How to store gas at home (and does gas go bad?)

How to store gas at home (and does gas go bad?)

Properly storing gasoline at home is crucial to maintaining safety and extending the fuel's shelf life. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, gasoline can be kept for three to six months if stored properly. Adding fuel stabilizers can further extend this period. This guide will cover ways to store gasoline, common FAQs, and safety tips.

Between vehicles, generators, and other gas-powered equipment around your home, it makes sense to store at least a little bit of fuel in case an emergency strikes. This guide explains the ways people store gasoline and other FAQ.

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A sudden evacuation, power loss, or SHTF event is not the time to wait in line with other panicked people at a gas station – if it’s even open and supplied to begin with! You may need to bug out quickly or immediately run a generator for medical reasons, for example.

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Summary:

• Preparedness experts recommend having enough gas to fill your main vehicle from empty to full (roughly 15-20 gallons).
• Most people keep a few affordable five-gallon jerry cans in their garage with annual rotation.
• There is a difference in quality and safety between metallic cans and plastic ones.
• Use metal containers for better safety, but most people are fine with plastic as long as they follow safety guidelines.
• Options range from 10-50 gallon semi-portable tanks to large above-ground tanks permanently installed on your property.
• Standard gasoline starts degrading in a month and is usually avoided after 6-12 months.
• Adding a fuel stabilizer can extend the lifespan of stored gas for a few years.
• Diesel fuel generally lasts longer and may not need stabilizers if used within a few years.
• Gasoline doesn’t freeze until -50°F (-45°C) but can thicken below -10°F (-23°C). Storing it with a stabilizer helps.
• Diesel starts gelling around 10-15°F (-12 to -9°C). Stabilizers help here as well.
• Always store gas in proper containers, away from heat/spark sources, and outside your living area.

Our Pick

Sta-bil Fuel Stabilizer

Cheap and effective. Add this to your stored gas to keep it fresh for up to a year or more. 8 ounces of Sta-bil treats 20 gallons of gas.

Check local laws

Lame disclaimer time! Gas is dangerous. Which means it’s regulated by the government, and any discussion around it often includes tons of overly-cautious warnings.

Generally speaking, you don’t need permission to store gas on your property. But there are various state, county, and city ordinances that may apply. HOAs and multi-unit buildings may also have their own rules, too.

Tip: A good resource is your local fire department. We’ve installed large systems in the past, and the local FD was great about giving tips on location, laws, and so on.

For example, one time when installing 1,000 gallons of above-ground tanks in an area prone to wildfires, the fire department told us the minimum distance they needed between the house and fuel tanks (essentially large bombs) to still feel safe while trying to save the home from fire.

Types of gas storage

• Small jerry cans you carry with one hand
• Accessories specifically made for your vehicle, mostly found in trucks, off-roaders, etc.
• Semi-portable options that are the size of a few jerry cans
• A large tank installed on your property, likely above ground.

How long does gas last?

Gas is a mix of multiple components. Those individual components can split apart, degrade, or evaporate over time.

Standard gasoline starts to go bad after 30 days. It’s not a black-and-white change, though. Similar to medicine after its expiration date, gas doesn’t suddenly become toxic or unusable – the efficiency goes down over time, eventually reaching the point it does more harm than good inside of an engine.

When exposed to oxygen and water, for example, gas begins to oxidize the same way that iron rusts. You wouldn’t let your firearm rust, so treat your gas stores with the same care!

What happens if I use stale gas? Or gas-oil mixes?

You might end up in a scenario where you need gas but don’t have fresh stuff on hand.

The older the gas, the more likely the engine will sputter or not start at all. If you can get the engine going and it seems to idle okay for a little bit, it’s likely going to work fine with a few burps and hiccups along the way – and possible long-term damage you’d fix after the emergency.

Since gas doesn’t suddenly go from functional to broken, it’s often more of a judgment call than a simple answer: how much you need gas vs. how old it is vs. how much you’re willing to damage your engine.

Another scenario: You need gas for your vehicle to evacuate, but all you have on hand is a gas and oil mixture used by two-stroke tools like weed eaters and small lawn mowers.

That’s probably fine, too. The car (or other four-stroke engine that normally keeps gas and oil separate) might sputter, smoke, or otherwise be grumpy – but it’ll do in a pinch, especially if there’s any pure gas left in the tank to help dilute the oil-gas mix you pour in.

Fuel stabilizers like Sta-bil are an easy way to keep gas from going bad

And it doesn’t cost much, either – an $8 bottle of Sta-bil treats 40 gallons for a year. These products are commonly found at auto stores, gas stations, and Walmart.

Steps to use fuel stabilizers

All you have to do is pour the stabilizing agent into your tank. They work by neutralizing the chemical reaction that causes gas to break down over time.

Most products only need to be used once for a year’s worth of shelf life. At the end of the year, you can either use the stored gas and refill it with new fuel (our recommendation) or redo the stabilizer treatment for a year extension.

The use and replace method

One of the basic models in prepping is the First In First Out “store what you use, use what you store” concept.

For more information, please visit LNG Storage Equipment. It can work well for gas storage, particularly if you don’t want the expense or hassle of using stabilizer, or if you want to have lots of gas on hand but can’t use larger tanks.

Most people have one tank: the one in their car. They wait until it gets low, fill it up, use it, repeat.

Instead, you could keep a few full cans in your garage and top off your vehicle with the oldest gas you have around. Then, as you use the gas from the cans, you take those to the gas station and refill them.

