Your last generator Maintenance Run

[Industrial Toys]

My Bad though. I thought I best put the trickle charger on the Yanmar after starting in this cold. When I spun it around I saw a somewhat better battery installed in Sept 16, got from my friends in the Battery business. I guess, I didn't want another Walmart battery. I also noticed the charger went to green in a very short time. It says to me, that a good battery that isn't being slowly drained will stay charged a good long time even in extreme cold.

 

[3930dave]

My Bad though. I thought I best put the trickle charger on the Yanmar after starting in this cold. When I spun it around I saw a somewhat better battery installed in Sept 16, got from my friends in the Battery business. I guess, I didn't want another Walmart battery. I also noticed the charger went to green in a very short time. It says to me, that a good battery that isn't being slowly drained will stay charged a good long time even in extreme cold.

AGM seems better than flooded lead-acid in that respect, but there probably will be some variation within FLA types too..

I find that most batteries will increase internal resistance as they age. Put another way, a brand-new battery will accept a charge quickly - most will take noticeably longer to charge (from the same discharge point) 5 years later.

"Saving money" buying cheaper batteries often doesn't play out well, at least on equipment that's around long-term, has been my experience.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

never seen it, i have motors from the 70's that were run like this with 0 issue.

YMMV. I've come to the conclusion that regional fuel formulation is a factor in how well Dry works.

Used to store mine dry. Got "irritated" one year when I had to take the carb apart on my smallest gen due to a stuck float. Had just enough white/brown deposits in it to stick the float. Yep, I know, some guys just drop the generator from 3' onto concrete to fix that, but not my style.....

At the time, I'd had recent success with storing my then new street bike over-winter Wet (Stabil + Seafoamed), so with a new float and seat in the small gen, I went to Wet on it and everything else I store.

So far (coming up on 10 years) so good.

But yes, this thread and others has example of guys who go Dry with good results. Whatever works locally, stick with it :thumbsup:

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

Even though it's only 28 degrees out and wasn't much colder last night, with five inches of snow, well it felt colder...
So what to do? Well test the little magnetic heater on the Generac of course.
The whole engine cylinder had some warmth, did not feel down near oil sump, but when I hit the button
for manual start, it started immediately and ran cleanly immediately, like it was already warmed up. :thumbsup:

I'm going to keep it on for this weekend, when it's supposed to get crazy cold here, then likely take it off.
In this non scientific test, I say it worked. Otherwise the gen would have been hiccupping and popping for several seconds.

 

[jmc]

I don't have a lawn tractor, but many people I know seem to go through those U1 Lawn Tractor batteries fairly often. They are pretty tiny, sit through our long Winters up here usually w/o being charged, so it wouldn't take much for them to freeze and warp or break plates.....

Rgds, D.

I had better luck on my last two from Interstate Batteries than all the ones I bought from Walmart. Walmarts lasted about 2 years on my Toro mower. The Interstates lasted 3 or 4. Do not know if they are in Canada but its a chain in the States and they discount if you set up a business account. No minimum purchase requirements so far.

 

[DEWFPO]

My Honda EU6500is let me down this morning.

I woke up pre-dawn to the sound of a UPS beeping. Sure enough, the power is out. Check the temperature... ZERO degrees. Nice! I waited 15-mins or so and then used my phone to report the outage on the power company website.

Next step - fire up the generator which is a Honda EU6500is serving as a whole-house generator via a manual transfer switch.

It is in an unheated area and I always keep a battery tender attached. I flip the key and it starts to crank normally.... and cranks....... and cranks. WTF? Over the next 10-15 mins I intermittently crank/wait the engine until the tiny internal battery is near depleted. This beast has a pull starter but it pulls sooo hard that even during the summer pulling the rope just drags the 250 lb generator across the porch. I'm starting to get quite disappointed as this generator has always started right up although I never tried it when it was quite this cold. I keep a battery tender on it, I run it every other month, I use Sta-Bil treated non-Ethanol gas, I change the oil and install a new spark plug every November...you know... always ready to go (or so I thought).

As the internal battery was about depleted, my last resort was to get my Clore JNC660 jump box out of the car and try hooking it to the internal generator battery. The internal battery is equivalent to a small motorcycle battery and luckily I was able to just barely get the large alligator clamps to make contact on the tiny terminals.

So again... crank... crank... crank... intermittently over the next 30-mins with warm-up breaks in the house. I was just starting to gather up my stuff, throw in the towel and get ready for the house to start getting cold when I tried cranking one more time and VIOLA.... the b*stard sprang to life. I was never so glad to hear the purr of an engine in my life.

I must say though that I am quite disappointed in Mr. Honda as it failed to perform when the chips were really down. On the flip-side, Mr. JNC660 jump box proved to be a life saver and performed admirably.

Thinking about what I can possibly do differently... even though I run it every other month perhaps I should run it every other week as long as this sub-freezing weather continues which is supposed to be for at least another week. They were already calling for daytime highs of 10F and night time lows of 3F for the next few days but we already have that beat.

Did you have summer gas in it?

If you did, that may have been your problem..... until you generated enough heat with all that cranking.

Next time you have this problem, don't kill the battery, just spray some ether into the air cleaner. It should start and keep running without wearing out your starter, batteries and you.

DEWFPO

 

[DEWFPO]

I don't have a lawn tractor, but many people I know seem to go through those U1 Lawn Tractor batteries fairly often. They are pretty tiny, sit through our long Winters up here usually w/o being charged, so it wouldn't take much for them to freeze and warp or break plates.....

Rgds, D.

That's interesting. I've got one that I bought from Wal-Mart in 2003 for a lawn tractor that's still going strong. I keep mine on a battery maintainer/desulphator. DEWFPO

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Interstates last longest for me too...

I'm about to buy a new Interstate group 31 for my tractor.

SR

 

[3930dave]

Even though it's only 28 degrees out and wasn't much colder last night, with five inches of snow, well it felt colder...
So what to do? Well test the little magnetic heater on the Generac of course.
The whole engine cylinder had some warmth, did not feel down near oil sump, but when I hit the button
for manual start, it started immediately and ran cleanly immediately, like it was already warmed up. :thumbsup:

I'm going to keep it on for this weekend, when it's supposed to get crazy cold here, then likely take it off.
In this non scientific test, I say it worked. Otherwise the gen would have been hiccupping and popping for several seconds.

Down your way, that 300w heater should keep your gen very happy.... hard to go wrong with that level of heat in an enclosure.

Rgds, D

 

[3930dave]

That's interesting. I've got one that I bought from Wal-Mart in 2003 for a lawn tractor that's still going strong. I keep mine on a battery maintainer/desulphator. DEWFPO

^ a good quality maintainer will help a lot. I think a lot of people just park a lawn tractor here till Spring w/o doing anything.... guess they like buying batteries

Rgds, D.