Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

Yes, and these costs and the new cap and trade policy are a big deal in the media. Everyone is getting really pissed off at the Ontario government.

My only question - Why did it take this long ?

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

The ambient temperature around the tank plays a big part in a single 20# keeping up in the vaporizing needs. My Toro Groundsmaster 4 cylinder engine runs on one 20# cylinder , some summer mornings I have to avoid the shaded areas while mowing so the sun can make the tank work, in the shaded areas the tank will frost up and the engine slows down until I get back in the sun and the frost turns to water and rpm's return to normal.

Good example.

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

part of their 80% increase in electricity costs is being used to pay somebody else to take free power.

geez doesn't sound like good long range planning...can't they just idle a few of the hydro gens? I'm just guessing but there's probably five or six water turbine generators on a big dam, can't they idle a few of them, redirect the water?

Usually when you make lots of power, industry follows.

good thing we only have to worry about dosing our little gens with Sea Foam...

time to change the oil on my big Generac, it's been a year, but seems silly to throw out that perfectly clean oil,
and I still have a hard time seeing the oil level it is so clean, partially I assume due to a good oil filter.
A Generac engine is a clone of a Briggs Vanguard, which I also own. Nice to have parts interchangeability.
I have to believe Briggs makes their engines, (blocks?) and then Generac relabels. I never thought Generac built engines,
despite their ads as to the durability of their engines. Does anyone know?

The 22kw Generac even comes with an oil drain hose, though I'm not sure the last bit of oil drains out due to the angle of the hose.

 

[3930dave]

part of their 80% increase in electricity costs is being used to pay somebody else to take free power.

geez doesn't sound like good long range planning...can't they just idle a few of the hydro gens? I'm just guessing but there's probably five or six water turbine generators on a big dam, can't they idle a few of them, redirect the water?

Usually when you make lots of power, industry follows.

good thing we only have to worry about dosing our little gens with Sea Foam...

time to change the oil on my big Generac, it's been a year, but seems silly to throw out that perfectly clean oil,
and I still have a hard time seeing the oil level it is so clean, partially I assume due to a good oil filter.
A Generac engine is a clone of a Briggs Vanguard, which I also own. Nice to have parts interchangeability.
I have to believe Briggs makes their engines, (blocks?) and then Generac relabels. I never thought Generac built engines,
despite their ads as to the durability of their engines. Does anyone know?

The 22kw Generac even comes with an oil drain hose, though I'm not sure the last bit of oil drains out due to the angle of the hose.

I had the impression a while ago that Generac was making some of their bigger small engines (if that makes sense) in the USA. But that was a while ago, and things can change as fast as a bean-counter's spreadsheet....

Your gen gets the opposite life :thumbsup: of the customers grs has described.... you are so on top of the maintenance that I'd say there is absolutely no risk (rare for me to say) if a tiny bit of oil doesn't drain.

Gotta roll soon, so I'll summarize this way.... the Liberal electricity policy was first and foremost (not hard to argue, exclusively) about social engineering. Electricity is embedded into our modern lives, but it's only part of the story......

I have friends running various small businesses here. Even at that level, the general govt legislation/oversight/reporting requirement burden here is onerous. Even if I could wave a magic wand and reset everybody's bills to 4cents/kwh with no fairy-tale fees here, most medium and heavy industry wouldn't be back.

Rgds, D.

 

[buickanddeere]

part of their 80% increase in electricity costs is being used to pay somebody else to take free power.

geez doesn't sound like good long range planning...can't they just idle a few of the hydro gens? I'm just guessing but there's probably five or six water turbine generators on a big dam, can't they idle a few of them, redirect the water?

Usually when you make lots of power, industry follows.

Read back a page or two. We are spilling water past the turbines on hydro electric sites which can generate for 5 cents per Kwh. At the same instant in time we are wholesale paying gas plants 17 cents, wind 13.5 cents and solar and average of 40.2 cents while paying NY and Michigan to take the surplus power.
Wind, solar and gas are guarantied the right to generate no matter if the power is required or not.


Cheap power, has to be low cost power, not the most expensive power in North America. Industry will leave, and it has.

As far a planning it is brilliant. Eliminates jobs and makes more voters dependent on loyal voters who want hand outs. The anti nuclear protestors have the nuclear plants shut down, not due to age or safety, but due to not making enough $$$ earned to operate the nuclear plants by making the wholesale price of power too low.

