I am adding a second post on this subject! This post is a post of preventative maintenance! When putting the lawn mower up for winter, it is the perfect time to get all fuel out of the tank and carburetor! The simple way is the run the mower till the tank is empty. A bit of planning on getting the tank empty as the last cut or draining most of the fuel is up to how you wish to accomplish the task! That takes care of getting all fuel out of the carb and tank. Next is the gas can! Gas does get stale but for a lawn mower engine , for me, that has never caused a problem! But what will cause a big problem is fuel with impurities in it such as moisture! Have a neighbor who stores his lawn mower outside in the winter! He has problems. Not sure about his fuel storage but, clean fuel is critical and fuel not kept in the engine to turn to sludge in the idle and High speed jets is also critical. Since I have started over the last year or two with clean fuel and a lawn mower that has had all fuel run out of it, (and a replacement filter and spark plug, my starting problems have gone away!