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Best Standby Generator?

M

modirt

Member
Have decided having a standby generator to keep things going in the event the power is off for a few days is a good fit for me. Most reviews I've found tend to focus mostly on matching needs to size......and most of the "online review" websites appear to be nothing more than thinly disguised shills for whoever it is they recommend. So not trustworthy.

So the choices seem to be permanent install and hooked to a large fuel source (like natural gas or propane)...one that fires on it's own, or a portable unit you rig and fire up as needed.

Then there is the option of generator or inverter generator. I've been told by one guy the latter is the way to go for a cleaner power and also is more fuel efficient as it operates more or less at an idle until demand kicks in vs. grinding away at full throttle. But most of the inverter/generators may not be big enough in the breaches to do the job.

Anyway, started doing the research when it dawned on me there are probably dozens of folks on YT who have already done the homework and can share what works best.

Any ideas?
 
You do need to get one with a little more power then you need. Give yourself some room to work with.Stay away from Generac. I know
some on here have them and have had good luck with them.I have 40 years on generators. They do have some good units but support from
the factory can be poor to 0.

Power Tech is a company out of Florida. I have used them for years. Good fast support and they will help you.
Cummins/Onan to me is just a little better than Generac. Real shame what Cummins has done to Onan.
Kohler has some very good units.
Winco is still in business. They have some good units.
Stay away from any Chinese generators. Parts can be hard to impossible to find.

You want an 1800 rpm unit. Unless you like listening to the 3600 rpm screamers.
 
Billy and I always disagree on this and he has lots of past experience. But Generac now has a 7 year warranty , that is pretty strong. For no longer that a standby generator runs they offer value. Here is photo of my 20 kw propane fueled unit I had installed when we built the house . Seven year old roughly 340 hrs. Perfect to date and that 300+ hours includes two periods of 72 hrs or so at once. Do you home work and get one where you have good dealer support. And yes in our area two Generac dealers with service support and they are getting 70% of the new power business. I have no affiliation with Generac just giving you my results.
cvphoto11816.jpg
 
We?re on the same boat as you right now. At present time
we?re leaning towards a 10kw Briggs and Stratton. The
reasons were considering this model is it?s not just Billy that?s
had issues with Generac if you look at the online reviews they
contrast greatly. It seems either they claim they?ve been a
trouble free unit and they love them or they?ve had issues and
Generac has been a nightmare to deal with. The Briggs 10kw
units use a V-twin for smoother running and all Briggs units
use copper windings far as I know. Some of the Kohler unite
have moved to Chinese production. The Winco unite look
really good too. The smaller units even the 8kw uses a V-twin
Briggs and the 12kw uses a V-twin Honda.
 
Yes we disagree but at least we are civil about it.You make a good point. Good dealer support means everything. Doesn't matter how good a unit is. Without a support system you might as well not have one.



65 and raining how about you.
 
My Generator is not automatic, but is easy
to hookup. Just roll it to shop door and
hook up cord. It is a single cylinder
Tecumseh, 5000 watt 10 hp. 3 rd one I have
had since 1966. Oh. Coleman brand.
 
Thought about being at Canton Tx for first Monday trade day but put it off till first of March. Absolutely perfect 64 degrees bright sunshine, and no wind. I have just been out roaming the woods, thinking about having some walnut trees cut. Yes you and I do agree to disagree and I think you are probably right there are commercial units built that are better, seems to me that Generac has improved in the last few years from listing to folks like you. And we have two larger electric companies here that are selling and servicing a lot of them. We live in the back of the woods as far from good power as possible so generator is something most folks want.
 
I think I told you about going to Canton. On a service call to the nursing home. On Trade Day. Big mistake. I think it took me longer to get across Canton. Than it did to drive down from Dallas. Place was packed.
 
Yea the first time I was there I could not believe how many and how far some folks come. We only go on Thursday and Fridays ,now as Sat and Sunday it is just too crowded.
 
I have a 30 KW Cummins-Onan with a 4 cyl.
GM OHV fork lift type engine. Runs 1800
RPM. Nat. gas/propane. Easily runs my whole
house includung elec. water heaters and two
AC units. Probably way overkill, but I like
things that way. Had it 8 years without any
problems whatsoever. May not be the best on
fuel efficiency, but around here natural
gas is cheap.
 
(quoted from post at 14:45:04 02/03/19) My Generator is not automatic, but is easy
to hookup. Just roll it to shop door and
hook up cord. It is a single cylinder
Tecumseh, 5000 watt 10 hp. 3 rd one I have
had since 1966. Oh. Coleman brand.
Click to expand...

Guess I need to sit down and calculate what the minimum power options are. I have a few essentials I want to keep running......fridge, freezer, fan and controls for propane furnace, electronics for propane range. Anything after that is gravy.

So a portable unit I can plug in and play works OK for me. I don't need it to kick in within seconds. Someone with medical issues and unable to do much for themselves certainly would need it to auto fire, but I don't. If I was expecting an ice storm, I'd go get it ready....etc.

