which portable generators do people have

ning · Oct 30, 2017

A couple years back just before a "storm of the century" (we were supposed to get a ton of rain - ton for this area not Houston mind you) I bought a Generac GP3300. I think over the next few days we got half an inch of rain...

More recently, though, we had a wildfire right next door and had to evacuate; the fire was cause by a power line failure in high winds, and so obviously we had no power. 36 hours after evac I went back and fired up the generator (it had been stored with stabilized fuel) to cool the fridge & freezer (and then left, as we were still under mandatory evacuation; waved at the firefighters as they drove by).

It fired right up, very nice. Unfortunately, one of the fridges starting kept popping the generator's breaker; I finally got it to run and it cooled everything off well. It didn't seem to mind the well pump or the deep freeze.

Yesterday I tried to use the generator to run a saw where I was doing some work (wife wants a dock for the pond), and the generator adamantly refused to run the saw. I did some reading and apparently you need to rate your generator for about 4x the amps for starting? idk, the 15A breaker in my garage doesn't pop when I run the saw.

So, I'm going to sell the unit. Anyone want a barely-used generator? I guess I need to determine the actual starting watts/amps required to run my stuff... I liked the idea of the 3300W because of fuel efficiency, it seems silly having a 7KW generator to run a couple things just because you need a lot to start, but I guess it is what it is.

Sawyer Rob · Oct 30, 2017

Buy an "inverter" generator, it only runs at the "speed it needs to", to cover the load.

That way a bigger generator is still fuel efficient.

SR

ultrarunner · Oct 30, 2017

Oldpath05 said:
Will that Duromax Generator run the unnecessary appliances like a coffee maker, microwave, toaster oven? As of right now now I'm running my 15 year old Generac 7500/12000 surge watts, but it would never run those appliances for some reason. It seems to run the necessary stuff like a 220v water pump, fridge, freezer, lights, laptop and 47" TV. The biggest complaint is it's not quiet, that's why I'm thinking of upgrading.

So how come this is the only ONE realistic priced generator that's mention here with a link? The only other one mention here with the comparable wattage is Honda at a nickel under 4k, are you nuts, that's for people who dont mind buying $100.00 shirts and thinks that's a good deal, no Honda for me.

Guessing either voltage drop, starting surge or overloaded.

None of those mentioned should have much of a starting surge like a refrigerator, compressor, table saw...

A friend had similar problems trying to run his air compressor... he had a very long extension cord... when the air compressor was plugged into the generator without the cord it worked fine.

For him the solution was to buy longer air hose.

buickanddeere · Oct 30, 2017

ultrarunner said:
If you tie the two hots together how do you prevent 220v appliance problems?

I've done it during construction but only after disconnecting/eliminating 220v loads...

Prevents bogging the generator when the women turn on the electric stove or clothes dryer, no matter how many times you told them not to.

buickanddeere · Oct 30, 2017

ning said:
A couple years back just before a "storm of the century" (we were supposed to get a ton of rain - ton for this area not Houston mind you) I bought a Generac GP3300. I think over the next few days we got half an inch of rain...

More recently, though, we had a wildfire right next door and had to evacuate; the fire was cause by a power line failure in high winds, and so obviously we had no power. 36 hours after evac I went back and fired up the generator (it had been stored with stabilized fuel) to cool the fridge & freezer (and then left, as we were still under mandatory evacuation; waved at the firefighters as they drove by).

It fired right up, very nice. Unfortunately, one of the fridges starting kept popping the generator's breaker; I finally got it to run and it cooled everything off well. It didn't seem to mind the well pump or the deep freeze.

Yesterday I tried to use the generator to run a saw where I was doing some work (wife wants a dock for the pond), and the generator adamantly refused to run the saw. I did some reading and apparently you need to rate your generator for about 4x the amps for starting? idk, the 15A breaker in my garage doesn't pop when I run the saw.

So, I'm going to sell the unit. Anyone want a barely-used generator? I guess I need to determine the actual starting watts/amps required to run my stuff... I liked the idea of the 3300W because of fuel efficiency, it seems silly having a 7KW generator to run a couple things just because you need a lot to start, but I guess it is what it is.

The 15 amp breaker has about 100 amps of capacity and the utility behind it thousands of amps for the two seconds it requires to supply the inrush current for motor starting. Reciprocating HVAC units, fridges freezers and air compressors are noted for high starting current over long durations.
This is why we keep telling people to size the generator for starting capacity , not running capacity . A semi truck has that 500HP engine for accelerating from a dead stop to highway speed even though 100HP will roll the rig at 55mph on level ground .
Problem is no matter how many times the info is posted here and elsewhere . with generators the average purchaser is a cheapskate and thinks that a 3500 watt generator is plenty for a 3450watt load .

Brad_Blazer · Oct 30, 2017

buickanddeere said:
Prevents bogging the generator when the women turn on the electric stove or clothes dryer, no matter how many times you told them not to.

It should be pretty easy to shut off all of the 220 circuits at the breakers.

Soldier415 · Oct 30, 2017

AFter last nights storm i've been on generator power since I woke up. Champion dual fuel 8kw generator does well powering the house

KubotainNH · Oct 30, 2017

Your generator has it's own tent, nice! I lost power around midnight and fired up my gen around 8:30am. We got power back around 1pm so not too bad. My 3.3kw 110v inverter gen ran 2 fridges, a freezer, my oil fired water heater and lights at a fast idle once everything started. I started them one at a time using my transfer switch. My wife also used the toaster with no issues. One year we cooked all of Thanksgiving dinner using the microwave and I think a griddle while being powered with this smallish generator. Seems odd to me that the big generac couldn't do it. When I had a 4000xl Generac I made sure I could monitor the RPM's with a similar unit as below, you need to keep it at 3600rpm to get a constant 60hz.

This is one of the reasons I went inverter. Sipping fuel and being quieter than the guy's up the street is also up there in reasons.

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