I've never drained my snowblower... I add a lil sta-bil at end of season... Then run it for 10-15 minutes in July, and again in Sept... Have never had an issue doing this for over 20 yrs.. (snowblower, tillers, weedwackers, and mowers)So glad I took mine out of the box. I still refuse to put gas in it, just to drain it out in two months. I bought an $1800.00 workshop ornament; it's going on almost 2 yrs. now. I'm about to chalk it up to one of my worst purchases ever.