I'm also wondering, from a practical standpoint, how much fuel it takes to run one. Saw one site mention 2 gallons propane per hour. Is that good, bad or about right?

And on handling the circuits, is it generally OK to run one if you throw the main breaker, then plug it into a circuit wired to your panel box? Do you trip out all non-essential breakers or how is the quick and easy way to limit what gets power to minimize use?
 
I do backfeed my whole place from a welder plug in my shop. 5 kw will run my entire house plus shop lights and horse barn lights. Even keep water hot. We have a heat pump water heater. Houses don't use as much electricity as they did a few years ago. If I remember the generator uses less than a gallon of gas a hr.Also we have city water.
 
I?ll throw out one more option that works for some of us around here. My generator was made by Miller, yes the welder folks. It lives in my shop, and is
set up to plug into the transfer switch from there. I don?t need it very often for backup power, but I do use it regularly to weld. So I am pretty confident it
will work when I need it. 10 kw, I can power anything I need to use, just need to manage a bit. Can?t run the water heater and oven at the same time!

Billy commented on noise/ speed below, mine is a 3600 rpm unit, but it is far enough from the house to not cause an issue.
 
My son in law just has a 3500 honda
inverter generator. Just 120 volt. He
turns off main outside. Then turns off
main in garage. Has a 250 volt drier plug
in. Underneath breaker box. Turns off all
250 double breakers. Then turns on all 125
breakers he needs.Has just had to run it
once in 10 yrs. They have a big house but
3500 watt will run all the led lights.
Plus fridge, light lp cook stove. And turn
on lp log in fireplace and run fan.
 

cvphoto11825.jpg


If it can stand up to the abuse and requirements of the armed forces, then my vote goes to the MEP-803-A. Price is right on
these and along with a 300 gallon tank, your good to go. Also has 3 phase if you need it.
 

Modirt, there is good information here about generators. Billy Shaffer is our resident expert. Most of us have had experience with three or four of them. Billy has had experience with more like 3-4 thousand. When your kids need a drug, do you want one that has worked OK for 3-4 people or one that has passed trials with thousands. I have strong advice about how you tie it in. You want to use a slide lockout inside your breaker panel. If you have a transfer switch put in, plan on spending double what they quote you for it. After the first outage of any length of time you will know of the three additional circuits that you can't get by without so you will have them back to install another one.
 
I had to use my Gillette portable generator to power the house last Fall- we were out for about 36 hours. At 9K, it is enough to run all circuits except A/C, IF I cycle them on so as to not all start at the same time. But the gas tank only holds about an hour's worth of fuel, and I don't keep gas here for anything regularly anymore. Plus, no way would my wife hook it up, just not her skill set.

So, since two of the three kids will be done with college this year (finally), I figured an automatic system might be fundable.

I got two bids in December after contacting four local contractors in November.

The 20kW Kohler would be $12,790 installed with natural gas line and new underground conduit to the transfer switch and meter base. Add $300 to re-route the power company service underground to the transfer switch instead of overhead (I plan to do this as they want to replace the last pole and the overhead drop, anyway)

The 22kW Generac is $10325 installed, no quote for the other service change.

The Kohler dealer said they switched from Generac because their customer could not do their own oil changes. Without a Generac tech computer to reset the oil change warning system, the generator will not run. I did not validate this, it may have changed.

Neither bid included upsizing the gas meter- I have not contacted the gas company since both bids are higher than I am willing to spend.
 
(quoted from post at 19:22:24 02/03/19) My son in law just has a 3500 honda
inverter generator. Just 120 volt. He
turns off main outside. Then turns off
main in garage. Has a 250 volt drier plug
in. Underneath breaker box. Turns off all
250 double breakers. Then turns on all 125
breakers he needs.Has just had to run it
once in 10 yrs. They have a big house but
3500 watt will run all the led lights.
Plus fridge, light lp cook stove. And turn
on lp log in fireplace and run fan.
Click to expand...

You either have no clue, don't care about others, have a huge ego , as cheap as Scrooge, a superiority complex, lazy and likely a mixture of all. Possibly bored and just wanting to stir up a riot.
Do not give out dangerous advice. You could get somebody crippled or killed.
 
You either have no clue, don't care about others, have a huge ego , as cheap as Scrooge, a superiority complex, lazy and likely a mixture of all. Possibly bored and just wanting to stir up a riot.
Do not give out dangerous advice. You could get somebody crippled or killed.
 
I"ve had a WinPower (now Winco) since about 1974. It"s a 25/45 kw unit, pto powered. Never a repair. It cost $2100, but those units typically bring under a grand at auctions today.

MOST IMPORTANT THING- had a transfer switch installed on the main pole when I bought the generator. Our REA will disconnect any user that backfeeds into the grid. That is deadly!

Our unit was sized to run our dairy...biggest motor was 10hp on the manure pump,...3 hp barn cleaner had to run at the same time. When milking, we had two 5hp vacuum pumps running, plus about 5hp on the milk cooler. At feeding time we had two silo unloaders running, plus conveyors and TMR. No, we couldn"t run everything at once, but we could do any of those functions.

