which portable generators do people have

[tcreeley]

I had a Briggs + Stratton 5500W generator that was always reliable until it died 2 months ago. Used the 220 hookup to feed what I needed in the house- well pump, fridge, freezer, tel/internet, etc.
When It died I replaced it with a Troybilt 6500W that looked like my old B+S beefed up. Blew some lights when I started it. Came back 30 min later and it worked great on a test run. First power outage, only 120v lines worked. No 220v line - no water pump. 3.5 days no power from the road.
We just bought a Lifan 5500W generator. A bit smaller than the Troybilt. We'll see how that goes.
We lose power 4-5x a year. 1/2 day to 5 days.

 

[KubotainNH]

I liken fuel injection needing a high psi pump... which in a car is typically electric.

Wonder what powers the Honda 7000 injector pump?

They been adding it to snowmobiles, water craft and motorcycles for awhile now. All of those have smallish batteries. Seeing inverter gens make DC power then convert it I would assume all that is needed from the battery is to get it started.

From the Honda site "Smart electronic fuel injection technology increases fuel efficiency, eliminates the engine choke, and reduces fuel associated carburetor problems."

Some more interesting info from the manual is it adjusts it's ignition timing and has a catalytic converter. No wonder it's heavy.

 

[Garandman]

Tested the new Relisnce 40 foot cable today. Worked great.

The Briggs Q6500 was run for the five hour breakin and started first pull. It痴 pretty quiet: happy with this purchase.

This was the breakin run.

 

[two_bit_score]

Looks like a good generator.

 

[brokenknee]

OK, I know this is an old thread and there are many threads on portable generator on the site. I just didn't want to start another generator thread.

We lost power the other night and the temp was a minus 25 degrees. In our old place it was not an issue as we heated solely with wood heat. By the time the power came back on about 8 hours later the house had dropped to 54 degrees. Talked to a coworker that lives not far from me and he said power outages are a fairly common event.

Got me to thinking I should get my old generac 5500 (?) running, I haven't ran it in over ten years, so I know I will have to take the carb apart and clean it and maybe flash the generator.

Now my concern is when I purchased my generator about 20 years ago I did not need to worry about "clean" electric. I just started it up and plugged everything in and it worked.

Will my old generator SAFELY run my electronic equipment IE. high efficiency furnace, led TV, linear compressor fridge etc?

 

[buickanddeere]

Add up all the loads you plan on operating and the required size generator . Now double that number and that will be the actual real world wattage required .
Champion are as good as or better than any.
Use a property transfer switch , not a double male suicide cord.
Purchase enough power cable to allow moving the generator to the down wind side of the house . No use waking up dead after being gassed with exhaust fumes .

 

[thepumpguysc]

I purchased a NEW 10k watt DuroMax HYBRID/DUEL FUEL gen off an ebay website during Thanksgiving weekend.
I snagged it for 499.99 w/ free truck freight delivery.!!! UN-REAL!! its 1499.99 NOW.
I haven't even taken it out of the box yet tho.
I do run a 5250 PowerBack gen when the time comes.. w/ a 10hp Techum. engine & was looking for a larger one when I found the above.
The 5250 ran my whole house except the a/c.. to much starting load..

 

[brokenknee]

Add up all the loads you plan on operating and the required size generator . Now double that number and that will be the actual real world wattage required .
Champion are as good as or better than any.
Use a property transfer switch , not a double male suicide cord.
Purchase enough power cable to allow moving the generator to the down wind side of the house . No use waking up dead after being gassed with exhaust fumes .

I don't need to run everything, my current generator is large enough for what I need to run. My concern is will my old generator blow a circuit board on my furnace or fridge?
In MN I am more concerned about heat than cooling. I plan on putting in a wood stove, but that will come with a major remodel that is not going to happen for a couple of years yet.

 

[ultrarunner]

I few have used line conditioners or higher end UPS power supply for insurance.

I scored an old large Sine Wave UPS that was being tossed out... all it needed was new batteries...

It was for a $400,000 medical laser and the manufacturer simply sent a new one...

 

[brokenknee]

I few have used line conditioners or higher end UPS power supply for insurance.

I scored an old large Sine Wave UPS that was being tossed out... all it needed was new batteries...

It was for a $400,000 medical laser and the manufacturer simply sent a new one...

I have heard of UPS, however I am not sure how they work. Correct me if I am wrong, a UPS is just a battery back up that converts dc power back to ac? I would not think I would be able to run a refrigerator or furnace for very long if at all on battery power.

I did a quick google search and just like anything else the price was all over the place. Would I need a separate UPS for each item that I needed to run? Do you hard wire them in or do they just plug in to an outlet then you plug the appliance into the UPS?

If I needed to purchase more than one the cost would add up pretty quickly. It is something I need to check into more though.