Old man winter is on his way, and once he hits, it’ll be many cold months of struggling to get your engine started, so right now is the perfect time to prep your diesel engines for our freezing Canadian temperatures!
WHAT IS A DIESEL FUEL CONDITIONER?
One of the main issues experienced with diesel in the cold is the presence of water or moisture in the fuel tank, which acts as a catalyst for engine problems including diesel gelling. The solution for this is to use a product called Diesel Fuel Conditioner, which removes moisture from the tank, and keeps your fuel from turning into molasses. We are going to put 6 different Diesel Fuel Treatments head-to-head in order to find out which product is the best option for taking care of your engine!
The 6 products we tested are; Howes Diesel Treat (A), Recochem's Diesel Fuel Conditioner (F), Lucas Oil's Cold Weather Diesel Treatment Anti-Gel (B), Kleen-Flo's Diesel Fuel Conditioner (C), Power Service's Diesel Fuel Supplement (E), and Fuel Power by FPPF (D).
Based on the above picture, you’ve probably noticed that the Fuel Power bottle is tiny in comparison to the others. Well folks, looks can be deceiving, so before we judge a book by its cover, let’s compare what these products offer!
PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS
In this chart, we can see that every product performs the basic functions of preventing fuel gelling, removing moisture, and cleaning your fuel system, with the exception of Lucas Oil's Cold Weather Diesel Treatment Anti-Gel (B). Both FPPF's Fuel Power (D) and Howes Diesel Treat (A) state that they increase fuel economy. All except for Power Service (E) and Lucas Oil (B) are designed for use all year round. FPPF's Fuel Power (D) also has the added benefits of being great for fuel storage, is compatible with both diesel and gasoline and is the only environmentally friendly product!
Still, as long as the product protects your engine, who cares which bottle you buy? Well, let’s take a deeper dive into how much product you need to treat your fuel.
First, let’s look at the amount of treatable fuel you get out of each bottle. First up, we have Power Service (E) which can treat 360L of fuel. Next is Lucas Oil's Cold Weather Diesel Treatment Anti-Gel (B) at 568L. The little bottle of FPPF's Fuel Power (D) can handle 908L. Both Recochem's Diesel Fuel Conditioner(F) and Kleen-Flo's Diesel Fuel Conditioner (C) treat 2,270L, and lastly, Howes Diesel Treat (A) can treat 3,600L!
Now, I’m sure you’re thinking that grabbing a bottle of Howes Diesel Treat will be the best bang for your buck, but hang on a second! Let’s get even deeper and find out exactly how much of each product you need to keep your fuel systems clean and moisture-free for each litre of fuel.
When broken down this way, we can see that with the tiny bottle of FPPF's Fuel Power (D), you only need to use 0.26mL of product per litre of diesel. Both Recochem's Diesel Fuel Conditioner (F) and Kleen-Flo's Diesel Fuel Conditioner (C) need 0.44mL of product per litre, already almost double that of FPPF. Howes Diesel Treat (A) is up next, needing 0.59mL per litre, but if we take into account that Howes Diesel Treat recommends tripling the dosage when temperatures are below 0° Celsius, you may need to use up to 2.22mL of product per litre! Lucas Oil's Cold Weather Diesel Treatment Anti-Gel (B) requires 1.67mL of product, and finally, we have Power Service (E), coming in at a whopping 3.15mL required for each litre of fuel, but on top of that, they recommend doubling the dose at temperatures under 0° as well, taking the total to 6.31mL per litre.
When you look at it this way, FPPF’s Fuel Power is the obvious choice! But remember, our main goal with a Diesel Fuel Treatment is to remove any water or moisture that may be in your fuel tank. So, to make sure this is still our best choice, we put each of these products to the test to see which one removes water the best.
THE EXPERIMENT
To do this, we put equal parts 10mL of water, and 10mL of product into small jars, then gave them a good shake to mix the product and water together. The next step was to take water detection paste, scoop a little bit onto a stick, and submerge it into each jar of the combined mixtures. If there’s any water or moisture left in the jar, this paste will turn red, but if no moisture is present, the paste will remain its unchanged yellow colour.
| 6th | Recochem (F) | So how did they stack up? Recochem's Diesel Fuel Conditioner came in last place, with the paste turning a little bit red, and appeared to have a weird chemical reaction on the surface. |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5th | Power Service (E) | In 5th place is Power Service's Diesel Fuel Supplement, with half of the submerged paste turning bright red, and even showing a visible line where the chemical and water separated in the jar. |  |
| 4th | Howes (A) | 4th is Howes Diesel Treat, with the tip turning bright red, indicating that the chemical pushed the water to the bottom of the jar. |  |
| 3rd | Lucas Oil (B) | Lucas Oil's Cold Weather Diesel Treatment Anti-Gel came in 3rd, having similar results to Howes Diesel Treat, but turning a lighter shade of red. |  |
| 2nd | Kleen-Flo (C) | 2nd place goes to Kleen-Flo's Diesel Fuel Conditioner, which appeared to not have any colour changes, but during the process of testing the other products, turned to a slightly darker shade, indicating a lingering presence of water in the jar. |  |
| 1st | FPPF (D) | And the gold medal champion is FPPF's Fuel Power, being the only jar containing absolutely no moisture! |  |
To verify our findings, we also tested the products again after letting them sit for 24 hours. The results were nearly identical, with the main difference being a change in how red the paste turned, all except for FPPF of course, which still remained the only solution to have no colour change whatsoever.
The reason for this is that all except one of these products simply disperse the moisture. So, yes, it may seem to temporarily fix your issue, but once it settles, the water will reform, bringing back the same problems from before you added the treatment, except for FPPF’s Fuel Power!
HYDROGEN POLAR BONDING
To get a little sciency, FPPF's Fuel Power (D) utilizes a fascinating process called Hydrogen Polar Bonding. At the molecular level, this chemical will break apart the water’s hydrogen and oxygen molecules, and bond itself to the hydrogen, ensuring that the oxygen cannot re-bond with it, removing any and all moisture from your fuel and the tank! And since hydrogen is extremely good at combusting, this new mixture will burn cleanly with your fuel, leaving your engine running like new.
But wait! There’s more! FPPF designed this bottle to be perfect for all you truckers out there who brave the icy roads. Most Semi Trucks have 2 fuel reservoirs, with each tank having roughly 454 litres of capacity. With this bottle, you won’t need to perform any calculations when you’re out in the freezing cold, just pour half a bottle into each tank! Now you can get back into your nice warm cab and not have to worry about your engine giving you any fuss, or, freezing your fingers off.
FPPF's Fuel Power is not only good during the cold, however. Since this product also cleans your engine, it can be used all year round to keep your engine in tip-top shape. And don’t forget, this works with regular gasoline as well! If you want to see the actual test we ran, check out our YouTube video!
So next time you’re getting ready for winter, or just need to ensure your equipment is in the best condition, come on down to Gregg’s and grab yourself a bottle of Fuel Power by FPPF! We also carry a wide range of FPPF chemicals, from Melt Down SOS for emergencies when your fuel gels up, to super concentrated Up Your Gas, for cleaning injectors and increasing octane, and “Oh, Canada” and so much more! Have a great Canadian day!