Check the data plate on things you want to operate, add the total watts. Allow for startup watts as well. Whatever unit you select, make sure it is wired properly!
 
(quoted from post at 19:40:50 02/03/19) [b:61f8ec5d44]You either have no clue[/b:61f8ec5d44], don't care about others, have a huge ego , as cheap as Scrooge, a superiority complex, lazy and likely a mixture of all. Possibly bored and just wanting to stir up a riot.
Do not give out dangerous advice. You could get somebody crippled or killed.
Click to expand...

Out of all the choices given, I guess clueless (more correctly "ignorant") would apply to me, which is why I raise my hand to ask questions. Or as I like to say, even brain surgery isn't hard to do if you know how. But if you don't, you better ask questions before you start.

The notion of installing a backup generator has been rattling around in my head for a while now, so I've been seeking advice now and then from folks I believe could help.

Most recently, that was a tech guy from our local REC who was here to swap my old meter for a digital one. I asked him if installing a backup generator would be OK and his only response (he was in a hurry) was YES, it's OK, people do it all the time. No mention of a transfer boxes, switches or NEC code. Since he worked for the utility, I would have thought that would have been the first thing out of his mouth?

My assumption was that if a person flipped the main at the meter there would be no chance of backfeeding into the utility line. I think that technical standpoint, that remains true.....but is also a system that is prone to error. A transfer box/switch makes it less likely to screw up and is an overall better system to use.

So now that I know what to look for, I'm amazed at how the inner workings of a transfer box are glossed over, and that includes many of the company websites. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen any mention of it on this thread either. Transfer boxes mentioned? Yes......why and how they work and why I need to have one and they are required by NEC code? Not so much.

After a bit of searching, I did find this......part 1 of a 6 part series on transfer boxes. For me, this is when the light came on!
:idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTqjwt6WJ7o

And apparently there is more than one way to skin this cat....no box, just a switch that plugs into your meter.

http://www.generlink.com/
 
(quoted from post at 19:46:14 02/03/19) I"ve had a WinPower (now Winco) since about 1974. It"s a 25/45 kw unit, pto powered. Never a repair. It cost $2100, but those units typically bring under a grand at auctions today.

[b:4b9fc5b906] MOST IMPORTANT THING- had a transfer switch installed on the main pole when I bought the generator. Our REA will disconnect any user that backfeeds into the grid. That is deadly! [/b:4b9fc5b906]

Our unit was sized to run our dairy...biggest motor was 10hp on the manure pump,...3 hp barn cleaner had to run at the same time. When milking, we had two 5hp vacuum pumps running, plus about 5hp on the milk cooler. At feeding time we had two silo unloaders running, plus conveyors and TMR. No, we couldn"t run everything at once, but we could do any of those functions.

Check the data plate on things you want to operate, add the total watts. Allow for startup watts as well. Whatever unit you select, make sure it is wired properly!
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. That was made plain enough.
 
(quoted from post at 00:36:40 02/04/19)
(quoted from post at 19:46:14 02/03/19) I"ve had a WinPower (now Winco) since about 1974. It"s a 25/45 kw unit, pto powered. Never a repair. It cost $2100, but those units typically bring under a grand at auctions today.

[b:f56db3b13e] MOST IMPORTANT THING- had a transfer switch installed on the main pole when I bought the generator. Our REA will disconnect any user that backfeeds into the grid. That is deadly! [/b:f56db3b13e]

Our unit was sized to run our dairy...biggest motor was 10hp on the manure pump,...3 hp barn cleaner had to run at the same time. When milking, we had two 5hp vacuum pumps running, plus about 5hp on the milk cooler. At feeding time we had two silo unloaders running, plus conveyors and TMR. No, we couldn"t run everything at once, but we could do any of those functions.

Check the data plate on things you want to operate, add the total watts. Allow for startup watts as well. Whatever unit you select, make sure it is wired properly!
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. That was made plain enough.
Click to expand...

Modirt, try reading my post again.
 
Back when preforming a prim and proper proper installation ment spending a LOT of money for a double
throw installation I had some compassion (but not agreement!) for those who would back feed without
interlocks. However since the UL has long ago listed panel interlocks for backfeeding the main and every
utility recognizes them there is no reason to live on the edge and risk flipping the the wrong breaker
at the wrong time,, period.
 
(quoted from post at 05:55:00 02/04/19) Most people have enough common sense to plan ahead and have a safe reliable method to connect their generator .
Click to expand...

Most people have the common sense to plan ahead. HOWEVER, very few people have the abundance of knowledge on all topics known to man that you have so even though they believe that they have covered all contingencies, gaps in their knowledge result in gaps in their plan. B&D, you are horribly lacking in fulfilling your obligation to the rest of mankind until you have established a daily prime time educational program on all broadcast TV networks in a sincere effort to bring the rest of the world's knowledge up to a life sustaining level. I am saying broadcast TV because internet would probably not reach adequate numbers of the most needy population.
 

Come to think of it . A worthwhile concept even if all that was accomplished was to knock “Oprah” or “The View” off the air .
 
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