Generators, sizes and fuel options?

[Straightgrain3016]

Are you keeping the battery on a trickle charger?

...and AGM Batteries seem to be the norm.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

For those of you that have 10k gasoline electric start generators, how trustworthy have your start battery been. My one year old 10k Generac gas generator gas a small 4× 5 x 2 inch lead acid battery, and once again today with temp at 18 deg F , that battery won't turn starter and needs a boost from a car battery. I am not impressed with battery they provide. Thinking I will leave spare car battery in house for winter months. Yes the little battery does work in summer maintenance tests. Anyone else ditch the little battery ? And sub with what ?

The little battery was worthless. I wired it to a standard deep cycle boat/RV battery and put it on a maintainer.

 

[newbury]

The Duromax XP9000 iH I just received even came with a "battery maintainer".

 

[wawajake]

The little battery was worthless. I wired it to a standard deep cycle boat/RV battery and put it on a maintainer.

I decided same as you, I put a deep cycle battery inside the house with a mini set of booster cables ready to bring it outside and attach to the gen battery whenever it is cold out and need gen started......thks for input !

 

[newbury]

I've one car, a Honda civic that is parked most of the time far from a power outlet and 2 tractors that are not always near power outlets. But they all jump well with a Gooloo 4000. I figure my generator will be the same.

 

[ning]

I decided same as you, I put a deep cycle battery inside the house with a mini set of booster cables ready to bring it outside and attach to the gen battery whenever it is cold out and need gen started......thks for input !

hmmm... could you just permanently mount the battery inside, with appropriately-sized cables (larger for the longer run) going through the wall to the genset? (assuming the genset is always used there)

 

[wawajake]

Unfortunately , although great idea Ning , it is a solid concrete wall , that already took a few hours to drill thru when they installed the Generac cable for interloc switching. Fortunately my exterior door and boiler room is only a few feet away to store the RV battery in winter. So simple enough my way.

 

[RalphVa]

The battery on a fixed generator will also likely have to power the auto response part of the panel with the transfer switch. I tried a solar charger. Was not enough.

Have our 12.5 kw Isuzu's big marine battery on a tender. The Isuzu was enough to do the whole house except for the 3 ton heat pump last winter about this time.

 

[TheMan419]

My 6800 watt unit came with a battery and a maintainer built in. It finally failed after about 9 years. Time to get a new one. Last time I had to fire it up I had to jump start it with the tractor. I like the idea of having a li ion jump pack around for this task as well.

 

[stumblinhorse]

My electric coop has a good tool that I looked at to determine the correct size I need for my generator. It shows temp at the meter as well, which is smart. My max usage yesterday was 1.65 kwh, when my tractor was plugged in. The temp line is helpful to see as well. My 6k/5k inverter should be plenty to run 4 essential circuits.

just waiting on the high altitude jet from champion for my unit. Then I will test my setup.

If you are not sure what size you need take a look at your power provider. They might have something like this available.