"d&tm" wrote in message
...
others have already commented on the alka seltzer chemisty, but a simpler
and quantitative way of measuring how much alcohol is in the fuel is to
simply mix it with water. [...]

I'm guessing you didn't see the earlier thread, but...your procedure is
where this all started. Jay even referenced it in his previous Alka-Seltzer
thread, when he wrote:

we have used the "water/gas/shake" test to verify that
there is no ethanol present. I find this method to be
rather imprecise and quite a pain

So, here's a gentle "yes, we already know" in reply to your suggestion.

Jay is attempting to come up with a test that is more foolproof, easier,
less messy, whatever.

Personally, I'm not sure that even if the Alka-Seltzer method works, it's
superior to the water-mixing method. After all, if you test by mixing
water, you just have gasahol with some water in it. You can even strain the
water out using a GATS jar if you want to use it (if the test is positive,
then in something that can tolerate ethanol, of course...like your car). If
you test it with Alka-Seltzer, now you've contaminated your fuel with an
Alka-Seltzer tablet. At the very least, you've a fuel-soaked tablet you
need to dispose of, and I'm not sure that the fuel is usable at that point,
ethanol or not. Just because the tablet didn't fizz, that doesn't mean
there aren't bits of it in the fuel.

Assuming this doesn't already exist, I think it's only a matter of time
before you can buy a fuel testing kit that is either just strips you dip
into a fuel sample, or drops you drip into a fuel sample, and which tells
you with a change of color whether there is ethanol or not in the fuel.
Either the water mixing OR the Alka-Seltzer just seems too unwieldy to me to
be practical in the long run.

Pete