Your last generator Maintenance Run

[Industrial Toys]

Good that your equipment sufficed. But it's how so many generators get blown up. People keep trying heavier loads, thinking as you, what's the harm? Sets have their allowable running capacity and peak loads, so the breakers must accomodate the peak load. Also, breakers only come in certain sizes, so the manufacturer must go to the next highest size.

 

[3930dave]

I used my new{old} DuroMax 10k watt gen. for the 1st time to power my house over the weekend..
It worked flawlessly..
We had a pop-up tornado that skipped over me & got the power poles..
I had ran it for about 5-6hrs before I thought about seeing if it would run my 3ton a/c unit..
I thought, whats the worst that could happen, trip the breaker??
So I turned the a/c on while the gen. was still powering everything else in the house..
The gen. dipped afew rpms & the a/c kicked on & ran for 2-3 hrs..
I was thoroughly impressed.!!!
I noticed the 10k watter is on sale again.. but its 600. something?? I paid 499. beats the heck outa the 11-1200.. that it usually is..

Cool Running ! Don't know if you have a soft start helper on that 3 ton, either way, it did well.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Good discussions on connectors.

My gens live pretty sheltered lives. Even so, working on cars/trucks leads me to believe........ just about every connection would be happier bathed in dielectric grease, long term......

Rgds, D.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

Crimp connectors are fine if you select the correct one for the application and of course you get what you pay for just like the crimper (sorry autocorrect, not crumpet). In 25 years I’ve probably seen less than 6 crimp connectors fail and many have been on running engines for 30k + hours but they are not on the road where there is salt and road spray.

A set of Channelock or Klein crimpers will do the job (Klein’s will do it with less hand strength required) using the smooth jaw without damaging the connector IF you use a quality connector.

Amp and a few others make nylon jacketed connectors that actually have a 600VAC rating and will not split when crimping but they are pricey... .75 to $1 a piece. Princess auto connectors work okay for most applications but to be honest I crimp them with the non insulated jaw as others mentioned as well just to be sure.

For anything in the weather or especially on the road you really need the heat shrink type and again, good quality connectors have a sealer in them that completely seals the wire jacket to the connector when it’s heated and shrunk. Again, not cheap, and not available at Princess Auto.

Solder is best but it is prone to breaking with vibration unless it’s carefully supported as in a connector shell. The solder covered wire doesn’t flex so there tends to be excess flexing right at the edge of the solder flow. On the road though it’s only as good as the seal and it’s hard to seal a soldered joint as well as the good quality crimp connectors.

 

[3930dave]

Date: July 01/19

Generator: 2kw Briggs

Activity: Trimmed hedge at road. About 1 hour of runtime. Started 2nd pull, full Choke.

Final Fueling notes: filled w. NonE gas. Blue Stabil already in fuel can. Added small glug of Startron to generator.

Maintenance notes (Done, or Required): Fuel cap good, oil level good.

Temperature: 26 deg C.

Rgds, D.

 

[nikdfish]

We had a 22 hour outage a week or so back, so I thought I'd get a decent handle on consumption by the 22kw whole house unit. We have 2 inter-connected 500 gallon tanks & I have been logging fill levels periodically so I had good numbers for pre & post.

Unfortunately, the number I came up with looks too low to be real. Prior to the outage, we had approximately 65.5% available (average of both tank values, ambient temp at notation was 58° F). After the event, averaged value was 64% w/ambient temp around 85° F. With 1000 gallons between the 2 tanks, each % point represents about 10 gallons, so only a difference of about 15 gallons. I would think my readings should be within a +/- 1% (+/- 10 gallons)

I had the tanks topped off a couple of days later & they added 164 gallons to fill both tanks to the 80% point, suggesting there was about 636 gallons already present, which is pretty close to the 640 gallon guesstimate I was making based on the 64% average on the last read. It still seems unlikely that consumption is <= 1 gallon/hr, but that is what the numbers suggest. Temperature variations may have played some part, but I don't think it could have been enough to throw my estimates off too much.

During the outage, we conducted ourselves normally, doing the normal things. Cooking, laundry (& clothes drying), running the 5 ton heat pump (ambient temps were in the 90's during the day w/high humidity) & ceiling fans, etc. No special conservation was done.

 

[daugen]

Nick, I upgraded to a single 1000 tank so I could stop worrying about the thing running out in an extended outage.
if there is some big catastrophe where we know power will be out a long while, I would sure load manage to reduce usage as well as turn the thing
off when I could. Which we both know for about 6 months is unlikely here in our lovely state due to high H & H. And lots of bugs...
So for me, the question is worst case usage, low or high temps out, running all the time or most of it, and medium use.
I always figured 2 gallons an hour for my unit, and I think it actually uses less. There has to be posted consumption figures, GRS?

