What's The Complaint About Trufuel?
- Thread starter UNC032
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gathermewool
Site Donor 2025
Subscribed. I just bought two new cans for my OPE and would like to know as well. ive had zero issues with it so far, but have also read that people are having trouble rev’ing out to max RPM or something.
I watched a few chickanic videos where she demonstrated that it runs terrible. So I bought some E0, mixed my own, and my Echo trimmer runs better then new now, HF Post hole digger fires right up, and Echo chainsaw runs great. I dont care if other people believe me or not.
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Sounds more like an equipment issue than fuel, equally I've also had 0 issues whenever I used it.
My guess would be quality control. I've seen the youtube videos about it causing no-start conditions, but personally I've never experienced that. I've only had it cause issues where the equipment wouldn't fully rev-out when under full throttle. Considering how expensive it is, I just refuse to buy it if that is a possibility again. The VP racing stuff seems much better, and also smells better. 
If the equipment runs poorly on a tank of fuel, but that fuel is dumped out and a different batch of fuel is poured in that causes it to run normally, the issue is the fuel.
Ideally yes but believing people on Youtube is a problem in itself.
Price.... I get ul94 or 100ll from a local airport. keep the container closed and they are stable for at least 2 years.
I bought a couple of quart cans just to get the cans. Just the right size containers for chainsaw and weedeater fuel. Easy to transport and no leak. Other than the odd smell of the exhaust I didn't notice any difference with the Tru Fuel. But no way I'm going to pay $25/gallon for mixed gas long term.
I've seen those chickanic videos and I don't doubt that there are occasional issues with the fuel. I bet all the fuels have issues from time to time but trufuel probably outsells the other fuels by a wide margin. I will say I used it for 10 years on my trimmer and it always started even after sitting for 2+ years. You can run worse things through your equipment. I don't use canned fuel anymore because I have more than one 2 cycle engine and it just makes more sense to mix my own as I have E0 available close by.
Pre-mixed canned fuel you buy off the shelf at a store.
Several cans of TruFuel and its been hit or miss with my equipment, hard starts, misfires, no rev-outs etc. Seems to be QC issue as mentioned for whatever reason. VP and Red Armor canned stuff has ALWAYS been reliable. So has mix-myself with E0 AND kept cost down. Caveat Emptor, but I won't use it anymore.
Of course, always trust but verify. My opinions on it are from my own experience with it.
I wouldn't say it is terrible fuel, a better option than E10 gas if you are using it in a piece of equipment that will be stored more than it is used. With that said, I had instances in two difference pieces of OPE where they wouldn't rev correctly using Trufuel, which was immediately resolved using other pre-mixed fuel I had. For the price of it, I will use other options since I want ALL the performance.
OK, I've seen that stuff. quart sized cans of pre mix for 2 stroke equipment.
never did see the point of it..
but if the stuff has QC problems my guess would be shelf life.
other guess would be someone blaming the fuel when it is really the piece of equipment..
I generally mix a gallon of e10, with the oil and a little Stabil.
if I don't use the mix in a reasonable amount of time I dump it in the cars
and mix some new fuel with oil.
I also always drain any unused fuel from 2 cycle equipment and then run the engine until it quits before storage.
Yup, this is exactly what I practice and recommend to my small engine customers, especially for 2 stroke machines I use very rarely.
Propflux01
$100 Site Donor 2026
I’ve used it from day one on my 10 year old echo trimmer. Never once had an issue, and leave the fuel in year round. Always starts consistently, runs idle to top speed. Bad. Atches for some, maybe, my experience has been great.
If you only use a qt in a year, it's super convenient.
I don't know if this helps or not, but TruFuel doesn't give much away on the MSDS.
It leaves too much open to interpretation as "petroleum distillates" can cover a lot of things.
VP blend says its a majority alkylate, then isopentane and toluene.
All of those in just about any combination should have >=93 octane and be very shelf stable.
That's basically what you would want in this situation and for the price what you should expect to get.
It leaves too much open to interpretation as "petroleum distillates" can cover a lot of things.
VP blend says its a majority alkylate, then isopentane and toluene.
All of those in just about any combination should have >=93 octane and be very shelf stable.
That's basically what you would want in this situation and for the price what you should expect to get.
TruFuel is mostly Naphtha. The engine will not run as well on TruFuel as it does on gasoline.
TruFuel 50:1 Mix:
Naphtha (petroleum), full-range alkylate, butane-contg. 68527-27-5 50 - 74%
isopentane 78-78-4 10 - 20
pentane 109-66-0 10 - 24
toluene 108-88-3 6 - 9
xylene 1330-20-7 5 - 9.7
ethylbenzene 100-41-4 1 - 1.7
https://images.homedepot-static.com/catalog/pdfImages/15/15a0d37f-afc6-4b71-8e4d-e50dc7a179e2.pdf
AVGAS is WAY better than TruFuel. It is actually gasoline. It does not need any stabilizer additive. AVGAS will last at least 5 years (some experts claim 10 years) if stored in an airtight metal or glass container (at least 2 years in a fuel tank or plastic container). Even after it gets old, it only loses some volatility and does not varnish.
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