Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

Date: Nov 16/15

Generator: 7kw Briggs

Activity: Cut road face of hedge with trimmer, 1kw additional on each leg. Duration 45 minutes.

Final Fueling notes: filled w. NonE gas. Stabil 360 Protection already in fuel can.

Maintenance notes (Done, or Required):

Elec start. Started second crank, full choke. Temperature 8 deg C. Hours are still low, but oil is starting to darken - plan to change early. Battery measured 13.04v after start.

Rgds, D.

 

[dragoneggs]

Running my Honha EU3000iS generator as we speak! Huge storm ripping through the area and power has been out for more than 3 hours so far. Don't know the load on it but at least it is working for real! Started up immediately.. Best thing was to put a battery tender on it. Electric key turn start... Love it.

 

[Tomtint]

I posted earlier about mine. Last run, I ran it dry until it stalled. I was thinking that it would eliminate ethanol from ruining another carb. .. Now I'm thinking about pouring 1/2 gallon of non ethanol mixed with stabilizer ( Husqurvana ) .. Thinking this would be better sitting in the carb than nothing.

 

[3930dave]

Running my Honha EU3000iS generator as we speak! Huge storm ripping through the area and power has been out for more than 3 hours so far. Don't know the load on it but at least it is working for real! Started up immediately.. Best thing was to put a battery tender on it. Electric key turn start... Love it.

Here's hoping that you are back on grid now/soon; if not - that your fuel cache is up to the task.

Rgds, D.

 

[dragoneggs]

Here's hoping that you are back on grid now/soon; if not - that your fuel cache is up to the task.

Rgds, D.

Thanks for the reminder Dave... been wanting to purchase another 5gal can for reg gas. I hate to have stagnate gas sitting around but times like these makes we want the insurance. My Honda is pretty efficient and also very quiet which is great at night. I always keep it topped and 5 gal extra on the ready. I suppose a simple crank siphon would be handy to pull from my truck would be a good idea too. Oh we aren't really roughing it... wife is cooking on the gas stove and I have the big screen going! Oh and my laptop too!

 

[3930dave]

I posted earlier about mine. Last run, I ran it dry until it stalled. I was thinking that it would eliminate ethanol from ruining another carb. .. Now I'm thinking about pouring 1/2 gallon of non ethanol mixed with stabilizer ( Husqurvana ) .. Thinking this would be better sitting in the carb than nothing.

I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all answer.

Just to pick 3 variables..... carb type, local fuel formulation, and temperature/humidity ranges can convert one man's solution into somebody else's problem.....

To recap, I went from a Run-Dry approach to Store-Full/Stabilized because:

1) The carb float gummed up pretty well on my small gen after years of RunDry. Could have cleaned it, but as the replacement parts are really inexpensive, I just replaced the float and seat.

2) I got to thinking.... Well, this whole system is designed to hold fuel normally, so as long as it's properly stabilized for the duration I want, should be fine. Several years later, this approach is still working well for me.

In contrast, this thread and elsewhere has many examples of people doing fine with RunDry.

3) I want the gen to be able to fire up FAST. The ground-water table here can be high certain years..... I don't want to waste time fueling up if my sump is about to overflow.

4) Last, but definitely not least... handling fuel cans is not my wife's strong suit. Pre-fueled, my big gen will run at least 12 hours on a tank - I like knowing I've got that long to make it home to deal with fuel.

If you do add the fuel/stablizer, just make sure to run the gen long enough to make sure it completely flows through the carb.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Thanks for the reminder Dave... been wanting to purchase another 5gal can for reg gas. I hate to have stagnate gas sitting around but times like these makes we want the insurance. My Honda is pretty efficient and also very quiet which is great at night. I always keep it topped and 5 gal extra on the ready. I suppose a simple crank siphon would be handy to pull from my truck would be a good idea too. Oh we aren't really roughing it... wife is cooking on the gas stove and I have the big screen going! Oh and my laptop too!

Ah C'mon...... you probably had to turn-off the megawatt surround sound system - that's roughing it !

5 gal. extra with that EU will run a while, it is easy on fuel.

Some guys on here have several weeks of fuel on-hand. I haven't gone quite that far, but once I started keeping a few extra cans around a number of years ago I decided to always add stabilizer to all my fuel.

I often use Stabil, but obviously any quality product will work - Seafoam is another good choice, with some added cleaning as a bonus. Stabil 360 Protection is my top choice today, specifically for my metal gas tank machines.

If a can sits too long, I just dump it into one of our road-going vehicles. I like the last twin-pack of 20L gas cans I picked up at Costco this year - military style dimensions, plastic tank, but with a real vent fitting that you can loosen/unscrew.

