Time for a new portable generator

[caver]

I had a Honda EU2000i mainly for camping and to have a little power during outages. I often boondock camp and sometimes I need to run the A/C for a short period to cool the camper off. The Honda wouldn't do it. I almost bought a used Yamaha 3000 off Marketplace but someone beat me to it. So I bought a Champion 3400 inverter and no regrets. No worrying about someone stealing the Honda, RV plug, starts easier than the Honda does after prolonged sitting. One thing is don't believe decibel ratings as there is no standard for testing. The 3400 was about the same noise level as my old Honda maybe a tad more. I have an open frame Generac for bigger stuff but this was for the rare times I need a generator for camping.

 

[rademamj1]

I was a big Honda generator fan, and currently own two-2000w and a 3000w unit. Initially, all were very reliable and I used them constantly. Then came the day my usage decreased and my needs for a portable generator went down, so I put two away in storage and used just one of the 2000w for everything. It was a bad idea, cuz these gensets apparently hate ethanol fuels and both my stored generators after just 5 months no longer start. They are extremely vulnerable to ethanol during storage, and I learned it the hard way.

So in an emergency, I purchased an electric start Champion 4750w dual fuel generator (with 30amp RV plug), and two new 40lb propane tanks. I can run for over a week on propane, and starts every time. Now after 2 years, I can certainly recommend the Champion dual fuel generators operating only on propane.

From my experience, Honda generators are fine under continuous use. For any storage over a month, drain the tanks and burn the gas out of the carbs. Consider switching to non-ethonal fuels for all Honda gensets.

 

[ning]

Note that while many smaller non-inverter generators have a 240v outlet (my old 3300W Generac did), few inverter generators of any size do - that few that I've seen with a 240v outlet were (like 7000W+).

I used that Generac here and there for three years to cover our well, two refrigerators, one freezer, and occasional other small loads... and no, it didn't run all of that at once; if we needed to run the water, I'd have to disconnect the fridge/freezer loads and let the well run on its own - flush all the toilets as necessary, refill the dish tub in the sink, and a big drinking water jar, then wait a couple minutes for the well to turn off, and reconnect the fridge loads. It was cumbersome but it worked, and the 3300W unit was much less thirsty than a larger unit that would've run it all together.

(We use a whole house battery/solar system now, no generator - yet. I'm considering adding a generator for winter power failures to top up the batteries...)

 

[check]

OMG. Ive been running generators to power my house for 25 years, and none were inverter. One was even a chepo unit purchased used from rental yard at auction.

just use the standard surge suppressor that i normally use for electronics, and computers are fed thru UPS sources. I have never burnt out an electronic device except for an oven that went during a lightning strike on my ground mount transformer. Since that strike, i installed a whole house surge suppressor and no further issues.

Ace surge device of some sort is a very good idea. I had one in my electrical panel, just downstream of the main 100 amp breaker. There was a lightning strike to Hydro pole very close by that damage to a lot of peoples equipment, but, although my main breaker was tripped, there was no damage to anything in the house.

The surge suppressor, however, was toast, as I guess it sacrifices itself when there’s a lightning strike. I just have to replace it with a new one.

That same lightning strike damaged a neighbor’s automatic standby generator but not mine. And I have a theory about that. The normal procedure is for the Hydro line to enter the transfer switch first, and then go to the main electrical panel. However, in my case, I didn’t want not want to go through the hassle of having the meter removed and waiting for the work and then having it replaced again, so I simply took out all of the circuit breakers except the main 100 amp breaker from my panel, then ran the line out of that now empty panel into the automatic transfer switch. Then I bought a separate panel for all of the circuits, and installed that downstream of the transfer switch. Then I installed the surge suppressor into the main panel that only had the 100 amp breaker. That way the lightning strike never made it to the automatic transfer switch, because the (upstream) surge suppressor theoretically stopped it, and that single hundred amp breaker tripped as well.

For you Generator Experts, does that sound like a valid theory?

 

[sea2summit]

I was a big Honda generator fan, and currently own two-2000w and a 3000w unit. Initially, all were very reliable and I used them constantly. Then came the day my usage decreased and my needs for a portable generator went down, so I put two away in storage and used just one of the 2000w for everything. It was a bad idea, cuz these gensets apparently hate ethanol fuels and both my stored generators after just 5 months no longer start. They are extremely vulnerable to ethanol during storage, and I learned it the hard way.

