Your last generator Maintenance Run

[LouNY]

I have considered making my own, a charger, a good GEL or Lithium battery and a true sine way inverter.

 

[daugen]

All online and many line interactive UPS systems have pure sine wave output. Pure sine wave output provides maximum stability and superior compatibility with sensitive equipment. Pure sine wave power is required by some equipment power supplies and prevents others from overheating, malfunctioning or failing prematurely.

from that article. The sine wave model was 40 bucks more than the standard model.
when the new UPS arrived today, hurt my back picking it up. Granted twice the power of my last one but felt like I was
lugging in a heavy truck battery. That must be one dense battery in there.

I have surge protectors on almost everything in the house. And if I have a sine wave UPS on my pc system, not sure what else I have to protect.
does my microwave really care if I'm feeding it 25% THD? I'm sure the stove and toaster don't. Washing machine?

 

[Fallon]

All online and many line interactive UPS systems have pure sine wave output. Pure sine wave output provides maximum stability and superior compatibility with sensitive equipment. Pure sine wave power is required by some equipment power supplies and prevents others from overheating, malfunctioning or failing prematurely.

from that article. The sine wave model was 40 bucks more than the standard model.
when the new UPS arrived today, hurt my back picking it up. Granted twice the power of my last one but felt like I was
lugging in a heavy truck battery. That must be one dense battery in there.

I have surge protectors on almost everything in the house. And if I have a sine wave UPS on my pc system, not sure what else I have to protect.
does my microwave really care if I'm feeding it 25% THD? I'm sure the stove and toaster don't. Washing machine?

Dumb electronics won't care. A heater element or old filiment bulb won't be affected. I don't think most motors will either. Ironically most electronics wont care. They all run on DC, so if they have a good power supply they won't be affected. If they have a marginal power supply it might output unsteady DC & cause problems.

 

[Williy]

Its a proven fact the if you don't run a electric motor on
pure sine wave they don't last as long. The modified
sine wave inverters are cheaper and some people will
purchase them not knowing what the results will be.
Electronics don't last very long on the modified sine
wave units they need a steady output smooth not with
spikes as your diodes and chips can't take the spikes
and the new appliances have chips with those components
in them and they last about 12 to 14 months then no
warranty and the little pc boards cost approx $600 and
you have to wait for approx 6+ months to get one

willy

 

[3930dave]

I have surge protectors on almost everything in the house. And if I have a sine wave UPS on my pc system, not sure what else I have to protect.
does my microwave really care if I'm feeding it 25% THD? I'm sure the stove and toaster don't. Washing machine?

Other than outright electronic hardware failure, my general concern is fast transient glitches/noise.

Example - modern automotive systems can be really picky about how clean the DC feed is.... doesn't take much of a battery or alternator issue to throw all sorts of unrelated codes.....

As covered, pure resistive loads likely don't care, but most every household electronic product today is run by a microcontroller.

Rgds, D.

 

[Fallon]

Got a new filter in & finally replaced it. Hate where they have it mounted. Angled away from the front & impossible to get to from the inside. Keystone/Carbon clamped the fuel lines wirh permant Otker clamps instead of spring loaded ones or good old worm gear hose clamps. Had to get bolt cutters into no room to cut them off. Then fight a rubber grommet you can't see for 20 minutes to get a socket on the filter you can't see.

Anyway it's all back together. Ran finefor 10-15 minutes. Turned on the A/C and the engine lugged for 5 seconds then died. Wouldn't restart. Could easily blow through the old fuel filter too, so it wasn't plugged.

I guess I need to try & fill up a gas can from the fuel line going into the carb. Still seems like a fuel starvation issue to me with the timing.

I may have fixed it.

Pulled the fuel line off the carb & stuffed it into a 1 gallon gas can. Held the prime button for 5-10 minutes & it filled up the can. So fuel pump, filter & general fuel supply from the tank seems fine. Dumped the can back into the tank & fired up the engine a few minutes later. It's been running fine for the past hour now.

No clue what fixed things. Air bubble in the fuel line? Restriction in the fuel line I didn't see?

Gonna go turn on the A/C & see if a bigger load changes things here in a bit.

 

[Fallon]

I may have fixed it.

Pulled the fuel line off the carb & stuffed it into a 1 gallon gas can. Held the prime button for 5-10 minutes & it filled up the can. So fuel pump, filter & general fuel supply from the tank seems fine. Dumped the can back into the tank & fired up the engine a few minutes later. It's been running fine for the past hour now.

No clue what fixed things. Air bubble in the fuel line? Restriction in the fuel line I didn't see?

Gonna go turn on the A/C & see if a bigger load changes things here in a bit.

Ran for an hour fine with little to no load. Just the fridge & batteries which were already fully charged. Fired up the A/C & it ran fine for another hour until I shut it down.

Must have been something with the fuel system upstream of the carb that finally worked itself out. Gonna be bugging me for a long time. Hate thing that fix themselves without telling you why. Impossible to troubleshoot something that's working & you just wait for the problem to come back.

 

[3930dave]

Must have been something with the fuel system upstream of the carb that finally worked itself out. Gonna be bugging me for a long time. Hate thing that fix themselves without telling you why. Impossible to troubleshoot something that's working & you just wait for the problem to come back.

You won this Round .

Hear ya, on the elusive gremlins..... enough to keep a gearhead up at night

Tank is probably a PITA to inspect (internally), but perhaps a long optical scope probe ? Wondering about debris in-tank....

If it's a shared tank, the generator pickup tube/point is usually higher than the one for the motive engine - any chance it was a low-tank when the problem first happened ?

Not trying to be funny/insulting.... your post today reminded me of a funny RV generator story about pickup tubes.....

Rgds, D.

 

[nikdfish]

22kw whole house running tonight. Lost power about 8:50pm. Genny kicked in about 15 seconds later. Glad I don't have to get out in the wind & rain to crank up a portable.

 

[3930dave]

How badly has your area been hit with the recent storms Nik ?

Rgds, D.