Are Conversion Kits for Gas-Powered Generators Any Good?

[Fetch_21]

Ahead of the recent ice storm for our area, I dusted off the generator to be sure it was okay if needed. Thankfully, our area was spared. I changed the oil & put a teaspoon in the spark plug hole, and changed the spark plug. It cranked on the first pull (after being stored for 5+ years). It was drained & dried before storing.

Family back in Mississippi wasn't so lucky. Many will be out for weeks as the grid gets rebuilt. It got me thinking again about alternate fuels for generators. For them, even getting gas wasn't an option for quite a while. Being able to run on nat. gas or bigger propane tank would be great in that situation. My generator is a 6500W with B&S engine - nothing fancy, but bought after a tornado in 2011 and was very thankful to get it. I feed the house from a re-wired welder plug access in the shop. It'll handle all but HVAC, water heater, etc. loads for the house.

I've seen several kits / options for converting & prices are all over the place. Just curious if anybody has experience doing this & if it's worth fooling with. We live in the middle of nowhere on the end of a run. Outages are frequent, but our co-op is pretty responsive & they usually don't last long. I like the idea of not having carburetor risk for storing. I'm a little concerned about cold-weather propane performance. Any recommendations on manufacturers? Better to not get junk & buy a new tri-fuel?

Not sure if this is the right forum, but thought there might be some small-engine wizards on here. I appreciate any input.

 

[oldnslo]

I helped convert a couple of engines 40+ years ago and I don’t recall it being that difficult of a process. Not sure if the new engines would be better or worse to convert from carbureted gas to propane.
M
Cold weather will reduce available pressure from propane tank but if memory is -40 F is when it turns liquid and doesn’t flow. Doubtful will get that cold in Tennessee but I certainly could be wrong.

 

[Roadworthy]

Years ago my wife's uncle had a pickup with a propane tank in the back. He'd run whichever fuel was cheaper at the time. I'm sure he had some kind of valve setup to select which to use. You may be able to keep the carburetor and use propane as an alternate fuel.

 

[MossRoad]

Ahead of the recent ice storm for our area, I dusted off the generator to be sure it was okay if needed. Thankfully, our area was spared. I changed the oil & put a teaspoon in the spark plug hole, and changed the spark plug. It cranked on the first pull (after being stored for 5+ years). It was drained & dried before storing.

Family back in Mississippi wasn't so lucky. Many will be out for weeks as the grid gets rebuilt. It got me thinking again about alternate fuels for generators. For them, even getting gas wasn't an option for quite a while. Being able to run on nat. gas or bigger propane tank would be great in that situation. My generator is a 6500W with B&S engine - nothing fancy, but bought after a tornado in 2011 and was very thankful to get it. I feed the house from a re-wired welder plug access in the shop. It'll handle all but HVAC, water heater, etc. loads for the house.

I've seen several kits / options for converting & prices are all over the place. Just curious if anybody has experience doing this & if it's worth fooling with. We live in the middle of nowhere on the end of a run. Outages are frequent, but our co-op is pretty responsive & they usually don't last long. I like the idea of not having carburetor risk for storing. I'm a little concerned about cold-weather propane performance. Any recommendations on manufacturers? Better to not get junk & buy a new tri-fuel?

Not sure if this is the right forum, but thought there might be some small-engine wizards on here. I appreciate any input.

From what I've seen,
- you shut off the gas, run it till it dies
- remove the air cleaner
- remove the studs holding the carb on.
- Replace the studs with longer studs.
- Put the carb back on.
- Put a spacer with a fitting in front of the carb on the new, longer studs
- put the air cleaner back on
- install a regulator, hook up all the hoses
- start it on propane and adjust the regulator.
- if you want to run it on natural gas instead, you use a different hose and have to adjust the regulator.
- if you want to run it on gasoline, you just shut off the gas valve in front of the regulator, open the gasoline shut off valve, and off you go.

The kits I've seen are priced all over the place. Some in mid $300. But it gives you a lot of flexibility.

Good luck in your search.

 

[2manyrocks]

Hauled out my generator for the ice storm, but honestly was afraid to use it with the circuit boards in my home furnace because it's an older non-inverter generator. Could potentially be a better setup if you could find a new inverter generator that will burn NG or propane.

 

[triptester]

My son had a generator that he left sit with gas for about 7 years. When he tried to use it the whole fuel system was like tar. It was a cheap chinese generator so I did not want to invest a lot of money on it. On Ebay I found tri-fuel replacement carburators $25. The carburator was a simple direct replacement that only require a hose and propane tank. It took about 15 minutes to swap out and started on second pull. Since then I have converte 2 log splitters an another generator with these carburators and all have worked great.

