Small diesel generators

[dex3361]

I have an Onan commercial quiet diesel genset 5500 w that I have had for 5 years. Very quiet and burns about .6 gph at full load. This has a Kubota engine and has operated flawlessly so far. This is mounted on one of my service trucks with a 40 gallon tank so it seems to run forever on a tank.

The Miller welders can provide lots of power but mine is too loud to use other than daytime.

The most quiet ones I have are the Honda 3000i and 200i inverter sets but their gas units and I agree it is safer to store diesel. The 2000i though at 47 #'s is by far the most convienient unit. If anyone is interested Honda has recently introduced a new 3000 w unit built like the 2000 and weighs in about 75 #'s, that would be a very handy genset to have. At 58 db these things are super quiet.

I expect the Aurora will use that under full load as well. I tested to see if it would run my 4.5KW Hot water tank and Well Pump at the same time and it did fine. That is what I was after with the upgrade fuel economy and the ability to have a hot shower. Honda is great equipment. The Diesel unit I have is not quiet it is the open frame but they offer a quiet model but I like the ability to easily service mine and the Quiet model was $400+ more.

 

[Redneck in training]

Yes, this one is a diesel, although they do sell gas-powered units too. This one will run about 4 hours on 1 gallon at less than 1/2 load, and is rated for 2 hours/gal at full load. The 6500W model is rated for 3 hours/gal at 1/2 load, and 1.5 hours/gal at full load.

As for the comment about Honda engines being made in China, from what I understand that is true, but they are built to Honda's specs, and subject to their inspection. The clones are not. The Chinese are master copiers. Most of the small gas powered engines coming from China are Honda knock offs, and most of the small single-cyl. air-cooled diesel coming from China are Yanmar knock offs. They see a good design and copy it.

Depending on your loads, you might want to look into the Honda or Yamaha inverter generators. Because they use an inverter, the engine doesn't have to run full speed regardless of load, so they use a lot less fuel at partial loads. They are a lot more money though.

Inverters are great but not all of them are created equal. The cheap one generate square wave, the better one generate modified sine wave (several square waves stacked on top of each other) only the best one generate good sine wave safe for your equipment such as electronics. Yamaha makes several of such models.

 

[jas67]

Inverters are great but not all of them are created equal. The cheap one generate square wave, the better one generate modified sine wave (several square waves stacked on top of each other) only the best one generate good sine wave safe for your equipment such as electronics. Yamaha makes several of such models.

Both the Honda and Yamaha inverter generators are well regarded on the RV forums, and people that use them are running electronics with them.

Yes, you are correct, that all inverters are not created equally, but electronics (computers especially) will be fine with the MSW (modified sign) or even square-wave inverters. Most computers UPS's are MSW, and some are square wave. The switching power supplies in computers are fine with that.

The devices that are more sensitive to the "wave" type are motors. Induction motors will run a little hotter with MSW inverters, so you want to over size your inverter a bit when running MSW inverters with motors, to be sure you don't run them under voltage.

Xantrex makes inverters that can be "stacked" for 240V operation. I have two such units installed for emergency backup power. Each is rated for 3600W run power, and 7200W starting/surge power. Stacked, they give me 7200W run, 14400W surge. They use 24VDC input, and I have two deep cycle batteries powering them. They are charger/inverters with an automatic transfer switch, so I have my refrigerator, freezer, well pump (240V) and furnace all powered through them, so that they keep running when the power goes out. Because they are all intermittent loads, these two batteries can keep required things running through the night, so that I don't need to run generators over night. The other nice thing with this setup, is that in the summertime, it can probably run the refrigerator and freezer for a few days; longer if I add batteries. I also have transfer switches set up that I can power the entire house with the inverters to, so that I have lights (I run CFL's which use very little power).

For an extended outage, I can run the generator intermittently through the inverters to charge the batteries and run the house.

 

[jenkinsph]

I woulld point out that the Honda inverter gensets are quiet enough to run all night without being a problem. Next, the small Honda gensets have tiny gas tanks, a way around running out of gas is to buy a separate fuel cap and mount an outboard motor fuel connector to it so that you can use a 6 gallon portable tank with the generator. As the generator draws the fuel out of the built in tank it will siphon fuel from the auxillary tank which is the extended vent. Works like a charm and eliminates pouring and refilling hot gensets.

 

[dex3361]

Most of the US is in a deep freeze and it has been fairly cold here as well the temp the other morning was 8ｺF degrees and just for peace of mind I went out and tried to start the Chinese Yanmar clone genset. I hit the glowplugs for 20 seconds and turned it over and it fired right off. It run rough for about 30 seconds and then smoothed out. It has passed every test so far with flying colors.

 

[KeithT]

Sounds like a good unit. 8 degrees is a good starting test.

 

[dex3361]

I started my L4400 at the same time and the started about the same I didnt have the block heater plugged in either. Its supposed to get below 0ｺ this weekend around here so I will give it a shot again. I put 5W-40 Rotella Synthetic oil in the Genset after the 20 hour break in period.

 

[dex3361]

I think I have single handedly changed the weather patterns for my area of WV. Though we have had a few medium snows in our area we have not lost power 1 single time since I bought and broke in the diesel generator. All the ares around us have been hit by record breaking snows with extensive power outages but not me. Al Gore will be after me now for altering the weather with micro global (globelet) warming. Is any body interested in a weather changing diesel generator?:laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[jas67]

Same here. I bought a generator during an ice storm two years ago, and have since upgraded to a diesel unit. We haven't had a power outage longer than a few minutes since.

 

[RalphVa]

I'm considering upgrading to a diesel unit for several reasons: 1) takes some cranking to start even though I run the carb empty after every run; 2) have to store volatile backup fuel; 3) need a bit bigger unit to put my well pump on without having to take everything else off line. This house once had a propane generator, but the seller took the generator with him but left the tanks and lines. I tore the lines out and had the tanks taken away. I worked with propane for 31 years and know it to be a very dangerous fluid (as is gasoline with its butane for starting). Natural gas would be great, but there's no line out here.

Has anyone used the 7000 watt diesel generators that Home Depot has for $1500? This is about the size to replace my 4400 watt gas unit. The gas unit uses 1/2 gallon/hr, and diesel will provide 50% less fuel consumption than a carbed gas engine. So, this 7000 watt unit would use about the same amount of fuel at full capacity.

Ralph