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generators

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Bob

09-21-2003 14:04:40

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Going to buy a gas powered generator to run the house when the power goes out. It's been out more in the last couple years than it used to be. Probably need one in the 5000 to 6000 watt range or bigger. What brands are the most reliable and efficient ?

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Columbus Bond

03-27-2006 19:51:23

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

Hi Bob

I have a coleman portable generator. It is a 5000 watt . It seems like it has lost it exciation, but could be any number of things. Any Idea where to start trouble shouting. Any help will be apperchiated.
Columbus

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Bill

09-23-2003 16:31:38

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

I've been through several generators. Power goes out regular, I buy one. Power good for a few years I trade it away/sell it. Power starts getting unreliable, I buy another & the cycle continues. I've learned several things through all this.

1000 watts continuous requires 2 horsepower. Better machines will better that wattage to HP ratio...

Allways figure out what you want to run & buy oversized. My 5000 watt would run several lights, my 3/4 horse well pump, refrigerator, my oil hot air furnace & a TV....

Want quiet for reasonable $? Get a used generator from a wrecked RV/Motor home. Best generators on the market.

Currently I have a 16 horse Briggs Vangaurd driven unit. Loaded it was LOUD. Pulled the Briggs muffler & brazed up an exhaust pipe through a car muffler. Now instead of bark I hear more of a whine. MUCH quieter....

Low oil shutdown a MUST!!!!! !!!

I HATE storring the gasoline..... Wish I could have afforded the diesel but even diesel fuel goes bad ( moisture ) Want I really want to do is convert my current machine to propane. Propane being a cleaner fuel will increase engine life 4 to 5 times over. Easy to store too. After purchasing 5 new generators the only regret I have on this one was not getting either propane or dual fuel.

All of the above just my take from my expieriences. There may be some wisdom & an equal ammount of stupid but I hope it gives some food for thought.

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PeterS

09-22-2003 21:01:31

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

Bob,
One name I keep hearing here is Honda. If you spring for one, it will still be worth fixing in 20 years after giving twenty years of hard service. The 20 year old Hondas that came in to the repair shop I worked at were still way ahead of anything else. Quiet, thrifty on gas and underrated as far as output goes.

We had stacks of not-worth-fixing Homelites, Colemans, Generacs and others but only one Honda where someone had bypassed the low oil level shutdown switch and killed the motor. We were keeping it in case a Honda came in with a bad gen-head. Never did. I never got the chance to work on a newer Honda, they apparently take at least 15 years to require service.

Peter

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Mike

09-22-2003 19:24:01

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

I have a 35kw diesel onan gen set. It was a used backup(650hrs) out of a school near me. Best $3500 I ever spent. Power has been out for 5 days now(thanks to Constellation Energy) Everything in the house and shop is up and running(water heater,pumps, electric range and oven,washer and dryer,compressor and welder in shop) the engine isn't even pulling hard. Took alot of abuse from the wife when I bought it, now she thinks its better than sliced bread. Couple of the neighbors have 5-6kw gassers and can't even take a hot shower.

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ret

09-22-2003 18:48:35

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

I too am going to make sure I don't have to worry about power here in Va, but as Bob said in his post, he wants to know as I do, what are the good ones out there now, not ones that were made 15 years ago. We all know a lot of things made years ago were better. I didn't think 6000kw would run a house, but glad it will. I checked out the southwest fastener site, they have a lot of generators. Anyone know about the newer ones on the market, as to what really is best, or do we have to go by price Ret, Va

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John

09-22-2003 16:25:51

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

i have a generac 3500 watt generator. it is the XL (extended life) version with overhead valves and a big muffler. it is from before the years that they were owned by briggs. i think it may have a Honda in it? it always starts good, but last year it wouldn't put out any power and the motor was bogging almost to the point that it would stall. turned out that the bearing that holds the end of the armature fartherst from the engine seized. the entire bearing spun in the aluminum carrier and ground it up real good. then the rotor started rubbing on the botom of the stator and ground right throug the iron and into the windings. made a nice big arc-welded mess of the stator. I had the stator rewound for $350 and a new bearing and carrrier cost $80. this generator had only run for about 140 hours in it's entire life before failure. besides that it's been a good machine, and i have had it running for 40 hours nonstop with no trouble. I have never heard of a generator bearing failing before

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09-23-2003 09:32:01

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Re: Re: generators in reply to John, 09-22-2003 16:25:51

You must like that generator $430 in parts before labor would suggest to me a new unit.

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John

09-23-2003 18:28:20

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Re: Re: Re: generators in reply to Ed, 09-23-2003 09:32:01

there was no labor cost because i did it myself. a similar new unit would have cost $800. I was seriously considering upgrading to a bigger one and selling this one for parts, but then i decided to just fix this one. It was basically brand new. it only had about 140 total running hours and didn't have a single scratch.

the funny part was that when i called Generac to inquire about a new stator, it would have cost more than an entire new generator. then i found a place that could replair the old one.

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09-22-2003 10:38:33

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

I've got an old old 5000w Kohler generator with a 12hp Kholer engine K301.

How dose this stack up against the newer 5000 and 6000 units. I noticed a lot of them have smaller engines.

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Kevin

09-22-2003 17:15:21

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Re: Re: generators in reply to Ed, 09-22-2003 10:38:33

Ed, I personally would hold onto a Kohler powered older unit. Kohler is an excellent name in the field, and in these days of newer meaning junkier, I think an older motor is worth the extra effort of lugging it around! My Generac 4200 is over ten years old and I don't have any of the problems with mine that newer owners of Generac seem to have. I have never had to run mine for longer than eight hours at one time though, as I don't live in Hurricane country, I live in Kohler country! :)

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09-23-2003 09:25:30

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Re: Re: Re: generators in reply to Kevin, 09-22-2003 17:15:21

I plan on holding on to this one because it uses the same engine as my garden tractors. I was wondering if the rating system changed since this one was built and more like the 6500w units on the market. I saw one rated at 6500w that stated 5000w continous 6500w surge.

