through about 20 gallons of fuel this year, and none of them gave any noticable drop in performance. This was a mix of CoolPower, Bekra, Wildcat and Magnaum so a good selection of the more popular fuels.

Even a bottle of 15% Coolpower which i started the season on which had been standing for near on 3 years worked just fine!!

Not heard of anyone mention it at the club either. I guess the thing which can affect fuel the most is moisture in the bottle.

Rgds
Aidi

[Disc]

I think I got a bad bottle or 2 of wildcat 20% at one point in time but mixed with some other Wildcat and it was okay. Although LHC would of course say nothing wrong with it...

generally my fuel stands in the garage and never have a problem

[moyesboy]

So to open a sealed bottle of 30% from a new untried supplier and find it is way down on power compared with magnum20% would imply there was something wrong then?
After half a very dissapointing bottle of fiddling with needles and finding the best was roughly where the magnum had been, I am in correspondence with the supplier who seems to think I'm the only customer who has not been satisfied.
I'm advised to try the next bottle.
Shipping costs of fuel, and the lack of folks who will deliver it, seem to be a block to simply returning it for a refund.

[Aidi]

If i was you, i would run a tank from each of the bottles. I would think you are well within your rights to do this. Could be that you have a case from a duff batch. If the supplier is any good they will understand and conceed there could be a problem and replace it. Its not as if its directly their fault.

[moyesboy]

This is an update.
I bought a box of 4 bottles of 30% fuel and noticed that the first bottle was noticably less poweful than the magnum 20% I had been running.
After experimenting with the needles and not getting much improvement I ran some of my remaining 30% magnum and it was definitely a lot better and ran well. The best needle settings for the new fuel seemed to be the ones that worked best with magnum too.

After correspondence with the supplier I was advised to try the next bottle. I found the next bottle seemed to be better.
I should also point out that the tick over and pick up was noticebly better than the magnum with this new fuel so there is some advantage to it though the maximum sustained power seems a little less than the magnum to me (but the second bottle is better than the first). Note also that this fuel is significantly cheaper to my door than magnum, and also easily available which magnum currently isn't.

The supplier has now sent me two extra bottles of 30% fuel ex gratia because it seems I am the first customer who suspects they may have had a slightly off bottle of fuel.

I'm sure most of you can work out what fuel this is, so I will not name it as that will make this thread google up if you search the name due to this forum's excellect google ratings.

I consider that I have had excellent customer service from this fuel supplier and the heli still flies well on this fuel, which is readily available at a good price!

[jiberjaber]

Well I am stuck on which one it is, what size container is it? 5L, 4L or 1 US Gal?