Please post your generator choice and experiences

[General Lee]

There has been some talk lately about generators and I know there is previous threads on them but that is a lot of reading. What I would like to do is consolidate a lot of it in one thread. I am asking if every can post their PORTABLE generator of choice if they were to purchase one today AND anyone that has a good proven one over the years.

I am researching to buy one very soon and I am over whelmed on which way to go. I have a 100 gallon LP tank for kitchen stove only. I like the idea of a standby unit but don't want to add another LP tank and I really don't want to spend 5-6 grand.

I don't need to run the whole house at once but the biggest thing I would want to run is my 3 ton AC unit. I'm looking at a generator in the 10-12,000 watt range. Also don't want a PTO genny because I may need my tractor in certain disasters.

I thought Generac was pretty decent but have been learning a bit otherwise. I have been getting by on my little 5500W Briggs & Stratton but want some more flexibility not worrying about running larger items. Winter time is easy getting by with 5500W but not summer time outages.

 

[joshuabardwell]

If money was no object, I would absolutely buy a Honda i series. Hands-down, Honda makes the smoothest, quietest, most reliable generator motors in the business. The i series (inverter) are much more efficient, and even quieter, than conventional generators. However, you pay a LOT for that. A Honda generator can easily run you 3-5x the cost of a comparable non-Honda generator. The Honda i series maxes out at 6500 watts, so that's out for you. A conventional Honda portable generator can be had up to 10,000 watts, which retails for around $5k, which is how much you said you don't want to spend.

So, to heck with Honda. Frankly, I think if you're buying in the 10kW range, you're unlikely to go too far wrong. It's not like you're going to be buying some $200 POS that is just intended to get off the shelf and then break a few years later. Get something with a motor you trust (Briggs, perhaps) and call it done. You can pretty much have your pick of 10kW generators for about $1000, and if it breaks, just buy another one and still be ahead of the Honda. Heck, you could buy five of them!

IMO, you should seriously consider buying used. There are lots of used generators out there that have hardly been run, although they tend to be more in a lower range than you are shopping for. Nevertheless, used generators are typically 50% to 75% of the cost of new ones. And the 10kW generators often will have an hour meter, so you can tell how used they are.

 

[General Lee]

I did find this one w/ a Honda motor, but with that wattage at that price makes me go Hmmmmmm, chinese knock off maybe?

http://www.generatorsales.com/order/H11000E3.asp?page=H11000E3

 

[YesDeere]

I'm gonna kill 2 birds with one stone. Millermatic welder. 10kw. Burn metal and run the well pump and window rattler. I got by this time with a 5kw Honda. Borrowed from work. Eb 5000. Ran from Saturday to thursday. Excellent machine. Burns about 10 gallons in 24 hrs.

 

[aczlan]

I would look for a MEP-002A or MEP-003A. The MEP-002A is rated to put out 5kw 24x7 at 6000 feet and 130F ambient temperature (civilian version is rated at ~7KW) while the MEP-003A is rated to put out 10kw 24x7 at 6000 feet and 130F ambient temperature (civilian version is rated at ~14KW)
See: http://www.canadianmilitarypattern.com/Resources/Practical Back.pdf for a primer on the MEP gensets.

Aaron Z

 

[Lava Rancher]

My off-grid backup is a kohler 12 RES. Wotks fine and is fairly quiet. It isn't really portable and shoupd be built in.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I've owned 4 generators in my life...
The first one was a Yamaha that burned up in 5 days of used after hurricane Hugo...
The dealer did give me a refund because he was out of units at the time...
My 2nd unit was a Miller welder combo unit that I sold later...
It worked really well and I would highly recommend that unit...
My last two units have been Northern Tool units that have performed well...
The biggest issue I have with any generator is making sure that the darn thing will crank when needed...
I normally try to start mine up every month or two and keep stabil in the gas tank...

 

[Baby Grand]

I have a Miller Trailblazer welder/generator that served us well during 5 days without power last August and again, for six days in October.