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

Thanks for the reminder Dave... been wanting to purchase another 5gal can for reg gas. I hate to have stagnate gas sitting around but times like these makes we want the insurance. My Honda is pretty efficient and also very quiet which is great at night. I always keep it topped and 5 gal extra on the ready. I suppose a simple crank siphon would be handy to pull from my truck would be a good idea too. Oh we aren't really roughing it... wife is cooking on the gas stove and I have the big screen going! Oh and my laptop too!

I have not heard how things are down Olympia way... a few years back it rained 30 days straight and then the wind came... and what a disaster... power out for as much as a week with all the down power lines... and those with well water had more trouble.

I can picture you comfortable and cozy with a big smile on your face enjoying the fruits of your labor and planning... probably thinking how sweet it is!

I don't keep much gas around in cans... do try to keep my trucks full and the van holds 36 gallons and with the pump set up I can pump/transfer fuel at 2 gallons a minute and have a thumb control valve to cut flow on a 10' 1/4 inch line... works great for my mowers, tiller, log splitter etc...

 

[Texasmark]

A generator needs a load to be properly excercised. The alternator needs to get nice and warm to fend off moisure. But where do you put heat in the summer? I use my hot tub (which I usually heat by alternative means) as a load.

My Generac household unit turns on every week for 15 minutes on Wednesday around noon. Nothing is said about switching the transfer switch to put a load on the generator (generic term). Unit runs on Propane so fuel is a no brainer and oil changes are seldom, forget how many hours but lots. Generac has sold over 1 million units world wide so I guess they know their business.

 

[3930dave]

My Generac household unit turns on every week for 15 minutes on Wednesday around noon. Nothing is said about switching the transfer switch to put a load on the generator (generic term). Unit runs on Propane so fuel is a no brainer and oil changes are seldom, forget how many hours but lots. Generac has sold over 1 million units world wide so I guess they know their business.

While I'm a fan of carefully reading all the supplied Manufacturer's documentation, I also know....

1) Lack of Maintenance (Requirements) sells. Given the profile of the avg consumer today, manufacturers will typically specify the absolute minimum requirements.

2) Important information is sometimes omitted. Ex. - I suspect that the manuals for most DI gasoline automotive engines do not let you know that they will require significantly more upper intake maintenance than a typical MPFI engine does.

3) While getting heat into a generator in Texas is a no-brainer virtually all of the year, not so for the northern parts of the continent.

4) You definitely can't assess oil in a propane unit visually. An engineering counterpart of mine ran an F150 on propane in Dallas back in the 90's - said the oil always looked like it just came out of the bottle. As that oil aged, he said the only way that he could tell the oil was breaking down was by noting the increase in oil operating temperature. That increase matters in all engines, but especially air-cooled ones.

5) Auto exercise is a good feature, but in a home system my personal choice would be to do a full-load run at least every 8-12 weeks.

6) Propane and Natgas are great fuels, esp. from a storage/stability standpoint.

Enjoy your system Mark, I expect that it will serve you well for a long time.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I have not heard how things are down Olympia way... a few years back it rained 30 days straight and then the wind came... and what a disaster... power out for as much as a week with all the down power lines... and those with well water had more trouble.

I can picture you comfortable and cozy with a big smile on your face enjoying the fruits of your labor and planning... probably thinking how sweet it is!

I don't keep much gas around in cans... do try to keep my trucks full and the van holds 36 gallons and with the pump set up I can pump/transfer fuel at 2 gallons a minute and have a thumb control valve to cut flow on a 10' 1/4 inch line... works great for my mowers, tiller, log splitter etc...

A buddy of mine does the same thing with his 1 ton - but he has extra incentive to do so, he lives in BC (Bring Cash land) so he likes to buy fuel in Washington state.

I don't worry about him or you using transfer pumps at home UR, but there are a lot of folks I wouldn't want to see doing that, esp. under emergency conditions.

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

Well the pacific northwest had a huge w indstorm that knocked out aprox 640,000 homes from power grid. Our house was without power for 2-1/2 days.

I font care what anyone says about generator costs, having light,heat and water while its black, dark and cold all around is great piece of mind. I loaned 2 portable generators to neighbors.

I received calls from most of the 30 customers i installed generators for over the past year thanking me for the systems. They all were veryhappy. I also was receiving between 8-9 calls an hour from people wanting generators. It was very tiring telling people i couldnt do anything at this tine except setvice calks on systems not operating or helping out getting some furnace pigtails, etc instalked to use smsll portable units. Night time temps were in mid 20's.

There is a mindset among sone people that generators atnt necessary. That is disolving here. I have people teloing me their utility companies are telling them to expect another 5 - 10 days to get power back.

 

[grsthegreat]

Well the pacific northwest had a huge windstorm that knocked out aprox 640,000 homes from power grid. Our house was without power for 2-1/2 days.