Since two of my three hvac units burn propane, and i wanted at least two weeks of gen AC, I knew I had to get a larger tank.

During an emergency cold spell, I found it impossible to purchase propane. Trucks were all going to folks with small tanks who were running out every three days.
Taught me a lesson, if you don't have it on hand, you don't have it all... Also a good reason despite all the maintenance issues we clearly have with them, a small gasoline generator, or diesel, is a good backup. I keep ten gallons of fresh non ethanol gas on hand most of the time for equipment, but since that's the fuel supply for the
little Champion inverter gen, I try not to let supply get below 5 gallons. That would work for me, only running a fridge and freezer, sure won't run the big consumers.

 

[thepumpguysc]

Some of you folks warned me about powering up the home AC unit w/ the gen..
Its been a week or so since I did it.. NOW the start/run capacitor died..
IDK if it had anything to do w/ it..?? The last time the service man was out here, he said the capacitor was at 75%..
Its a HEIL unit 4ton.. I've had more problems w/ it than any other unit I've ever had..

 

[3930dave]

We had a 22 hour outage a week or so back, so I thought I'd get a decent handle on consumption by the 22kw whole house unit. We have 2 inter-connected 500 gallon tanks & I have been logging fill levels periodically so I had good numbers for pre & post.

Unfortunately, the number I came up with looks too low to be real. Prior to the outage, we had approximately 65.5% available (average of both tank values, ambient temp at notation was 58ｰ F). After the event, averaged value was 64% w/ambient temp around 85ｰ F. With 1000 gallons between the 2 tanks, each % point represents about 10 gallons, so only a difference of about 15 gallons. I would think my readings should be within a +/- 1% (+/- 10 gallons)

I had the tanks topped off a couple of days later & they added 164 gallons to fill both tanks to the 80% point, suggesting there was about 636 gallons already present, which is pretty close to the 640 gallon guesstimate I was making based on the 64% average on the last read. It still seems unlikely that consumption is <= 1 gallon/hr, but that is what the numbers suggest. Temperature variations may have played some part, but I don't think it could have been enough to throw my estimates off too much.

During the outage, we conducted ourselves normally, doing the normal things. Cooking, laundry (& clothes drying), running the 5 ton heat pump (ambient temps were in the 90's during the day w/high humidity) & ceiling fans, etc. No special conservation was done.

I'm trying to remember the last #'s 90cummins posted on his hand-rolled-super-tuned hybrid setup..... but yeah..... your best-look from 100' at those #'s seems low, but perhaps not...... easy to get caught up in Starting Power #'s (for good reason), but many household running needs are low.

Then there's that 5 ton..... :shocked: for a northener that seems big, but I've been to FL in the summer on business, I get it. Don't have a consumption # (run) in my head, but you'd think that would chew a bit of fuel right there.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Nick, I upgraded to a single 1000 tank so I could stop worrying about the thing running out in an extended outage.
if there is some big catastrophe where we know power will be out a long while, I would sure load manage to reduce usage as well as turn the thing
off when I could. Which we both know for about 6 months is unlikely here in our lovely state due to high H & H. And lots of bugs...
So for me, the question is worst case usage, low or high temps out, running all the time or most of it, and medium use.
I always figured 2 gallons an hour for my unit, and I think it actually uses less. There has to be posted consumption figures, GRS?

Since two of my three hvac units burn propane, and i wanted at least two weeks of gen AC, I knew I had to get a larger tank.

During an emergency cold spell, I found it impossible to purchase propane. Trucks were all going to folks with small tanks who were running out every three days.
Taught me a lesson, if you don't have it on hand, you don't have it all... Also a good reason despite all the maintenance issues we clearly have with them, a small gasoline generator, or diesel, is a good backup. I keep ten gallons of fresh non ethanol gas on hand most of the time for equipment, but since that's the fuel supply for the
little Champion inverter gen, I try not to let supply get below 5 gallons. That would work for me, only running a fridge and freezer, sure won't run the big consumers.

Fuel. Not for nothing, it was sometimes a major factor in battle outcomes, and even wars.

I think it was ur (?) describing a roof-area located diesel tank having to be refilled by a bucket-brigade of 5 gal cans during an extended outage. Too often, the worst-case is ignored, until you're right there staring at it...... Good Call on the upgrade..... I've seen a few folks on here do the same.

Not being an AC guy (and living up Nord), I didn't realize there were propane fired AC units - do they use it directly for thermal exchange, like an RV fridge ?

Rgds, D.