Im familiar with the stuff shown.... it is sold as an anti gel additive. as a comparison, aviation grade fuel, or high grade kerosene also adds anti gel properties when added to regular highway grade diesel fuel.
there are better additives if you want to keep the system free of gum and varnish, and there are others that add better lubricity to the fuel to keep the pump lubricated.....
some will do both better than the product shown....
some products may be acceptable for use in a vehicle (like a truck) where there is a high volume of fuel being run thru it on a regular basis, but in a pleasure boat where the fuel consumption is not as high, a bit more discretion should be used in what type of additives we dump in to the tank.
as far as encapsulating the water, that is only a fancy way of saying it absorbs the water and helps it to pass thru the system.
what you DONT want is water passing thru the system. the filters are in place to prevent that, so what would be the point of adding a product that would allow the water to pass thru them?
when a product, such as HEET, also known as ethanol, which is an ingredient in the HOWES product is added to the fuel, it will absorb the water molecule and allow it to mix with the fuel for a short time..... then it can bypass the filters and enter into the system.
this would be marginally ok as long as you burn off all the contaminated fuel during the next few hours, but if you shut down and allow the boat to set a week or two, the water molecules begin to come out of suspension as the alcohol ages and can no longer hold it.... then you have a dollop of water setting in the injector pump... or carburetor.
also, any water, encapsulated or not in the fuel will cause the fuel to degrade at an extremely higher rate than it normally would.
ANY product that claims to remove water, encapsulate water, or eliminate water from the fuel system in any other way other than pumping or siphoning it out is a bad idea to consider using... as it may SEEM to help the immediate problem, it has extreme potential to cause more costly repairs a short time later.....
