Is Diesel with Valvtect worth a premium?

Is it worth a 70 cent per gallon premium? If so why?

Is any additive worth it?


If you think so...usually a bottle for under $20 treats at least 100 Gallons...


I think more than occasional use of generic additives or additives required for a specific purpose are a waste of money.

For you very little extra value, for the marina a extra $ .70 a gallon. If your marina has clean storage tanks and sells a moderate amount of fuel your getting clean fuel and that's what you want.


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I believe valvetech is added at the dispensing tank...like ethanol in those states/places that mandate it...


When ethanol was first an issue in NJ, a local marina that serviced outboards sent several different fuel samples to labs to see what was going on. He never saw more than 5% with 2-3 being closer to the average. So ethanol fuel wasn't as bad as some made it out to be...but everyone was running lower octane fuel.

You can never be sure just what you are getting despite the advertising by the marina.

I wouldn't pay that premium or $0.70 for it. If there are no additives, I'll add Biobor JF at a fraction of the cost.

Our marina and another nearby have it and I have noticed no premium whatsoever. I checked the pump at the marina over the weekend and it was $2.67/gal.

Spend extea boat bucks on a Baja filter to keep water out of the tank.

And for new O rings for the deck fill.

Pgitug said:

Is it worth a 70 cent per gallon premium? If so why?

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No. The City of Fort Myers Boat Basin is charging $2.81/gallon (as of 6/24) for Valvetect. In JAX, with taxes, Valvetect is $2.85/gallon. It sounds like who ever is charging the $0.70/gallon "so called" premium is using Valvetect as an excuse to gouge the customer. I'd go somewhere else.

You can buy the additive and treat your fuel yourself for .08 per gallon (West Marine prices).

In some areas of the country and types of fuel tank installations, microbe growth can be a real problem. If your fuel needs a Microbiocide to counter microbe growth in your diesel fuel tanks, then buy the correct biocide additive. Your engine manufacture will generally have a list of additives that won't "damage" your equipment

But it's not something you should be pouring into your fuel tanks just because of a sales pitch from an aftermarket additive supplier. There is no "added value" to buying aftermarket additives for your fuel or lube oil otherwise. It a waste of your money and some aftermarket additives may actually damage your equipment.

Larry M said:

No. The City of Fort Myers Boat Basin is charging $2.81/gallon (as of 6/24) for Valvetect. In JAX, with taxes, Valvetect is $2.85/gallon. It sounds like who ever is charging the $0.70/gallon "so called" premium is using Valvetect as an excuse to gouge the customer. I'd go somewhere else.

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Yes, the whole question is based on an erroneous assumption or premise. Valvtect doesn't cost $0.70 more. Also some other diesel fuels have similar additives. I do feel Valvtect is worth a very slight premium over fuel without it or similar. However, I am finding no real price differential. Our last fueling in Fort Lauderdale was $2.64. We just fueled at Cape Charles. Their pump price is $2.80 before discounts for quantity.

We do try to go to places who use major fuel suppliers and sell a lot of fuel. Some are Valvtech, some not. Nearly all are marine diesel with some additive.

Diesel is blended with an additive pack at the distributor, enough stuff to meet the ASTM specs. Nothing else is needed.

Additional additives are needed only to meet some psychological need that the snake oil vendors take full advantage of.

I'm in the engine business and the only additive I recommend is a biocide on tanks where free water can't be drained, and when boat is sitting much of the time.

Otherwise, just get fuel from a high volume vendor, keep water out of tanks and maintain your filters. Done.

Ski as always give great advice. That said, we are in the B&B camp - we prefer valvtect and several marinas around us have it. We will pay a slight premium (few cents) but if the price varies much more than that, we will buy from one of the non-valvtect sources. Even then we generally run it with no additoinal additives. Our primary goal is to buy from the marinas that move the most diesel.

As to pricing, it is funny here in that each marina seems to set its price when it gets a load of fuel and won't change it (up or down) until the next load, without regard to changes in the larger market. Last year or so when diesel prices started to really come down, some marinas had pretty much priced themselves out of the market, at least for the locals who are familiar with all the local sources.

Carolena said:

As to pricing, it is funny here in that each marina seems to set its price when it gets a load of fuel and won't change it (up or down) until the next load, without regard to changes in the larger market. Last year or so when diesel prices started to really come down, some marinas had pretty much priced themselves out of the market, at least for the locals who are familiar with all the local sources.

