Ironically Costco is a certified Top Tier brand.
JWBananas
joined 1 year ago
The linked study includes disposal in their calculations. Disposables still come out ahead.
Thanks, the song is stuck in my head now
It needed to contrast sharply with the Enterprise, because hero ship.
First you need to address your mental health
The stations that carry it tend to only carry one brand to begin with. The owner of that brand is generally the one that pays, as they have to submit for testing at their own expense.
It's not always more expensive. All Costco gas is Top Tier, for instance.
They require the brand to use the 2x detergent level for every grade, at every location, to display the Top Tier logo.
I go through a tank of gas every 1-2 days. When I don't fill with Top Tier, my fuel economy goes down on that tank. When I consistently don't fill with Top Tier, my fuel economy goes down even on my next tank of Top Tier. That's when it's time to throw in a bottle of polyetheramine (Techron, Redline, Gumout Regane, etc.) to clean things up.
DI engines unfortunately require deeper, periodic cleaning, as the additive will not reach the valves. But I do not have a DI engine, so the detergent makes a significant difference.
It particularly makes a difference in how often I have to (or do not have to) replace lifters to keep them in spec. This engine has solid, non-adjustable lifters.
Top Tier is about detergent pack, not about regular versus premium, so I'm not sure why you bring that up. Top Tier requires 2x the EPA mandated minimum detergent.
TL;DR ChatGPT = What to Expect When Expecting
The detergent is the biggest difference. Top Tier brands are guaranteed to have 2x the EPA mandated minimum detergent levels.
If you aren't getting more detergent at the pump, you end up having to pour it in later to restore performance.
This. A thousand times this. Khan Academy is an incredible free resource.
I'll see if I can find some better ones. This was just the first one I plucked out of a random citation, because I knew I would get eviscerated without one. But I've been seeing the advice about disposables as far back as I can remember. It was even a trick question in an eco quiz when I was a child back in the 90s (i.e. "Which of these things are better ecological choices?").
Interestingly the 2006 study itself is an updated version. Disposables did even better in the 2006 study than in the older one: Due to advances in manufacturing and in materials science, they were able to start producing them using less material (which decreases the carbon footprint during manufacturing, shipping, and disposal).