Gbopp, if you run the generator dry, you are clearing all of the gas out of the carb -- which is why I want to open the screw, instead of running it dry. But I wonder if the Chinese generators, which are not as high-tech as the Honda, are less fussy when it comes to gas in the carburetor.
I have tried Sta-bil, I have tried Sea-foam, I have run the generator for a half hour each month under load, I have used 91 octane gas -- the darn thing still runs rough after several months. I am sure that California gas is the culprit. So now I am draining the carb.
But I gather from everyone's responses that there is no need to leave the little drain screw in the open position.
I should add, by the way, that although I am not happy about what Calif gas does to the generator, the difference in air quality in the last 50 years is HUGE. So all of these hassles -- the ethanol, the catalytic converter, the smog testing, the vapor nozzles at the gas station, and so forth -- have paid off, in the aggregate. If you have never lived through a full blown old-style San Fernando Valley smog alert, you can't imagine what it was like in the bad old days. Never mind the brown air and the bad smell -- your throat would burn, your eyes would water, your lungs felt tight. Older people would start coughing and could not stop. People with heart conditions would go into the hospital. My guess is that unless you have been in the middle of a tear gas barrage, you have never in your life experienced anything like a bad smog day. And this was all the time, back in the 50s and 60s.
But why can't Honda design a carb jet for real-world gasoline??
