Generator Selection?

[Diggin It]

I ain't leaving my tractor running for days at a time. That's why they make purpose built standby generators. PTO generator might be fine for powering tools out in the woods for a few hours, but they will not provide the quality of power needed for today's appliances and electronics.

 

[LouNY]

I ain't leaving my tractor running for days at a time. That's why they make purpose built standby generators. PTO generator might be fine for powering tools out in the woods for a few hours, but they will not provide the quality of power needed for today's appliances and electronics.

Were do you come up with that idea,
a pto generator can quite easily provide the quality power for any electronics.
I have had a couple of portable 3600 rpm units but I have primarily used pto generators since my father got one in the early 60's.
None of those had any difficulty providing quality power for anything.
My current generator is well over 20 years old and has had a lot of hours put on it, with several multiple day outages.
I've had tractors gell up while running on it and plug filters but that has been all the issues I've had with it.

 

[PILOON]

How so? Its the original charger built into the unit that came with it new..Tell me how to change that I am all ears

Purchase a small 'intelligent' 1/2 amp charger (in the $20-30 range) and simply hook it up.
My genny is living that way, 6 yrs now, no problems.
Most 'intelligent' units will have 3 diodes indicating modes.

Beware of cheep 1-2 amp units as they are simply a transformer and one diode. They'll boil out any small battery in short time.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I ain't leaving my tractor running for days at a time. That's why they make purpose built standby generators. PTO generator might be fine for powering tools out in the woods for a few hours, but they will not provide the quality of power needed for today's appliances and electronics.

You obviously don't know what you are talking about...

My Winco pto generator runs everything in this house flawlessly, and that includes all the electronics... Running it for days, even weeks at a time is NO problem at all!

ooooh yeaaaa, according to the owners manual there's maintenance to do, I have to remember to change the rotor bearings on the generator head, when it reaches 80,000 hours!

SR

 

[PILOON]

Earlier someone mentioned valve adjustments.
A friend was given a Generac that shower 800 hrs of usage.
Had been used on construction sites. (LOL, and showed it)
It had 0 compression (I could spin with little finger).
Presumption was that connecting rod broke with piston stuck at top end.

Tore it down (always curious) only to find valve stems worn badly, re adjusted valves and she fired right up.
Still in use to this day.
Cylinder walls and rings were just like new!

 

[grsthegreat]

Model #0055040 serial #5505049.Thanks,Frank..

i had to do some digging on this charger. come to find out that the original part has been replaced with a newer part. its a battery maintainer. supposed to solve the battery overcharging issues from what i have been told.
Generac Battery Charger Kit A1278 12V/DC-2.5A – Ziller Electric

spotty info from Generac but on generator chat rooms there is agreement that the new chargers for older style generators have eliminated overcharging issues. not cheep though.but you dont have to run 120 out to generator

 

[coobie]

i had to do some digging on this charger. come to find out that the original part has been replaced with a newer part. its a battery maintainer. supposed to solve the battery overcharging issues from what i have been told.
Generac Battery Charger Kit A1278 12V/DC-2.5A – Ziller Electric

spotty info from Generac but on generator chat rooms there is agreement that the new chargers for older style generators have eliminated overcharging issues. not cheep though.but you dont have to run 120 out to generator

Thank you,I will look into it next week.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

That's a great score. But not for everyone. I like it when the power goes out. Gives me a chance to use all my resources, see what works and what doesn't. When the power comes back on again, I have usually had enough of playing around, managing loads and so forth. Big difference from a Turn-Key whole house system, but you put a lot of faith in that.

Also, I have siad it a million times before. Not knowing when the power will come back on is the worst part, you can't plan for. You wouldn't want your whole house 10KW or so, system running all night long, to power a fridge and freezer, if you thought maybe the power was going to be out for weeks and fuel delivery might be an issue.

I just kill the main breaker, fire up the genset, and try it out. Make sure the well pump will start when the water heater is on (it won't). Make sure the right outlets are energized (they weren't). Test voltage and frequency stability (OK within the limits of the genset).

It's easy to turn off the power and see what works and what doesn't.

 

[grsthegreat]

The owner of a well drilling company up here told me the best year he ever had up here was after the wind storms we had here around 2015 in november. over 3,500 downed power poles. Weeks without power. So many people ran undersized generators to power their wells, his company was working 7 days a week pulling well pumps and replacing them. He made a fortune. moral of this story.. dont cheap out on your generator. A $600 gen might cost you $4,000.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I have heard of too many winter time LP issues. Again, are you a hands on person? Are you going to go out there with a pan of hot water and try and get it running, or just put in a call for service?

Again, how long the power is going to be out is something that drives me crazy. A while back during the BIG ice storm, no one was repairing anything. It was later revealed that all the "HYDRO" guys had booked off hunting that week.

I would rather a little generator that can run for weeks (or longer) on a little Diesel, than a Big unit that will only run for a few days.

That's why I am so fond of my little camping generator. It runs 4.5 hours on a gallon of gas and is whisper quiet. The only critical loads are the freezer and refrigerator, the luxury loads are the router, satellite dish, and TV.

We have wood heat and gravity feed water, so the comfort level of the house doesn't change when the power goes out. We shut everything down when we go to bed, and only fire up the big generator when we want to take a shower. With select 19th century tech, a house only needs minimal electricity. An antique Aladdin complete with shade will light up the living room, and contributes a lot to heating the house. We can't leave flames unattended, so we have switched mostly to LED camp lamps. Alkaline batteries have a shelf life of years, so a battery shortage is not an issue.

Generator noise is obnoxious, so we minimize genset run time as much as possible. A couple hours a day on the generator is plenty. If there is a snow storm, a couple big ice chests on the deck keep any perishable foods cold, and only the freezer needs tending.

People who live in a miserable summer climate would make different choices. I live in a low humidity area, with 370 square feet of glass in a 1740 sq. ft. house. Half of that opens. Overnight temps typically drop about 30 degrees, and all that screened opening cools the house quickly. It's supposed to be 93 today, but at almost 2 PM the house is still at 70 degrees. The AC is set at 72.