I dont care what anyone says about generator costs, having light,heat and water while its black, dark and cold all around is great piece of mind. I loaned 2 portable generators to neighbors.

I received calls from most of the 30 customers i installed generators for over the past year thanking me for the systems. They all were veryhappy. I also was receiving between 8-9 calls an hour from people wanting generators. It was very tiring telling people i couldnt do anything at this tine except service calls on systems not operating or helping out getting some furnace pigtails, etc installed to use small portable units. Night time temps were in mid 20's.

There is a mindset among sone people that generators atnt necessary. That is disolving here. I have people telling me their utility companies are telling them to expect another 5 - 10 days to get power back.

Problem is...there are NO generators available for 500 miles

 

[jgayman]

There is a mindset among sone people that generators atnt necessary. That is disolving here. I have people teloing me their utility companies are telling them to expect another 5 - 10 days to get power back.

A few years back I used to be one of those people. Always worried about losing power and heat during bad winter storms... or worried about losing all my perishable food during warm weather storms.

I see a generator like a spare tire. You can go years without needing it but when you do its value is priceless.

Although I think we all agree that a generator requires a bit more periodic maintenance than a spare tire.

 

[3930dave]

Although I think we all agree that a generator requires a bit more periodic maintenance than a spare tire.

grs has described more than one customer that didn't understand that point, but I'd say most of us that hang out here agree.

Sometimes that knowledge has to be earned by spending hours or longer getting one to start.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Well the pacific northwest had a huge windstorm that knocked out aprox 640,000 homes from power grid. Our house was without power for 2-1/2 days.

I dont care what anyone says about generator costs, having light,heat and water while its black, dark and cold all around is great piece of mind. I loaned 2 portable generators to neighbors.

I received calls from most of the 30 customers i installed generators for over the past year thanking me for the systems. They all were veryhappy. I also was receiving between 8-9 calls an hour from people wanting generators. It was very tiring telling people i couldnt do anything at this tine except service calls on systems not operating or helping out getting some furnace pigtails, etc installed to use small portable units. Night time temps were in mid 20's.

There is a mindset among sone people that generators atnt necessary. That is disolving here. I have people telling me their utility companies are telling them to expect another 5 - 10 days to get power back.

Problem is...there are NO generators available for 500 miles

Supply/Demand, well illustrated.

In a major outage with widespread damage, it takes significant time to recover. More people are starting to pay more attention..... in this thread, and in the real world around me, I'm seeing more residential automatic generator systems being installed.

It wouldn't stop me installing one if it wasn't the case, but I would think that a properly maintained automatic generator system would add to the resale value of a property.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

b&d posted a while back about Generlink.

I inquired, and got this response re. Canadian distribution:

"We have been on the market in Canada for almost 10 years. The GenerLink is available in every province except BC, Quebec and NB."

I don't know the reason for those exclusions.

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

I can really see where power is paramount if on a well...

The nearly a week without power in Olympia in the middle of winter had just about everyone outside the city on generator power...

As with most things... planning goes a long way.

Never had a genset at the cabin... propane and candles and lantern... never had to worry much about refrigeration... one winter Grandma just wrapped the frozen goods and put them in the snow bank...

As kids... we always hoped the power to go out... we called it Pioneer Living and my Grandmother would tell stories about the root cellar and growing up without electricity or telephone... it's the things that keep life interesting for kids.

To her having hot water on tap was the ultimate in luxury... and with a propane water heater life was good...

 

[dragoneggs]

I can really see where power is paramount if on a well...

The nearly a week without power in Olympia in the middle of winter had just about everyone outside the city on generator power...

As with most things... planning goes a long way.

Never had a genset at the cabin... propane and candles and lantern... never had to worry much about refrigeration... one winter Grandma just wrapped the frozen goods and put them in the snow bank...

As kids... we always hoped the power to go out... we called it Pioneer Living and my Grandmother would tell stories about the root cellar and growing up without electricity or telephone... it's the things that keep life interesting for kids.

To her having hot water on tap was the ultimate in luxury... and with a propane water heater life was good...

I have to admit we as kids rooted for power outages as well. Even as a newlywed, the roughing it was sort of romantic and exciting. Not any more. I have a 3kW that will power enough appliances/lights etc. to keep the house comfortable. I have considered a larger automatic genset, but it is hard to justify the expense and fuel burn. It would be nice though not to have to monkey with the mechanical interlock on the service panel in the dark and decide what breakers to keep on.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

We are getting some of that cold air down into KY (temps been dropping today) but Thanksgiving it is to be nice and 62F so I need to get our main generator fired up and loaded up.

It was the 2009 ice storm that sold a lot of generators and two years later most were up for sale because they were "in the way".