Upgrading generator, need info

[Larry Caldwell]

I run the big genset while taking showers, cooking and so forth.
Troy-bilt 7550 takes 7.5 gallons for 10 hours, Champion takes 1.0 gallons for 10 hours.

Greg H

Ditto. For me, the upgrade was a smaller genset that would run for hours on a gallon of fuel. It's also the generator I take camping in remote areas, if I have to recharge the travel trailer batteries.

[Larry Caldwell]

OP here. To clarify, I already have a Porter Cable generator which has a Briggs engine. Imagine running a car with no muffler--it's almost that loud.

I have a similar problem. The genset didn't ship with a muffler at all, just a spark arrestor. Being anywhere within 100' of the thing would give you a headache, it was so loud. I went to the hardware store and bought a lawnmower muffler, which quieted it right down. It's about the same amount of noise you get from a riding mower now. I mounted the transfer switch hookup on the other side of the garage from the house, so it's not a big problem.

We don't run it much anyway, just when heating a tank of hot water or running the well pump. The rest of the time a little 1000 watt camp generator provides plenty of plenty of power, and even that gets shut off except about 4 hours a day. We have wood heat and gravity feed water, so don't need electricity. My mother has a furnace, so we set her up with a small genset just big enough to run the furnace and an electric hot plate, coffee maker or microwave. It's all she wanted.