which portable generators do people have

[ultrarunner]

Split or tri-level home... supply ducts in downstair's rumpus room and the entire top floor.

One return air off the living room... now that you mention it... they did keep the door to the ground level rumpus room closed and locked.

Never hear the word rumpus room anymore but it was a "Thing" back in the 50's with the county tax assessor... basically a rumpus room was valued at 3/4 of regular living space since it was on grade with slab floor.

 

[3930dave]

Fake chimney means just that. We have a ventless propane logs set up.

Rams

10-4.

Didn't know what's common down your way; direct-vent is easy and cheap to install - surprisingly so, if you've never seen one....

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

i get a kick out of people saying that only an inverter generator is safe for electronics. or a 4 cycle engine is only good for 1,000 hours. ive been working on 10 year old generators with 4,000+ hours on them and there still running strong. Ive been working on NON inverter generators that power cell phone towers without any issues. you dont get any more electronics than the junk inside those towers.

any generator will last with proper maintenance. what i see is most people never maintain their generators. i had my old generator for 19 years, and i purchased it used. i changed oil every year whether it was used or not, and i kept a block heater and battery charger on it. always started when needed.

where i also see issues are on the HF generators. ive placed meters on these units and see alot of frequency issues in these units. during our last wind storms, i had a customer fry their fridge and tv from a predator generator they had just purchased. one outlet was showing 170+ volts and the other was in the 70v range. harbor freight only offered an exchange. im not sure what they are doing about the appliance losses.

i have a real old Coleman 3500 watt generator that has finally given up the ghost. im not even sure how old it is, as i bought it at auction over 20 years ago. I replaced it with a briggs and stratton 5,000/6,500 watt semi portable generator (its portable if your Arnold Schwarzenegger). this unit fires up with only a few tugs of the cord. runs strong. i only use non ethanol fuel.

 

[LittleBill21]

i get a kick out of people saying that only an inverter generator is safe for electronics. or a 4 cycle engine is only good for 1,000 hours. ive been working on 10 year old generators with 4,000+ hours on them and there still running strong. Ive been working on NON inverter generators that power cell phone towers without any issues. you dont get any more electronics than the junk inside those towers.

i will say that alot of stuff if not designed to be used on generator has issues with non inverter generators and the reason is due to frequency hold. my cheap ups require +/- .5 hz. none of my non inverter generators will hold that tight, usually 1-2 hz.

are u saying that the telco's run straight off ac? i was allways under the impression they used dc48v to power everything and ac was just used for charging/converting.

 

[RSKY]

i get a kick out of people saying that only an inverter generator is safe for electronics. or a 4 cycle engine is only good for 1,000 hours. ive been working on 10 year old generators with 4,000+ hours on them and there still running strong. Ive been working on NON inverter generators that power cell phone towers without any issues. you dont get any more electronics than the junk inside those towers.

any generator will last with proper maintenance. what i see is most people never maintain their generators. i had my old generator for 19 years, and i purchased it used. i changed oil every year whether it was used or not, and i kept a block heater and battery charger on it. always started when needed.

where i also see issues are on the HF generators. ive placed meters on these units and see alot of frequency issues in these units. during our last wind storms, i had a customer fry their fridge and tv from a predator generator they had just purchased. one outlet was showing 170+ volts and the other was in the 70v range. harbor freight only offered an exchange. im not sure what they are doing about the appliance losses.

i have a real old Coleman 3500 watt generator that has finally given up the ghost. im not even sure how old it is, as i bought it at auction over 20 years ago. I replaced it with a briggs and stratton 5,000/6,500 watt semi portable generator (its portable if your Arnold Schwarzenegger). this unit fires up with only a few tugs of the cord. runs strong. i only use non ethanol fuel.

Your last sentence is the most important in your post. I have ruined a generator by leaving ethanol gas in it. Ruined a chainsaw by leaving ethanol gas/oil mix in it. If it is going to be used up immediately then ethanol gas is okay. If the generator/chainsaw/lawnmower/whatever is going to be sitting for a month or six then don't leave ethanol gas in the tank.

Also if something is going to be sitting for a while I always put in the highest weight oil recommended. It will stick to the cylinder walls/bearings etc. better than the multi-viscosity oils. Or so I have been told.

RSKY

 

[grsthegreat]

i will say that alot of stuff if not designed to be used on generator has issues with non inverter generators and the reason is due to frequency hold. my cheap ups require +/- .5 hz. none of my non inverter generators will hold that tight, usually 1-2 hz.

are u saying that the telco's run straight off ac? i was allways under the impression they used dc48v to power everything and ac was just used for charging/converting.

ive seen generators just linked directly into their line side. Not sure what all that junk inside the buildings do. I dont do that kind of electrical work. They may have some kind of conversion going on. Ive had generators powering up my computers, high tech appliances fir years, and have never had an issue. But last year i finally added a ups to my computer when costco had a sale on them.

 

[90cummins]

As RSKY mentioned you need to check voltage & HZ on a regular basis to verify it is within permissible range.
My Generac XL 4000 had significant voltage drop at 3500 watts and it was rated a 4kw’s.
A kilawatt meter is essential to verify voltage, hz and load.
90cummins

 

[frugalangler]

i get a kick out of people saying that only an inverter generator is safe for electronics. or a 4 cycle engine is only good for 1,000 hours. ive been working on 10 year old generators with 4,000+ hours on them and there still running strong. Ive been working on NON inverter generators that power cell phone towers without any issues. you dont get any more electronics than the junk inside those towers.

the cell tower generators work because the cell equipment runs off of either 24DC or 48DC, and the generator just powers the chargers for the battery banks

 

[LouNY]

a generator should provide cleaner sine wave power then an inverter, every inverter out there is producing square wave power some may modify it by using multiple square waves to get closer to a sine wave
but it's still square wave power, some of the better ones will get close to a true sine wave. Put an oscilloscope on them and check as well as a frequency meter and an RMS voltmeter.

 

[KubotainNH]

As RSKY mentioned you need to check voltage & HZ on a regular basis to verify it is within permissible range.
My Generac XL 4000 had significant voltage drop at 3500 watts and it was rated a 4kw’s.
A kilawatt meter is essential to verify voltage, hz and load.
90cummins

I also had one of those, supposed to be the quiet unit. Not so much but I guess quieter than some. I put an hour/rpm meter on it to make sure it stayed at the proper RPM to give the correct frequency. Not an concern with my current inverter gen which I've used a bunch of times with no issues. What pushed me to the rpm meter was my friend's XL4000 burnt out his well pump. I suppose it could have been a coincidence but better safe than sorry.