So in an emergency, I purchased an electric start Champion 4750w dual fuel generator (with 30amp RV plug), and two new 40lb propane tanks. I can run for over a week on propane, and starts every time. Now after 2 years, I can certainly recommend the Champion dual fuel generators operating only on propane.

From my experience, Honda generators are fine under continuous use. For any storage over a month, drain the tanks and burn the gas out of the carbs. Consider switching to non-ethonal fuels for all Honda gensets.

If you don't mind, which Honda engine was on them? I hate ethonal fuel as a general rule and don't run it in small engines if I have any choice.

 

[EddieWalker]

...

From my experience, Honda generators are fine under continuous use. For any storage over a month, drain the tanks and burn the gas out of the carbs. Consider switching to non-ethonal fuels for all Honda gensets.

I believe this applies to all small gasoline engines. Both my log splitter and my generator are Honda engines. I always run them until they are empty. With the log splitter, that's when I call it a day for splitting wood. If I have just a few rounds left and I run out of gas, I just put a little bit of gas in the tank and then let it run until it's empty after I run out of round. With my Honda generator, if I have gas in it, I drain the gas out and then run it until it dies.

I ran my Honda generator back in February during the big freeze, but before that, it might of been more then a year since it was started. My log splitter is only used in the Spring and Fall, so it sits for months at a time. Both start easily every time I want to use them.

 

[ponytug]

@check that sounds like a perfectly wired whole house surge suppression.

Moving all of your home circuits to a new panel is not a trivial amount of work. Putting a surge suppressor in the now empty main panel next to the main breaker is electronically exactly what one wants to do.

Time is everything with surge suppression, and given the basically fixed speed of electrons in wires, time is distance. So putting the whole house surge suppressor as close to the incoming power as possible, and moving all of the other circuits into a separate panel, beyond a transfer switch puts them far away and gives the surge suppressor as much time as possible to react and clamp the voltage spike by shorting the surge to ground. The greater amount of electrical surge (energy) that the suppressor can short to ground, the more likely it is that your man breaker will open, putting up an even larger barrier to the surge. (Which it did in your case)

Thanks for sharing.

All the best,

Peter

 

[TractorGuy]

For some reason Honda continues to use bare steel float bowls on their carbs. Left sitting with ethanol in them will rust inside and mess up the whole works.

I haven't stayed in touch with newer small engine stuff but fuel injection with components made to withstand ethanol would be preferred.

I even had an issue with my old 99 Ford Mustang that I need to get out and drive more often. I let it sit for over a year one time and it rusted the fuel pump armature. When I dumped the fuel filter from the inlet side it was full of rust. The tank was spotless inside and has a coating on it. The fuel pump was dead so I assume all the rust came from it and maybe the inside of the filter. Thankfully all the rust was trapped between the pump and filter so replacing those two parts got it going again.

 

[ericm979]

I believe this applies to all small gasoline engines. Both my log splitter and my generator are Honda engines. I always run them until they are empty. With the log splitter, that's when I call it a day for splitting wood. If I have just a few rounds left and I run out of gas, I just put a little bit of gas in the tank and then let it run until it's empty after I run out of round. With my Honda generator, if I have gas in it, I drain the gas out and then run it until it dies.

My Honda generator and Kohler-engined log splitter both have fuel valves. When I shut them off I turn off the fuel and let the engine run the carburetor dry. No need to drain the tank or use non-ethanol fuel that's hard to find and very expensive here. I do use fuel stabilizer though. And they don't sit unused for more than about 8 months.

 

[grsthegreat]

I have had customers generators taken out by lightning strikes on their own property, but usually a set of mags and a control panel takes care of damage. Most of the times just rebooting the control panel fixes issues.

I placed a siemens 140,000 A surge suppressor on my house. Hopefully it will protect the gen also, but not sure it would.

we get occasional lightning storms, but no huge ones, so im not too worried. I once looked into a protection system for generator power and control wires, but as usual i never followed thru with it.