Your last generator Maintenance Run

[daugen]

Well, I didn’t know it was a “dumb“ charger, meaning that it could possibly overcharge the battery? let’s check out what the owners manual says, and then if needed I will use one of my smart chargers.

check, I'm guessing it's "dumb", meaning at best it turns off when fully charged, no extra features. For sure better charged with anything than nothing...
the real question to me is do they say you can leave it plugged in all the time?

 

[check]

check, I'm guessing it's "dumb", meaning at best it turns off when fully charged, no extra features. For sure better charged with anything than nothing...
the real question to me is do they say you can leave it plugged in all the time?

I agree. We’ll have to dig out the manual and have a look.

By the way, it was a real pain to take the battery out to bring it in for the winter. Had to take one of the wheels off!

 

[grsthegreat]

As i recall, there designed to stay plugged in. I know the small wall wort charger that came with my new cyclone rake says it is a battery maintainer, shuts off after battery is fully charged.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I honestly don't know if my gen charges the battery when it's running. One would ass-ume so.
But I don't care, I put my smart charger on it at least three times a year and make sure it's fully charged, desulphated, etc.
Smart chargers are the best; that little black box can't have one quarter the brains my Nuco charger has.

Older lady friend bought a dual fuel gen like mine, I think a Wen, on my recommendation and my house present next time is a
little 1amp Nuco genius charger. She can't hand start that big engine, no way. That battery has to work.

I believe the manual says it charges battery while running.
I got mine today, as noted in a couple other threads, but disappointed to find <23% THD, which is awful, not something you want anything electronic on.

 

[LittleBill21]

I believe the manual says it charges battery while running.
I got mine today, as noted in a couple other threads, but disappointed to find <23% THD, which is awful, not something you want anything electronic on.

the 7k from harbor has the same rating. i also have a cheaper crappier unit. i ran for years, i assume thd was even higher. never destroyed a thing....

 

[daugen]

I believe the manual says it charges battery while running.
I got mine today, as noted in a couple other threads, but disappointed to find <23% THD, which is awful, not something you want anything electronic on.

pretty choppy waveform with all that thd...does a good UPS on your computer help here? can it clean up THD? or GIGO?
I only know enough to be dangerous here...

 

[Patrick Herd]

pretty choppy waveform with all that thd...does a good UPS on your computer help here? can it clean up THD? or GIGO?
I only know enough to be dangerous here...

You need a Double Conversion UPS for getting rid of crunchy AC like that.

 

[Diggin It]

Starting a two hour manual forced run.

 

[3930dave]

Starting a two hour manual forced run.

Definitely burned-off any condensation today, with that run !

Rgds, D.

 

[Williy]

In Italy I have seen the voltage go from 25 volts to over 400 volts. I watched the meter. Military site.
We had to use the big diesel generator the receivers would have been fried

willy

 

[3930dave]

In Italy I have seen the voltage go from 25 volts to oner 400 volts

willy

25 or 250 volts ?

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

now I'm curious, what voltage range do you get with three phase power brought into say a small factory. 480V?

grid is quivering from over use here, voltage is down, every a/c unit ever made is likely running, almost 100 out right now.

another curious question, what electronic parts fail first when exposed to double normal voltage? Rectifiers? In a surge protector it's a MOV, a varistor dies for our sins.
but if no surge protector, what gives out first? As an old Heathkit builder, I wonder, a resistor, a capacitor? or with IC's, is it some new weakness?

 

[grsthegreat]

Fema alert. Tennis ball thru golf ball sized hail, expect up to 1-1/2” of rain, up to 70 miles per hour wind heading into my area next 30-60 minutes. Crap.

 

[ultrarunner]

Lethal and devastating at the same time…

 

[3930dave]

Fema alert. Tennis ball thru golf ball sized hail, expect up to 1-1/2” of rain, up to 70 miles per hour wind heading into my area next 30-60 minutes. Crap.

How did you come thru that ? Much damage ?

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

The storm split and went around us… thank goodness. Others not so lucky. Lots of tree damage, destroyed cars, houses and roofs destroyed. Power outages all over. Not 10 miles away there were 70 mph winds and hail. We had a breeze. Very odd.

 

[ultrarunner]

Those cells very unpredictable...

Have you experienced hail caused generator service calls?

I've seen cars where every inch looks like a baseball bat beat it.

My only hail experience was when Oakland had so much it turned white just like snow... people could not navigate driveways and school buses couldn't make it up to the high school because of the several inches blanketing the ground.

In Austria I have one skylight in the loft and it tips for cleaning and also has a retractable hail screen... first ice heard of such a thing... locals said very important...

 

[3930dave]

The storm split and went around us… thank goodness. Others not so lucky. Lots of tree damage, destroyed cars, houses and roofs destroyed. Power outages all over. Not 10 miles away there were 70 mph winds and hail. We had a breeze. Very odd.

Lady Luck smiled on you

I've commuted primarily North/South for decades.... always amazed me how much variation in even normal weather happens over short distances.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I've seen cars where every inch looks like a baseball bat beat it.

In Austria I have one skylight in the loft and it tips for cleaning and also has a retractable hail screen... first ice heard of such a thing... locals said very important...

I've seen one car here that bad.... pretty startling the first time you see it, partly because the dents are fairly uniform.....

Left-Coast and anything frozen H2O related.... you don't want to be in Vancouver when it snows......

Not surprised to hear about that in Austria..... Ounce of Prevention.... but hadn't heard of that being done either......

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

We dont have much in the way of hail damage up where i live. This is a rare event for us. Never bern on a hail damaged generator service before.