It guzzles gas, it's heavy, it's expensive & it's noisy - that's the bad part.

The good part is - it's a welder! Since I use it fairly frequently to weld, I know the gas is always fresh and the battery is charged, so it will start. It's a very nice welder, BTW. Another plus is that since I have a tractor I can move it anywhere on my property that I can take the tractor and have 120/240V power, so I'm not limited by extension cord length if I want to work in the woods. Since it's heavy, it's a lot more difficult for thieves to boost in a hurry. It produces high quality 10k power.

-Jim

 

[savageactor7]

We had our Generac 7k for over 5 years and have no problems...got it form a local dealer NOT a BB store.

For years we debated about what kind of gen to get and how to store fuel and remained deadlocked. The deciding moment arrived when we upgraded our propane tank to 250gal. Luckily I happened to arrive on a 4 day pass as the tank was being put in and the propane guy say with this tank I should get a generator ...it would run for a week or more.

He also advised getting the smallest gen possible for our use, that way the fuel last longer. It comes on automatically for a weekly test has dedicated circuits that it powers and it is very quiet. In an emergency you don't continue to live large...you hunker down and be grateful for running water and internet.

My only regret is not doing this 20 years ago or so. You don't want to out scrambling for fuel amongst other desperate folks in a weather or civil emergency. I highly recommend a Generac from an authorized dealer.

 

[N8ghz]

In my opinion, it's hard to beat an ONAN. There are quite a few floating around for sale. I have 2 that are from the 70's/80's motorhomes, that are still going strong. One of those is a 4kw CCK, and the other is an NH,which is 6.5kw.

My bucket truck also has an ONAN 4.5kw on it. And then there's my Miller Legend gas-drive welder, which is also a 5.5kw generator, also powered by an ONAN.

My biggest generator is a very old Pincor, powered by a 4-cylinder Wisconsin. It is on a trailer and is 15kw

 

[Mike_Kanzer]

We have a Generac 20kW backup generator with a buried 500gal LP tank and have been very happy with it. Have had it for 3 years. Last year it ran for 3 days straight without any problems. We power the house, AC and barn with it. I have a service contract with the installer so every year it gets a once over including oil change. So far no problems!

 

[riptides]

I have two. I'll add a thumbs up for my Honda e3000c, which sat for two years, with gas, and was fired up on the first pull this past week. I powered one fridge and two freezers for a few hours until the electricity came back on.

It's small, quiet and comes in at 67 pounds. Specs on the internet. The only reason for the shout out is my neglect in proper storage of the machine.

 

[joshuabardwell]

The biggest issue I have with any generator is making sure that the darn thing will crank when needed...
I normally try to start mine up every month or two and keep stabil in the gas tank...

Stabil or no, I would never keep ethanol gas stored in a machine's carburetor. Tank, yes. Carb no. I always cut the fuel supply and let it run dry before storing them. I have lost two carburetors to ethanol gas, and it's not going to happen again.

 

[vwgtiman]

A Lister Petter or another better built 1800 rpm diesel engine powered 4 pole 100% duty cycle head. It will be heavy but you can make it mobile if its on a cart or trailer. It will sip fuel compared to any 3600 rpm unit and in times of need.... I know I can get heating oil. Gasoline may be harder to find. I have a 500 gallon tank under my porch and a 275 gallon tank in the garage.

 

[aczlan]

Might be worth looking at a trailer mounted MEP-002A (5KW, ~7KW surge) or MEP-003A (10KW, ~14KW surge) and adding an secondary tank. They are rated to put out 5KW or 10KW 24x7 at something like 6000 feet and 130F ambient temperature...
They are also setup so that they will automatically keep the daytank on the generator full by filling from an axillary tank (such as a 55 gallon drum).
They can be had directly from Government Liquidation for under $2000 or from private sellers who have tested them for $3000-$5000. One example is: LIBBY MEP-003A GENERATOR DIESEL 10KW WITH TRAILER WORKS GREAT 1 OR 3 PHASE | eBay
Others have bought one of those gensets and mounted it to a cheapie HF trailer...


