Your last generator Maintenance Run

[Gale Hawkins]

Hey having AC with ear plug usage is better than no AC.

Running and loading the generator is something I overlook on a regular schedule. Recently it hit me all I have to do is to charge the EV from time to time using the generator. We hope to have it back on the road soon. After 5 months of dealing with blood clots we just took it and the donor Leaf to the body shop.

 

[grsthegreat]

Ready for more generator maintenance now... just got my new shipment of oil filters, air filters and spark plugs. Should last me a while. Starting to look like an auto parts store.

 

[3930dave]

Honeywell should come up with a quieter muffler and package it as some luxury option and charge a hundred bucks for it.
I'd pay...this gen compared to my old inverter gen is a roaring racket maker.

I've often thought the same.... but modern marketing and regs often are a barrier. Changes in exhaust may alter engine hp.... may be a can 'o worms at the factory level re. certifications.

I'd probably keep an IR Temperature gun handy when doing mods.... baseline the OE case temps at 3/4 load, before starting changes. It would be good to track EGT too, but that would be more likely thermocouple territory than a low-cost IR gun.

If OE exhaust cans aren't big money, I'd be tempted to buy one, gut it, and weld on something like a 2" pipe flange. If playtime doesn't work out (or you want to sell it/give it away), then just bolt the original back on....

Cruise the net..... people have used car mufflers apparently successfully. One of the cleanest builds I've seen was an OE take-off muffler from a Japanese supersport bike. IIRC, the guy actually did the volumetric calculations b4 wrenching, deciding it was reasonable to proceed. If your gen ever sees something approaching a supersport's redline...... the noise problem will be more like broken rod related !

Other than $ efficient, the thing I like with the above build was that he built a tripod, and fired the exhaust vertically. Cleaner than a car-muffler horizontal on/near the ground, and arguably safer...

As Honda and Yamaha have demonstrated, a quiet exhaust doesn't preclude making power..... it's just that it's usually easier/cheaper/lighter/smaller to use a loud exhaust....

But, I concur, loud beats No Power.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

A couple weeks ago, my power was out for most of a day... After a while I started my little Honda 2000 and plugged a few things into it, letting it run for the day.

Turns out the yuppie that bought some land down the road from me, hit a pole while putting in a new driveway for his coming "mc-mansion" and broke it off... Of course, he proclaimed it all happened because the pole was "rotten", not because he hit it with a dozer! ha ha ha

BTW, the power company guy told me, I'm not buying that story... lol

SO, another corn field turned into a lawn....why can't the townies just stay in town!!

SR

Helpful neighbour !

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Hey having AC with ear plug usage is better than no AC.

Running and loading the generator is something I overlook on a regular schedule. Recently it hit me all I have to do is to charge the EV from time to time using the generator. We hope to have it back on the road soon. After 5 months of dealing with blood clots we just took it and the donor Leaf to the body shop.

I know I'm more likely to do a run, if I've actually got something useful for the gen to do....

IIRC, your line power is pretty reliable, but that might be a good exercise to do, before you have to because the line is staying down....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Ready for more generator maintenance now... just got my new shipment of oil filters, air filters and spark plugs. Should last me a while. Starting to look like an auto parts store.

I thought you were retiring ?

(, I know you are picking/choosing these days.... nice place to be).

I tend to stock up, but that's more about being a packrat.... at least you are making $ with that stash .

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

Im retired from electrical , but still servicing generators.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I know I'm more likely to do a run, if I've actually got something useful for the gen to do....

IIRC, your line power is pretty reliable, but that might be a good exercise to do, before you have to because the line is staying down....

Rgds, D.

I lucked out (no fore sight involved just out of college and it was a 38 year old house on 2 acres on a gravel road for $8K) that the place was near the end of a 3 phase line that feeds 3 large single phase grids. In the 2009 ice storm our power was out 66 hours while family and friends outages were 2-3 weeks.

The generator is only 12 feet from the EV and the draw is 26 amps max.

 

[check]

some big tree must have gone down, enough for 163 PECO customers to be out yesterday afternoon, nice that I can track it on map.
They came back on about ten minutes before estimated fix time, about three hours total.

fired up the gen, flipped the breaker for the electric hot water heater, and then threw the interlock breaker.
Handled my two ton a/c easily but geez is it noisy. I need to go back and read about some of the noise attenuating fixes you guys have done, there's lots
of examples on this site. Going to check the oil today but I doubt it used anything on its first run after changing to synthetic oil.
But shame on me if I don't check...

Had something silly happen during this, could not figure out why kitchen appliances wouldn't work whether on gen or utility power.
Light bulb went on, pun intended, and I checked the kitchen gfi's, both were tripped I guess from the surges.

Honeywell should come up with a quieter muffler and package it as some luxury option and charge a hundred bucks for it.
I'd pay...this gen compared to my old inverter gen is a roaring racket maker.

Honeywell? I thought it was a Westinghouse, like mine.

 

[daugen]

Honeywell? I thought it was a Westinghouse, like mine.

oh my, of course, wonder how that happened. I was fiddling with my Honeywell thermostat earlier...
Westinghouse.

WGen9500DF​