Just wondering if anyone else is seeing a glow fuel shortage, and what you are hearing about Byron and Cool Power? Tower/Horizon confirmed they will no longer carry or distribute glow fuel. That is a huge problem, as the vast majority of hobby shops got their fuel from Tower.
Here in Houston, most Hobby Shops can get VP airplane fuel, but it’s not cheap at $25/gallon. Cool Power and Byron/Wildcat are unattainable.

There is a local Hobby Shop that mixes their own ‘brew’ but I haven’t heard good things about the quality control.

Byron/Wildcat and Cool Power will ship a 4 gallon case directly to your door, but the transport/haz-mat fees make it cost prohibitive.

What is everyone seeing, and can anyone advise on where to get glow fuel these days?

Any information would be much appreciated.

The LHS isn’t trying very hard, mine just got a shipment from Morgan Fuels and has very reasonable costs per gallon. Around $20 which they have held for several years now.

Granted they might have to make an investment in the fuel. What ours does is ask all their LOYAL customers if they want fuel and how much they want. This allows them to get the volume up to where the trucking cost is affordable per gallon. You know the LOYAL customers who buy the big ticket items from them instead of some outfit that doesn’t even have a store front. It the old days to become a hobby shop dealer you used to have to send a picture of your store and the store front with your application. The Chinese don’t care what you do as long as they get their money. But then they don’t sell fuel do they, not help you out when you have a problem.

Off my soap box now!

L.

What area are you in?

Ritch's Brew is somewhat local to the Houston area IIRC

http://ritchsbrew.com/rb.html

I buy fuel from VP - had a batch picked up but the guy who did that for me has moved, I'll just pay shipping. It's expensive, but it's only money

Fuel up here is 32-48$ per gallon.

Wichita area.

L.

Originally Posted by 1QwkSport2.5r

Fuel up here is 32-48$ per gallon.

I don't know where you get your, but I get mine in Richfield just up the road from you for about $20.00/gal. (10%)

Originally Posted by bhady

I don't know where you get your, but I get mine in Richfield just up the road from you for about $20.00/gal. (10%)

What fuel are you buying for $20 a gallon? At Hub (I assume) of all places? The last time I was at Hub, Omega was $28 and SIG was $32, though SIG was in quart bottles. Car and boat fuel is the spendy stuff which I use more of (20-40% Nitro).

Originally Posted by Skeezix

Just wondering if anyone else is seeing a glow fuel shortage, and what you are hearing about Byron and Cool Power? Tower/Horizon confirmed they will no longer carry or distribute glow fuel. That is a huge problem, as the vast majority of hobby shops got their fuel from Tower.

Ritch's Brew is in Houston - give them a call

http://www.ritchsbrew.com/

Originally Posted by Hemikiller

Ritch's Brew is in Houston - give them a call

http://www.ritchsbrew.com/

Not sure about rich's brew. I've heard mixed opinions on it. Quality seems to be inconsistent from what I'm told.

I've never had bad luck with Byrons, Wildcat, Cool Power, etc. Never tried VP,

IMO $20 a gallon is too much. Mix it yourself and no nitro fuel is way less than $10 bucks and low nitro only a little more. High nitro fuel less than $15.

My 20/12 car fuel is about 18$ a gallon mixing it myself. Airplane fuel is about $6 a gallon for 80/20 FAI fuel and 8-10$ per gallon for 5-10/20 fuel.

You can get it cheap if you buy the Methanol from a speed shop as above... it's something like $6 per gallon. The Nitro is expensive, but you don't need that much in each jug... I saw it being sold for $50 per gallon at some point... oil is dirt cheap so almost not worth adding into the calculation of cost.

But it's just so much easier to buy, I haven't personally tried mixing my own. I still just buy a quart or two at a time because I run small engines and my flying on glow is limited... Sig 10% is available at about $26 per gallon by the quart without hazmat fees... Omega used to be about $17 per gallon locally until all the shops stopped carrying many years ago... $9 more, 15 years later... not really breaking my back. It's a hobby, and the additional cost of fuel is not driving me away from it.

Originally Posted by ChillPhatCat

oil is dirt cheap so almost not worth adding into the calculation of cost.

Not so sure about that. I've found that it accounts for half the price of the fuel at least.

Originally Posted by Sport_Pilot

IMO $20 a gallon is too much. Mix it yourself and no nitro fuel is way less than $10 bucks and low nitro only a little more. High nitro fuel less than $15.

What kind of oil do you use, and where do you get it?

Originally Posted by ChillPhatCat

You can get it cheap if you buy the Methanol from a speed shop as above... it's something like $6 per gallon. The Nitro is expensive, but you don't need that much in each jug... I saw it being sold for $50 per gallon at some point... oil is dirt cheap so almost not worth adding into the calculation of cost.

But it's just so much easier to buy, I haven't personally tried mixing my own. I still just buy a quart or two at a time because I run small engines and my flying on glow is limited... Sig 10% is available at about $26 per gallon by the quart without hazmat fees... Omega used to be about $17 per gallon locally until all the shops stopped carrying many years ago... $9 more, 15 years later... not really breaking my back. It's a hobby, and the additional cost of fuel is not driving me away from it.

$6 per gallon is actually a bit high. Closer to $3 a gallon by the drum. If you can find a racer willing to sell some from his drum. also some race tracks will have a tank of it with a commercial pump for those racers who get caught short. Of fuel that is. They sell it for $3 to $4 a gallon.