 

[90cummins]

Lost power last night for 4 hours and finally had a chance to actually use my 4kw battery backup system to power the house.
There's nothing like a real outage to appreciate and see how a system works.
When it's dark out and the winds blowing & raining with tornado warnings the wife paid attention to what I was showing her.
My 4kw system is enough to allow use of all circuits except the dryer.
Still as with a small generator I monitor the wattage draw on the system with the system monitor.
With all essential household appliances TV, heat & lights being used I was around 400 watts max load which I could sustain for several hours or more.
It was nice to throw a switch rather than pull the generator out start and run cords.
Generators were running up & down the street making quite a lot of noise but I was silent.
90cummins

 

[3930dave]

Lost power last night for 4 hours and finally had a chance to actually use my 4kw battery backup system to power the house.
There's nothing like a real outage to appreciate and see how a system works.
When it's dark out and the winds blowing & raining with tornado warnings the wife paid attention to what I was showing her.
My 4kw system is enough to allow use of all circuits except the dryer.
Still as with a small generator I monitor the wattage draw on the system with the system monitor.
With all essential household appliances TV, heat & lights being used I was around 400 watts max load which I could sustain for several hours or more.
It was nice to throw a switch rather than pull the generator out start and run cords.
Generators were running up & down the street making quite a lot of noise but I was silent.
90cummins

There is a lot to be said for pairing a generator with a battery bank - been done in the industrial world for a long time. Generators are great at shouldering heavy loads - why have even a 5kw generator spinning away just to power a few hundred watts ? In the last 20 years high-power inverters have become relatively inexpensive, removing another obstacle to implementation.

In an extended outage, hybrid systems can help extend fuel resources. Aside from being audibly enjoyable, quiet helps avoid advertising the presence of a generator.

Some people view battery bank maintenance as a big deal, but I don't see that as a problem for someone with even basic DIY skills.

Nicely done 90.

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Our DuroMax XP10000EH 10,000 Watt 18.0 Hp Dual Fuel HYBRID Generator w/ Electric Start that shipped last Friday FedEx Freight delivered it yesterday (Tue) morning. My son put the wheels on it and we fired it up on propane about 5 PM and it ran fine. Last night I went to town and picked up 4 gallons of $3.09 gas that is alcohol free premium. I poured in about half of a gallon and could not get it to run well at all but when I would switch back to propane all was fine. The tornado was moving in fast so I dumped the 4 gallons into the 8.3 gallon tank. Then it ran fine on gasoline. This AM I fired it up on gasoline just fine and ran smooth. Temp was 57F but I think it would be fine at 0F.

The price has gone back up by $350 today on Ebay to $999. It is an 18 HP single cylinder with a steel sleeve but does not have an oil filter so I guess it may have a splash system vs an oil pump. In fact it is the same configuration of the 4400 DuroMax we bought 10 years ago. I really like it and am working on putting 5 hours of very light load on it this week so I can change out the oil and look for metal, etc. 10 years ago the DuroMax manual called for a 5 hour break-in period plus it is just covered for one year on replacement parts so I want to run it some under full load ASAP after the break in. The 4400 had a bad voltage regulator (high voltage) but after a phone call the part was in my mailbox in less than a week.

If I get a chance to pick up some larger propane tanks like 40-100 pounds at a good price I will over time but I know it runs fine one gas which I tend to keep around the place. For people that heat with propane it would make an awesome back up solution since you would not have to handle any fuel. The low oil shut off feature should protect the engine in the case of long outages.

At $649 to the door price for a dual fuel generator it was a great birthday gift to me.

 

[grsthegreat]

part of their 80% increase in electricity costs is being used to pay somebody else to take free power.

geez doesn't sound like good long range planning...can't they just idle a few of the hydro gens? I'm just guessing but there's probably five or six water turbine generators on a big dam, can't they idle a few of them, redirect the water?

Usually when you make lots of power, industry follows.

good thing we only have to worry about dosing our little gens with Sea Foam...

time to change the oil on my big Generac, it's been a year, but seems silly to throw out that perfectly clean oil,
and I still have a hard time seeing the oil level it is so clean, partially I assume due to a good oil filter.
A Generac engine is a clone of a Briggs Vanguard, which I also own. Nice to have parts interchangeability.
I have to believe Briggs makes their engines, (blocks?) and then Generac relabels. I never thought Generac built engines,
despite their ads as to the durability of their engines. Does anyone know?

The 22kw Generac even comes with an oil drain hose, though I'm not sure the last bit of oil drains out due to the angle of the hose.

yes generac builds their own engines complete including valves and alternators. They produce their own windings. The engine is basically the vangard.

 

[daugen]

yes generac builds their own engines complete including valves and alternators. They produce their own windings. The engine is basically the vangard.

most interesting, particularly if they spec a higher grade valve. I always wondered if they put an extra oil control ring in the piston, Generacs are known for very low oil consumption, obviously a good trait for something that might run for days on end. Not sure if Vanguard has same reputation. Good that Generac makes the alternator, can control the quality of the product. Usually don't hear of an alternator failing.

 

[daugen]

ran my Champion 3100 inverter gen for about half an hour today pulling 2400 watts, a good workout for it.
It did fine, though I forgot to check the voltage under load. Really don't trust their little green LED.

 

[dragoneggs]

ran my Champion 3100 inverter gen for about half an hour today pulling 2400 watts, a good workout for it.
It did fine, though I forgot to check the voltage under load. Really don't trust their little green LED.

