Your last generator Maintenance Run

[daugen]

Water in the fuel through contamination or condensation?

I keep the tanks full to the top. Cover on top under shed. ??
But this is condensation land for sure, sometimes my tractor drips with water when warm moist air hits that cold tractor.

 

[MF243RedTop]

Well number 1 is never use ethanol gas.
The wind was high about a week ago wifey was getting ready for work...power outage...
She freaked:laughing:
So I fired up the Gen... And whatcha know the power was back in about 15 minutes...

But i didnt switch back let run a good half hour or more...

 

[3930dave]

which begs the question using E0 premium gas, why should my carb be gunked up after only four years using additives?
maybe the holes/jets are awfully small and can't tolerate anything in there.

I think carb geometry has gone finer scale, not helping your cause..... For more aggressive cleaning, I'll try something like SeaFoam, Techron, et al.......

Gasoline (all flavours) seems to have a few variables that you can't really control...... namely variations in regional and seasonal formulation. I can see it being quite possible that the same generator will run fine in one location on E_, but move it to a different geographic zone, and the "same" E_ gas may cause grief. Humidity can be a source of trouble, fwiw, I went to Marine Stabil, partly out of consideration for humidity/condensation.

Wish there was one silver bullet solution, but I suspect it's more like many of us have to find what particular secret gas/sauce/chicken-blood combo that works in our locale....

Trust but Verify........ some guys will do basic tests on gasoline samples to check for Econtamination. Blending errors can and do happen....... cars have had to be repaired after being tanked up with next to pure E. Regulations on pump-label clarity likely vary...... HiTest does not necessarily guarantee Efree, in zones that have the option of selling pure gasoline.

Until you settle on your secret fuel/sauce combo, I'd suspect regular exercise (like once/month) is prudent....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I keep the tanks full to the top. Cover on top under shed. ??
But this is condensation land for sure, sometimes my tractor drips with water when warm moist air hits that cold tractor.

I got good feedback on here about these Eva-Dry dehumidifiers, and stocked up with a few when I found them at Costco. I bought them for stored vehicles, and have liked them so far...... pellets change colour when "watered-up". What they don't communicate well on their site is that they have a built in heater to dry them out - flip out the rear AC plug and plug it in overnight. Pellets change back to "dry" colour when heated long enough...... only trick is to not leave them plugged in more than about 14 hours. If I only get something like 10 hours plugged in overnight, and a few pellets aren't quite "cooked", then I'll do another 2 or 3 hours the next night.

The E-333 Renewable Mini Dehumidifier | Eva-Dry

For a smaller gen in a high-humid environment, I'd try and find a thick plastic bag (how big do they make Zip-Locs ? ), and toss something like an Eva-Dry in with it and seal it up. Lots of other options; some people just cycle through dry rice. So long as it isn't tasty rice, the bag might even help to keep mice out of the gen !

Should be simpler than it is :confused3: ..... to keep stuff reliable.

Rgds, D.

 

[dragoneggs]

Well number 1 is never use ethanol gas.
The wind was high about a week ago wifey was getting ready for work...power outage...
She freaked:laughing:
So I fired up the Gen... And whatcha know the power was back in about 15 minutes...

But i didnt switch back let run a good half hour or more...

+1 on not using ethanol gas.

As far as the power coming back on too quickly... isn't that why we all bought generators in the first place? :laughing:

 

[Fallon]

I got good feedback on here about these Eva-Dry dehumidifiers, and stocked up with a few when I found them at Costco. I bought them for stored vehicles, and have liked them so far...... pellets change colour when "watered-up". What they don't communicate well on their site is that they have a built in heater to dry them out - flip out the rear AC plug and plug it in overnight. Pellets change back to "dry" colour when heated long enough...... only trick is to not leave them plugged in more than about 14 hours. If I only get something like 10 hours plugged in overnight, and a few pellets aren't quite "cooked", then I'll do another 2 or 3 hours the next night.

The E-333 Renewable Mini Dehumidifier | Eva-Dry

For a smaller gen in a high-humid environment, I'd try and find a thick plastic bag (how big do they make Zip-Locs ? ), and toss something like an Eva-Dry in with it and seal it up. Lots of other options; some people just cycle through dry rice. So long as it isn't tasty rice, the bag might even help to keep mice out of the gen !

Should be simpler than it is :confused3: ..... to keep stuff reliable.

Rgds, D.

Silica gel desicant is actually pretty darn cheap & consistently performing no matter where you get it. It's the stuff in the do not eat packets you find in as lot of foor or other packagrs. It all can be regenerated by heating it in the oven. The only caveat is the packets they are in might not be up to the oven.

All silica gel is white & doesn't show how much moisture its absorbed or when it needs to be regenerated. Some is coated is stuff to make it change color when saturated. The blue colored stuff has cobalt something in it. It's not super healthy & I don't think its allowed in Europe. I dont remember what's in the orange colored coating, but it's the modern non-toxic option. You can just mix some indicating beads onto batches of the cheaper plain white ones for nearly the same results.

5lbs of the orange color indicating stuff is under $30. "Dry & Dry" [5 LBS] Premium Orange Indicating Silica Gel Desiccant Beads(Industry Standard 2-4 mm) - Rechargeable Silica Gel Beads(5 LBS): Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific. I've got one of those heated ones linked above, in addition to the 5lbs jug. Both seem to work fine, although you get 10 times as much in the bulk jug. The heated self-regenerating one is more convenient & the one I keep in the gun safe. I use the bulk stuff for keeping 3d printer filiment dry & for a dryer on my air compressor.

 

[3930dave]

Good 411 on the bulk product Fallon, thanks !

Rgds, D.

 

[Blaszer]

With these crazy fuel prices, I had the Genset filled yesterday, 200 gal tank and took ~135 gal to fill.

 

[HarryVanderpool]

+1 on not using ethanol gas.

As far as the power coming back on too quickly... isn't that why we all bought generators in the first place? :laughing:

No.
We don't fire up a generator unless absolutely needed.
Even then, we call a number to our power company and get an automated response that estimates how long the power will be out.
Usually, we just go about our day without power and it's back on shortly.
But one can kinda know, if snow is falling really heavy or you're heading into a big wind event.
Then, we start to think about starting a generator.
Other than that, we fire ours up once a year for a few minutes, change the oil, and forget about it.

 

[MF243RedTop]

+1 on not using ethanol gas.

As far as the power coming back on too quickly... isn't that why we all bought generators in the first place? :laughing:

When Hurricane Matthew hit here in Georgia that was a good lesson for myself. Had an older gen hadn't really took that good of care of it..
Got it running but the carb definitely needed a rebuild or cleaning.

Wife worked for B&S at the time, she came home with a Briggs 5500 for $500 that was sold strictly to employees.. I've taken great care of it since.