 

[BlueKnife]

I converted our Honda 2200 inverter generator to run on propane. We use it primarily to charge the batteries in our system (we are of grid and have a solar system). The generator only gets used for this purpose for about 4 months out of the year. The rest of the time, when we have plenty of sun, it sits. The propane doesn't go bad or gum up the carb. For a machine, such as a backup generator, that doesn't get used regularly, I think it's a great way to go.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Ahead of the recent ice storm for our area, I dusted off the generator to be sure it was okay if needed. Thankfully, our area was spared. I changed the oil & put a teaspoon in the spark plug hole, and changed the spark plug. It cranked on the first pull (after being stored for 5+ years). It was drained & dried before storing.

Family back in Mississippi wasn't so lucky. Many will be out for weeks as the grid gets rebuilt. It got me thinking again about alternate fuels for generators. For them, even getting gas wasn't an option for quite a while. Being able to run on nat. gas or bigger propane tank would be great in that situation. My generator is a 6500W with B&S engine - nothing fancy, but bought after a tornado in 2011 and was very thankful to get it. I feed the house from a re-wired welder plug access in the shop. It'll handle all but HVAC, water heater, etc. loads for the house.

I've seen several kits / options for converting & prices are all over the place. Just curious if anybody has experience doing this & if it's worth fooling with. We live in the middle of nowhere on the end of a run. Outages are frequent, but our co-op is pretty responsive & they usually don't last long. I like the idea of not having carburetor risk for storing. I'm a little concerned about cold-weather propane performance. Any recommendations on manufacturers? Better to not get junk & buy a new tri-fuel?

Not sure if this is the right forum, but thought there might be some small-engine wizards on here. I appreciate any input.

Any generator is only as good as it's fuel supply, especially during a prolonged outage. Having an adequate supply on hand is critical, since you don't always know when an outage will occur or how long it will last. You also don't know if fuel deliveries or gas stations will be available during a widespread power outage.

Gas goes stale and can be hazardous to store in quantity. Generators use a lot of propane and a large tank kept full is necessary. Natural gas is a better approach but it isn't available everywhere and can fail if compressor stations lose power or demand is too high.

Diesel can be the best choice in many situations, especially if you heat with oil. Most systems have large 500+ gallon storage tanks and fuel oil can be used in most diesel generators. Fuel oil also has a long shelf life.

If you heat with oil, you might consider selling your gas generator and replacing it with a diesel.

 

[Fetch_21]

Thank you for the replies. We're in East TN. While we get a few snaps of 'real' winter each year, it's not typically super cold for very long. This would be as much for storm-related outages in the spring / summer. I was trying to get a sense for if the conversions were trash & more trouble than they're worth - or legitimate. The generator I have has been fine, but as mentioned, was bought after the 2011 tornado outbreak and isn't the one I would buy today. I don't usually sell stuff, but was debating between trying one of the conversions on it versus selling it & buying a tri-fuel one. Sounds like some of the conversions are okay, with a little luck of the draw.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Just so you know, a generator puts out LESS power when fueled with propane and even less yet, when fueled with nat. gas.

Size your generator accordantly.

SR

 

[Up to the Axles]

I researched this for a client.

1. Gasoline goes stale and hardens. Plus it's hazardous to store in any quantity; consult your insurance company AND the environmental folks first; you'll never get permission to bury a storage tank in many states, especially CA [Guess why I know that....].
2. Diesel is a PITA to store as it needs filtering/circulation/biocide. Ditto re: burial tanks. But it needs no ignition system, just compression, to work.
3. Propane is nearly perfect: it has a LONG storage life; you burn the vapor so any contaminate stays behind. The carb never clogs, etc. Even Califunny had no qualms about burying a 1000 gal tank.
4. Natural gas is highly dependable. (Exception: In earthshake regions many houses have autoshutoffs.) The utility does NOT want an outage where they have to visit every customer, shut them off, re-pressure/vent the system, and revisit every house and relight.

In cold weather, the evaporation temp of propane/butane does matter: Propane -44F at atmospheric
pressure. Butane: 33F But some suppliers sell a mix; ask.

Yes, check the derating issue but ISTM it is was minor for propane. More so far natural gas.

The major issue we saw with propane was getting a refill truck post-earthquake.