I agree that sometimes older is better

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Slowtorque

09-22-2003 09:14:45

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

Lost power for two days during ISabel here in NC. I bought a MGE6700 Mitsubishi genset (6700 watts surge, 5800 continuous) last Spring for $1100 from www.southwestfastener.com. It is equivalent in quality to a Honda commercial unit and came with a 2 yr commercial warranty. Quiet, powerful and reliable. A heck of a deal at 50+% off retail of $2600. Check out their website.

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jim

09-22-2003 06:49:07

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

I have an old Honda,so old, it is heavy,it is not even direct drive, it has 2 belts running betwen the engine and generator, says it is rated at 3600W, but, I have run a lot more off of it. On a genset, the thing you have to be aware of, the better generators will take a higher load for a longer amount of time than the cheaper gensets. If you try to run full load off of a cheap genset for an extended amount of time you will build a lot of heat in the generator head, and will then start to melt the solder in the cheaper generators. So depending of what kind of reliabilty you need, that should be the background for the kind of generator you buy. Yes the Honda, Robin, Kawasaki, Kubota, etc are more expensive, but if you want something to run your house in an emergency, what do you do if the cheap genset goes down during a crisis. I worry about my family more. Just my two cents worth from someone who works on them for a living.

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EIL

09-21-2003 19:44:56

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

Yeah, we too had used my grampa's generator for hurricane Lili. We didn't have power for about 4 days. The only thing I learned from the experience is to make sure if you use an outlet strip that it is rated for the current that you are pulling from it. If it's too small then it will keep tripping the circuit breaker that is installed on it. One other thing, if you look closely at the craftsman generators they very closely resimble the generac generators which as you know, craftsman don't make anything, they get other companies to make it for them and they put the craftsman name on it. Oh, and by the way, briggs has bought the consumer line of generac generators so you will find briggs on all the knew generacs.

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Bishop

09-21-2003 18:17:16

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

When moved to Birmingham AL, 17 years ago the neighbors told us that the power went out alot, so we bought a Coleman 5000watt 10hp Tec, 2-110V,1-220V from Samsclub. We never used it for 16 years, I just started it once a year and kept Sta-bil in the gas. We made five company moves in 16 years until we retired 4 years ago. When Hurricane Lili hit South Louisiana last October, we were out of power for 6 days. After clearing a path to the house of around 12 trees, I pulled out the Generator. It started on the third pull. It would run for 8 hours steady, 30 minute cool down and an oil check, I would refill the 5 gal tank and start it back up. It ran for 6 days, almost 24 hours like that with out using any oil. Last month I pulled it out again as the hurricane season arrived, and it started on the 2nd pull. I let it warm up, changed the 17 year old original oil, cleaned the air filter and with a new spark plug, it fired on the first pull. I had wished at first for a Briggs engine but this Tec unit works great. It ran all the lights, TVs, Sat Dish box, computer, pump, three window AC units, two frig and two chest frez. Since we are retired and don't have to be anywhere any time, we took cold showers, but since the outside temp was around 85 degrees, it wasn't bad, life was still great here.

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Mac

09-22-2003 06:20:04

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Re: Re: generators in reply to Bishop, 09-21-2003 18:17:16

I bought one of those colemans a few years back, 10HP -5000, a little noisy but where I am, makes no difference. Always thought about a "quiet muffler" but never went that way.

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RayP(MI)

09-23-2003 10:53:44

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Re: Re: Re: generators in reply to Mac, 09-22-2003 06:20:04

I've got one of those Briggs/Colemans too, 8hp, 4500watts. Has run us several times, once for 5 days straight. Has paid for itself several times over. May not have the long life of those "wonder brands," but I don't have to use it often, and take good care of it. If I was a contractor, and needed power for weeks on end at a jobsite, that would be another matter. It will probably outlive me.

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Bishop

09-22-2003 10:00:43

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Re: Re: Re: generators in reply to Mac, 09-22-2003 06:20:04

Your right about the noise, it's loud.
but thinking about the silence of being without power for six days made us overlook the noise, and by the second night we slept soundly. If there is a quieter muffler I would invest in it.

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VaTom

09-21-2003 15:53:34

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

No tractor for a PTO generator? I'm happy not having another gas engine to maintain.

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EIL

09-21-2003 14:15:05

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Re: generators in reply to Bob, 09-21-2003 14:04:40

The most popular is generac. My grampa got a 5500 continueus watts and 8500 surge watts. It was on sale at lowes for about $500. I think the normal price is around $600. We never had a problem with it. He ran two fans, two large chest freezers, a refrigerator, water cooler, and water well pump all at the same time. It runs for 12 hours on one tank full. It had a 10 hp briggs. I have noticed that the cheaper units in this wattage wange have a 11 hp tecumseh, the mid range have a 10 hp briggs, and the expensive brands have a 9 hp honda. But keep in mind that the price not only affects the size and brand of the engine but the alternator head too. The cheaper ones have brushes and won't have a completely steady power output while the more expensive ones have a brushless powerhead which is a better design and they also give off a more steady power output which is critical if you will hook up an electronic devise like a tv. Harbor freight has good prices on cheaper made generators while the honda dealerships will charge you more for a better made unit.

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Mike W

09-21-2003 19:36:38

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Re: Re: generators in reply to EIL, 09-21-2003 14:15:05

Try to get one that runs at 1800 instead of 3600 rpm. I have an older Onan cck, 5kw. It is much quieter than a 3600 rpm unit and will last longer.

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