Aaron Z

 

[tornadowatchranch]

i have a 15000 watt generac that I got from Norwall.com Ihave only hooked it up to the house to make sure it works and start it (without fail) every month or two. i have used it for welding at the back of the property. I just had to take the welder. I permanantly mounted it on a cheapo harbor freight trailer. I found this option cheaper and more versatile than a permanent stand alone generator. I put in a whole house transfer switch. I have had it for 5 years and now since purchasing have not had the power off long enough to warrant using it.

Good luck but I found norwall wonderful to deal with

 

[joshuabardwell]

A Lister Petter or another better built 1800 rpm diesel engine powered 4 pole 100% duty cycle head. It will be heavy but you can make it mobile if its on a cart or trailer. It will sip fuel compared to any 3600 rpm unit and in times of need.... I know I can get heating oil. Gasoline may be harder to find. I have a 500 gallon tank under my porch and a 275 gallon tank in the garage.

For most people, I don't think diesel generators make sense. Here's why. It's true that diesel generators are more reliable and fuel-efficient than gas generators. Because they run at lower RPMs, they are usually also quieter. But they're typically around double the cost of a gas generator for the same wattage.

I don't think that the average generator user is going to put enough hours on the generator to make up the difference in fuel cost. If you're running the generator day in and day out at a work site, that's one thing. But if you pull out the generator a few days a year when there is a power outage, or you go RV'ing somewhere, it's going to take longer than many people are likely to own the generator to make your money back in fuel--especially now that diesel is pretty comparably priced to gasoline. If you have a source of alternate fuel, such as off-road diesel, or better yet, waste vegetable oil or biofuel that you refine yourself from e.g. sunflowers (yes, people do this), that's another story. But if you're buying fuel at the pump and not using the genny pretty much on a daily basis, the fuel efficiency doesn't seem like it matters.

Diesel generators seem to use roughly half the fuel of gas generators, for a given wattage output, and are roughly twice as expensive. Consider a 7000 watt generator. You can get that for around $700 in gasoline, or around $1400 in diesel. Say that gasoline and diesel are priced the same, at about $3.50 per gallon, which is the case at gas stations around me. You need to make up $700 in gas to break even. For every hour you run the generator, you make up $3.50 * 50% fuel usage = $1.75 with the diesel generator. $700 / $1.75 = 400 hours you have to run the generator before you break even on the diesel. That doesn't sound like a lot of hours, but if your generator is intended for emergency usage, you're going to put, what, maybe 50 hours a year on it? So you'll break even in eight years.

The more expensive diesel and gasoline get, the lower the break-even becomes, so that may factor in. But if diesel gets more expensive than gasoline, as it was up until recently, the break-even gets longer. I'm not saying it's cut-and-dried either way, but you should at least do the math before you shell out for diesel.

 

[robs660]

I put 2500 hours on a home depot "porter cable" 5500 wart unit before selling it. Never failed to start on first pull even after sitting. Think I got lucky with that one. I now have a generacl 12k that I bought direct from them. Runs great and doesn't burn much fuel. It is a little loud but a little noise is ok when you have light.

 

[aczlan]

For most people, I don't think diesel generators make sense. Here's why. It's true that diesel generators are more reliable and fuel-efficient than gas generators. Because they run at lower RPMs, they are usually also quieter. But they're typically around double the cost of a gas generator for the same wattage.

Another thing to consider is what you have for fuel storage, we heat with oil and have diesel on hand for the tractors, so a diesel generator works for us as we have a weeks worth of diesel on hand most of the time.

Aaron Z

 

[s219]

For large whole-house generators, I haven't seen cases where the gasoline options were even that prevalent. It's generally propane/NG or diesel for the big water-cooled units.

When comparing gasoline and diesel fuel costs, make sure to figure that most people running a whole-house generator are buying off-road diesel (no road tax) and storing it bulk.