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We saw that elsewhere as well. Some marinas were very slow to drop as they had fuel on hand. The fuel trucks dropped immediately. Any marina not requiring weekly fills (or more often) was caught behind. If a marina had 20,000 gallons on hand and the price dropped $0.50, in essence they just lost $10,000 without doing a thing, unless they can somehow sell it still at the old price.

However, some just stay high permanently hoping people don't care. There are marinas right now in Fort Lauderdale charging $3.59 so about a dollar more than we paid a couple of weeks ago.

Oh, I just found a marina in West Palm that is charging $4.079 for diesel and it's not Valvtect.

Lambs in JAX goes through that on deliveries. They get 10K gallons at a time and they hold their price till the next delivery. This winter when prices were dropping they were high for a awhile. Now, according to AC, they are #12 on low cost out of ~100 marinas with fuel docks in FL.

Recently Huckins discontinued fueling from trucks at their faculty. In the past you fueled on Tuesdays and got that weeks market rate. Now they only fuel your boat if you are on the hard,

Larry M said:

Lambs in JAX goes through that on deliveries. They get 10K gallons at a time and they hold their price till the next delivery. This winter when prices were dropping they were high for a awhile. Now, according to AC, they are #12 on low cost out of ~100 marinas with fuel docks in FL.

Recently Huckins discontinued fueling from trucks at their faculty. In the past you fueled on Tuesdays and got that weeks market rate. Now they only fuel your boat if you are on the hard,

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And the current prices listed in Florida range from $2.43 to $4.19 and nothing to do with quality of fuel. Oh and the lowest, Anchor Petroleum is Valvtect

We were filled by truck at Cape Charles. Over 150 gallons they offer that option and if you're taking on a lot they seem to prefer it.

We use valvetect diesel and although I never put additives in my cars, the valvetect diesel does burn cleaner with our Yanmar's (Cetan boosters) and have a few other people that independently found the same thing, with that all said, we don't pay more for it, the price at the valvetect station is the same as the guy across the canal.

Also within the additive is lubricity agent, which as Ski states maybe this is just a feel good thing for me, but I like to feel good, so it works! ;-)

The only possible advantage of purchasing a "premium" fuel might be perhaps , only perhaps , the marina fuel filters are kept up better.

It looks like a pretty marketing scheme. Valvtect makes the vendor supply independent certification that the tanks are clean and water free annually to them.

I would think that that alone accounts for mostly trouble free fuel supply. The additive is just something that sells to the uneducated end user.

I don't know if a fuel additive helps performance in a marine diesel. I had a problem with asphaltenes in the fuel and used Stanadyne on the recommendation of a Cummins mechanic. The only evidence I have that an additive may help diesel performance is in my diesel automobile. Fuel economy goes from 36mpg at 80 mph to a little over 38 mpg at the same speed when using Stanadyne. What is that fuel additive doing?

Post #12 by Ski is great. The most amazing thing is it's all there expressed clearly and comprehensive w just a few words. I agree ... "done".

We're off on this argument over a question that has an erroneous assumption to start with. That assumption is that Valvtect costs $0.70 extra per gallon. Well it doesn't. So question null and void.

Pgitug said:

Is it worth a 70 cent per gallon premium? If so why?

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Here's the original question and it's a valid one. He wants to know if it's worth it to pay the premium and why.

FlyWright said:

Here's the original question and it's a valid one. He wants to know if it's worth it to pay the premium and why.

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But there isn't a premium...If someone was charging $0.70 more it wasn't because they had Valvtect. Valvtect is available at the same prices as other diesel.

BandB said:

But there isn't a premium...If someone was charging $0.70 more it wasn't because they had Valvtect. Valvtect is available at the same prices as other diesel.

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How do you know why they're charging more? And does it matter? Not all marinas price their fuel the same. Frankly, I'm surprised you're suggesting that ValvTect fuel is the same price as non-VT fuel. I buy ValvTect fuel at Pittsburg Marina often and it's usually CHEAPER than other marinas. But none of this matters to the OP's question because apparently he sees a difference of $0.70 for the VT diesel.

Maybe this makes more sense...

Marina A charges $2.80 for diesel without ValvTect and Marina B charges $3.50 for diesel with ValvTect. There is no other discernible difference between the two. Is it worth it to pay more to get the ValvTect?

We don't know why the price difference but that's not germane to the question.