Our snowblower is 15 years old and for the last 5 it's been running badly. Hard to start and surging while running. Doubtless this is because it spends much of the year as a fuel aging device. Last year I took the carb apart and cleaned it. Ran better but it's bad again now. Watched a couple videos on repairing it then went looking for rebuild kits. A few dollars for a kit, a few more for a can of carb cleaner and an hour to repair should get it going like new. Then I noticed that new carburetors are cheap. $18.95 for mine. Well I don't like the throwaway society but it's better than my wife's suggestion to replace the whole machine. A new carb is in the mail.

What's really needed its a way to drain the fuel in spring. There is no shutoff valve and it takes some disassembly to get to the carb to remove the bowl, then there's the mess of catching the fuel. And running it out of fuel would take hours at an idle.