On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 21:10:56 -0400, Alex wrote:

True North wrote:
Snip....



"Don't know what made me think of this but I got a hairdryer, took off
the side cover of the Honda and blew hot air all around the carb area,
being careful not to get the hairdryer too close. Only did it for a
couple of minutes, pulled the starter cord and it fired up right away.

Later that day, my next door neighbor couldn't start his identical Honda
either. Acted just like mine had. I told him what I did and he tried
it also. After warming up the carb area briefly his also fired right
up. I suspect that whatever water was in the fuel (there's always a
tiny amount) froze in the needle area preventing fuel from flowing.
Warming it slightly must have melted it and both mine and his have run
fine since."



In an emergency that could be tricky. That is...no power to operate the hair dryer.
Maybe I should get an inverter anyway...and make my boat battery earn it's keep.

You would need a huge inverter to power a hair dryer. They are 1500
watts, or so.

A hair dryer is really overkill. You could put a 60w light bulb under
the carb and cover it loosely with a towel. In a minute or so the carb
would be toasty. They make inverters that plug into a cigarette
lighter that will do that. For that matter you could use a 12v
headlight bulb and skip the inverter altogether.