Your last generator Maintenance Run

[shaeff]

The capacitor causes a phase shift to the start winding giving the magnetic force a second angle to pull the rotor making it spin up faster.
I’m not familiar with the sure start, Hyper’s literature doesn’t really say anything about the theory of operation in a technical way, I’m trying to find more information about them and how they work.
My experience with the “Hard Start” with a potential relay is that it reduced the starting current as measured on my Fluke clamp on by about 50% in most cases.

Gotcha, seems like it’s a viable option. I’m still going to thoroughly research both. We don’t lose power that often, but this is something that has long term benefits anyway so it seems like a good idea to lower the initial amperage draw, especially once we get our upstairs set up with central air. If both compressors kicked at the same time, I’d imagine something would trip on the generator.

Is grsthegreat implying that the inrush of current caused by the second (larger) cap is bad for the compressor motor? And that the Emerson soft-start prevents that potential “overload” of voltage kick-starting the motor? So while it’s less draw on my panel box or generator, it’s more of a shock load (no pun intended) on the compressor itself?

Edit- I love this community. I stumble upon some excellent advice and conversations here, so thank you all for that!

 

[grsthegreat]

Gotcha, seems like it’s a viable option. I’m still going to thoroughly research both. We don’t lose power that often, but this is something that has long term benefits anyway so it seems like a good idea to lower the initial amperage draw, especially once we get our upstairs set up with central air. If both compressors kicked at the same time, I’d imagine something would trip on the generator.

Is grsthegreat implying that the inrush of current caused by the second (larger) cap is bad for the compressor motor? And that the Emerson soft-start prevents that potential “overload” of voltage kick-starting the motor? So while it’s less draw on my panel box or generator, it’s more of a shock load (no pun intended) on the compressor itself?

Edit- I love this community. I stumble upon some excellent advice and conversations here, so thank you all for that!

All i could tell you is i had a perfectly good 4 year old heat pump that i had serviced. The tech suggested putting in a HARD START kit due to the fact that it was a 4 ton unit and dimmed the house lights on startup. I went along with it, and it did help light dimming. 6 months later...no ac. Compressor seized up. Came to find out hard starts arnt recommended on scroll compressor. Had warranty replacement on compressor, but never had luck keeping freon in ever since. A few years later i swapped out heat pump for standard ac and gas heat. Never looked back.

Furnace is like 98% efficient, and house stays cooler in summer.

I only installed SOFT START on newer unit to assist with generator start.

 

[shaeff]

All i could tell you is i had a perfectly good 4 year old heat pump that i had serviced. The tech suggested putting in a HARD START kit due to the fact that it was a 4 ton unit and dimmed the house lights on startup. I went along with it, and it did help light dimming. 6 months later...no ac. Compressor seized up. Came to find out hard starts arnt recommended on scroll compressor. Had warranty replacement on compressor, but never had luck keeping freon in ever since. A few years later i swapped out heat pump for standard ac and gas heat. Never looked back.

Furnace is like 98% efficient, and house stays cooler in summer.

I only installed SOFT START on newer unit to assist with generator start.

Understood. Not sure whether my unit is scroll or not, I don’t know that much about HVAC. I’ll do some digging. Either way, I really like that soft start unit.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Deaths from generators, grilles and the like are hard to accept more so than death from hurricane winds. If I had not grown up on a manual labor farm I am sure life would have seemed harder. Elon Musk thinks critical thinking is not practiced by many these days and I tend to agree.

 

[ultrarunner]

Carbon Monoxide Detectors are required here on all but all electric homes...

Lots of strange things over the years like bird's nest blocking a gas wall furnace vent and tragedy followed when pilot lit when the first cold snap hit.

Charcoal BBQ are the worst offenders here.

 

[3930dave]

Edit- I love this community. I stumble upon some excellent advice and conversations here, so thank you all for that!

Back when, I figured if a couple of people showed up, that might be enough to reduce my laziness about getting some maintenance done on mine......

It's been fun. I've learned a lot about generators here, from tiny ones, to big industrial scale systems, and seen some real quality custom builds and rebuilds done.

Gasoline. There's the E issue of course, but have also seen enough anecdotal info pile up to conclude that regional gasoline formulations can be a factor - what works fine for storage practice on a given model at one end of the continent may not have the same good results at the other end.....

Tips and tricks and really cool add-ons like we've been discussing lately..... always plenty of help here getting the wallet exercised But, that's pretty much a TBN liability in general !

Gen On !

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Deaths from generators, grilles and the like are hard to accept more so than death from hurricane winds. If I had not grown up on a manual labor farm I am sure life would have seemed harder. Elon Musk thinks critical thinking is not practiced by many these days and I tend to agree.

Even today, I've heard many times from business owners "Like to hire young people who grew up on farms - they know how to work".

More to it than just this, but this is some of the core, IMO - "Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking." (Wikipedia).

^ always things I've valued, and key tools to getting generators fixed, or any other complex system or activity dealt with.

Independent and self-actuated free-thinkers - a good fit for a family farm back when, and given the work involved in keeping a farm running in that era, there was a good feedback loop in action. What you did determined the success or failure of the farm, and nobody was coming along behind you to clean up.

Different world today in many respects, but that last factor still applies to farming.

Rgds, D.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I guess, if you stand around on a farm, you are only hurting yourself. Chores HAVE to be done, so if you don't do them now, you will have to do them later.

Someone here put up ads looking for help in her cleaning business. Two weeks later, not one rsponse!

 

[ultrarunner]

Always a good bet for extra help on the Christmas Tree Farm is a help wanted sign posted at the feed store...

A lot of family friends have offered their kids to work but few panned out and one soured a long term friendship...

Just bought a booster pump and sized it for the Honda 2200i. So far these have been great units with all the power outages and chores around the farm.

 

[two_bit_score]

I guess, if you stand around on a farm, you are only hurting yourself. Chores HAVE to be done, so if you don't do them now, you will have to do them later.

Someone here put up ads looking for help in her cleaning business. Two weeks later, not one rsponse!

I was taught at a young age that it’s easier to replace one fence post than to replace the whole fence.

So I have no excuse.