How do you best check for voltage under load?

 

[3930dave]

ran my Champion 3100 inverter gen for about half an hour today pulling 2400 watts, a good workout for it.
It did fine, though I forgot to check the voltage under load. Really don't trust their little green LED.

How quiet did you find your Champion to be at 2400w load ?

Rgds, D.

 

[dragoneggs]

Hey just thinking this might be a good place to remind folks to power up their outboard boat motor if it isn't used regularly too! . I am getting in the habit when I fire up the generator too. During the winter I look for an opportune weather day. I kind of enjoy hearing my Merc sitting in a bucket purr! Makes me think of summer and warmer sunny weather! :fishing:

 

[3930dave]

How do you best check for voltage under load?

Best general low(er) cost solution is a good quality DMM, like Fluke. As a few people have posted here, and in other TBN threads, panel meters are nice to have in a permanent installation, but most are low cost enough that they should be verified against something like a Fluke DMM. Panel meters are great because they are always displaying, DMM strength is portability - checking voltages at remote points (line drops), not just at the immediate generator output.

If your generator has multiple outputs on its panel, then you can just probe the empty one, remembering there are 2 halves to check if it is 220vac capable.

Libraries around here used to loan out KillaWatt meters - another way to double-check cheap panel meters, and they will give you voltage, frequency, and wattage readings, at least up to one standard 120vac circuit's worth. (Can't remember their exact limits....).

Kill A Watt - Wikipedia

Even a low-cost DMM like Innova is better than nothing, I bought a 3300 on sale as a backup meter and it's been great for basic voltage troubleshooting. High accuracy is ideal (buying a mid-range Fluke is on my future budget list....) , but a lot of the time you mostly need to know Are we sitting near 115VAC, or 105, or 128 ?

Amazon.com: INNOVA 33 Hands-free Digital Multimeter (1 MegOhm): Automotive

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

I would have used a cheap multimeter I have, plugged into open receptacle, at no load and full load. The gen got substantially louder under full load; what was surprisingly quiet at idle, and particularly on the lower rpm idle setting.
But as load was increased, the exhaust got louder. Not sure I'd want that next to my rv all night but if the juice went out, I'd use it for sure. This is my portable backup unit in case I want to dry camp with my travel trailer or if the main gen conks out, which is pretty unlikely. Just my version of belt and suspenders. I have a sound level meter from Radio Shack (I owned a Radio Shack franchise for five years a long time ago and took some fun stuff home with me...) so I could actually run a noise level test next time.

These inverter gens are made to be quiet, and in this Champion's case it means hiding the oil fill area behind a plastic door. Does not make checking oil easier for sure...good thing it has a low oil level shut down. I did notice some new burning smells after half an hour at full load; to be expected as paint burns off. As long as the plastic case doesn't start to melt...

 

[3930dave]

I would have used a cheap multimeter I have, plugged into open receptacle, at no load and full load. The gen got substantially louder under full load; what was surprisingly quiet at idle, and particularly on the lower rpm idle setting.
But as load was increased, the exhaust got louder. Not sure I'd want that next to my rv all night but if the juice went out, I'd use it for sure. This is my portable backup unit in case I want to dry camp with my travel trailer or if the main gen conks out, which is pretty unlikely. Just my version of belt and suspenders. I have a sound level meter from Radio Shack (I owned a Radio Shack franchise for five years a long time ago and took some fun stuff home with me...) so I could actually run a noise level test next time.

These inverter gens are made to be quiet, and in this Champion's case it means hiding the oil fill area behind a plastic door. Does not make checking oil easier for sure...good thing it has a low oil level shut down. I did notice some new burning smells after half an hour at full load; to be expected as paint burns off. As long as the plastic case doesn't start to melt...

You should have good service from that Champion - nice backup unit, easily portable.

Still don't understand why a basic Harbor Freight generator will come with low-oil shutdown, but a $100k road vehicle does not.....

Rgds, D.

 

[90cummins]

Hey just thinking this might be a good place to remind folks to power up their outboard boat motor if it isn't used regularly too! . I am getting in the habit when I fire up the generator too. During the winter I look for an opportune weather day. I kind of enjoy hearing my Merc sitting in a bucket purr! Makes me think of summer and warmer sunny weather! :fishing:

I would discourage running it (or any motor/vehicle of value) unless you can actually warm it up.
Condensation from a brief run can cause rust in cylinders.
In cars it can cause the exhaust system to rot from the inside/out.

 

[dragoneggs]

I would discourage running it (or any motor/vehicle of value) unless you can actually warm it up.
Condensation from a brief run can cause rust in cylinders.
In cars it can cause the exhaust system to rot from the inside/out.

Yes good point. I make sure I run it good and warm. Cycle the fwd/rev a few times and turn up and hold the throttle.

 

[kevinwak]

Been running on the Honda EU2000i for 29 hours now. Only stopped for fuel fills and oil checks. Power was out when I came home from work yesterday, huge snowstorm.