That doesn’t require much of a habit change, so it’s easy to do. And you won’t need to fiddle with stabilizers as long as the gas in the garage is never more than six months old. Once you get the rhythm of how much you use in daily life, you can find the right balance and essentially always have six months’ worth of gas on hand without it ever going bad.

If you want to get really advanced without the big tanks, you can extend this same cycle concept with the addition of stabilizer. So when you fill your car in daily life, you’re actually using gas from one or more years ago.

Safety matters

A lot of the safety warnings around gasoline are so broad or extreme that most people ignore them. But there are real dangers.

The dangers of gasoline

The vapor from just one cup of gasoline has the explosive energy of five pounds of dynamite. That’s why we use gasoline to begin with: high energy density makes it an ideal portable fuel. That’s why a gallon of it can push a two-ton vehicle over ~25 miles.

Treat gasoline around your home with the same respect you would a firearm.

Safety tips

That means keeping it in a thoughtful location, away from children, away from things that can accidentally make it go boom, etc.

More: Best fire extinguisher for your home and vehicle

Where to store gas

• The ideal place is somewhere protected from the elements yet separate from your home. Detached, enclosed garages and barns are perfect.
• No matter what, don’t keep gas inside your home. The vapors are too dangerous.
• An attached garage is typically okay if the rest of the criteria are met.
• Stay far away from heaters, fireplaces, sources of sparks, sunny windows, etc.

Since gas fumes are heavier than air, they can travel substantial distances along the ground, kind of like a morning fog. Those vapors can be ignited by heat alone – they don’t need a distinct spark or flame. Keep that in mind when picking a spot.

How to safely transport gasoline (and is it legal to drive with gas?)

Transporting gasoline

Yes, it’s generally legal in these personal situations. Local laws will often set a maximum gallon limit so there’s a line between personal and commercial use.

Only keep gas stored in/on your vehicle for the long term if the container was specifically built for that (e.g., the bolted-in truck bed tanks).

You can certainly put any proper container in your trunk when going back and forth to the petrol station, but that’s it – don’t keep the full plastic jug in your trunk “just in case.”

Risks

Cars get hot. Heat causes vapors. Vapors cause boom. Or cars get crashed. More boom.

Fill your cans on the ground to avoid static electricity

A common mistake is filling up gas containers without putting them on the ground first. When a container is sitting on surfaces like a carpeted trunk or truck bed, static electricity can cause a spark in the vapors.

Example: This woman simply gets out of her car and touches the pump nozzle. Yet the static electricity from rubbing against the seat fabric was enough to set this off:

If you have an accident

Spills:

• For small spills, soak up the gas with rags, sawdust, kitty litter, paper, anything.
• For larger spills, try to contain it around the edges from spreading any further (e.g., wrap a garden hose in a circle around the spill), then collect the liquid.
• Don’t put it down rainwater drains, ever.
• Try not to put it in your standard garbage – many areas have hazardous waste drop-offs or other laws concerning disposal.

Gets in your eyes:

• Do whichever of these is fastest: get in the shower or use a sink to flow fresh water over your eyes.
• Hold your eyelids open and let water run through for 15 minutes.
• Take your contacts out and leave them out until you feel fine again.
• Don’t use eye drops unless told to by a professional.
• Call 911 or an eye doctor (ophthalmologist).

Gasoline Storage Management

The gasoline we use nowadays is different from that produced in the past. Back in the 'old days' gasoline went stale mainly because the lighter 'ends' gradually boiled off, leaving the heavier tar-like ends behind. Also, oxygen soaked in and reacted with various compounds in the gasoline which resulted in the "gummy" deposits the old-time mechanics talked about.

The best available solution was to keep the lighter ends in and the oxygen out, hence the advice about tightly sealed containers and the use of a stabilizer. ("Stabilizer," in essence, a type of detergent that that forms a "skin" over surface of the gasoline. It works, in effect, like a layer of Saran wrap over the top of a cup of liquid.)

Modern gas is different. In order to reduce photochemical smog during handling and storage, it is blended in such a way as to not lose its lighter ends as easily. To make up for this, oxygenates are added. Ethanol was the big game changer. The long and short of it is that today's gas starts going bad from the moment it's brewed up and there's really nothing that can be done about it.

Sealed containers, vacuum packing, nitrogen fill and "stabilizers" are all wishful thinking. The shelf life of most gasoline is about 6 months if the engine has a carburetor and maybe longer if it's a fuel injected engine. We've all heard stories about someone who was able to use a gallon of gas that was set aside and forgotten about for a couple of years. But there are a lot more stories about lawn mowers, motorcycles and boat motors that were filled up in October but won't start the next April (and/or need fuel system work.)

The best plan is to think of gasoline as having a shelf life only slightly better than milk and treat it accordingly. Buy what you need in the short term and use it up.

If you simply MUST keep a stash of gasoline on hand, use av gas if at all possible. The next best thing is ethanol-free premium. If the only gas available is laced with ethanol it is in your own interest to only keep on hand what can be used up within the next 6 months. Periodically burn some of the stored gasoline in your car and replace your "stash" with fresh. "Summer" gasoline stores better but "Winter" gas burns better.

I'm mostly an electrical guy and this information comes from a friend who's a petroleum inspector for the State. Note - If you want a real "earful," ask a small engine mechanic or anybody in the petroleum business about ethanol. Be prepared to hear hours of horror stories.

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