Portable Generator

OhioGuy · Dec 12, 2004

Well, the saga has ended. I got a call on Tuesday that the generator was ready to be picked up. Without going back and looking at my earlier post I think that repair ran from August 8th to December 9th.

I had a long talk with the guy in the repair shop, he said on a couple of occasions he was told the part would be arriving shortly, it just didn't happen. The stator failed on the generator, probably a winding opened up? I was told this was a common problem with the Generac product but hopefully the replacement stator was an upgraded version? He said the second most common problem was a control board failure.

It seems logical that if I run the snot out of this thing the next couple weeks and can't provoke another failure, I'll probably be OK for a while. The stator was around $340 but was covered as a warranty item.

I did another trip to Home Depot last week and asked to talk to a manager, I was going there anyway so I figured I'd just let him know my experience. He offered a 10% discount on my next purchase no matter the dollar value. I understand his position of somewhat limited options and at least he offered something! He also suggested going to the HD website and shooting an email up the chain of command, good idea!

I may head up there in the next day or two to get a replacement 16' overhead garage door, the 10% would save me $60 or so.

On the brighter side, I picked up a nice 16' 7000Lb trailer yesterday, been looking for a year. A friend found one for sale in someone's yard. I picked it up for $850. OK, here's some logic, I really got it for $730 because when I checked into delivery of the 16' overhead door, it was gonna cost $120. Is my math correct. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks for all the posts and suggestions, they were appreciated, now I'm headin out to the workshop to exercize my generator......

BigAl · Dec 12, 2004

Thanks for the update ! I had planned on buying a big Generac unit for my ranch in Idaho next month from Northern tool . About $3000 . I have just crossed them off the list . I do have a 25 year old Honda 4500 watt that has never failed to work . Guess I will just keep using that for now .
Thanks again ,
Big Al

thebigc · Dec 12, 2004

( Thanks for all the posts and suggestions, they were appreciated, now I'm headin out to the workshop to exercize my generator......)

After all this, sounds like it needs to be exorcised! Good luck!

I'm also in the market for a generator and am glad I came across this thread. Maybe I'll check out a Northern unit.

Donny

Ortis · Jan 7, 2005

Thanks for all the replies to this isue. I WAS considering Generac, but now I won't. Here is my experience with a small generator:
I bought a Coleman 5500 Watt Vertex (vertical shaft). It has worked well, BUT...
After using it occasioanlly for a couple years for small jobs around the place, I had to use it for a three days during an outage. After the first day, it quit producing. I tore it apart a couple times, and found that the rotor coils could spin on the shaft! So the shaft could spin and the coils sit still. I found Coleman's phone service to be very good. Two out of three times I called, I got somebody who really helped. Finally, I bought a new rotor from JacksSmallEnignes.Com (cheaper than Coleman), and installed it. Now the engine did not work. It was flooding terribly and a friend who works on them said that Tecumseh engines are notorious for that. I got a new float and bowl (from Jacks again), started it up and no juice! I follwed the manual procedure for reenergizing the rotor (6 volt battery across the brushes. Hard to do since with the unit running they are aout a inch off the deck. Power came up and it has been fine. I don't know if the rotor will cause troule again, but I will buy a couple more bowl kits - Tecumseh engines are ok, but they can't build carburetors.

If I had it to do over agin, I would go for a Honda.

kozak · Jan 7, 2005

Just a general reply & advice to all who read this thread & are considering buying a Generator. I am not an expert by any means but if you want to save yourself some grief, buy a brushless generator. Will cost you a little more but that's what you will be paying for......far less problems. Also, goes without saying, do not go to Sears or Home Depot or the like if you want quality. I bought my Generator from a farm supply outfit & never had any problems. They swore by the Honda name that you could'nt beat it. The "generic" type stores are only interested in a low cost product (unfortunately low cost normally = low quality) that they can sell millions of to the masses (city dwellers) who will in all likelyhood rarely if ever need to use the product. (So will never realize they bought junk). I just can't believe what OhioGuy went through. My hat's off to him for not seeking a pound of flesh. Of course, everything has a bright side. With all the views that this thread has generated, (not to mention word of mouth) Genarac has lost alot of potential buyers. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

SPIKER · Jan 8, 2005

Hey OHIOGUY: I think now you can SELL that trailer to me for what was it? 730? /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

MarkM Jeromesville oH. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

5030 · Jan 8, 2005

This is an interesting thread in as much as I have a Generac unit and I am very pleased with it.

I don't have a portable unit though. I have a Guardian 15KW emergency propane fired genset. The workmanship is first rate and I have never had problem one with it. My boss has one as well as our propane supplier....no problems whatsoever.

I have talked to Generac directly concerning what type of oil they recommend and I talked to an engineer....on the first call...and got his recomendation which is what I am using.

My portable generator is a Yamaha Inverter model.

GRUMPA · Jan 8, 2005

Well figure I might as well add my litle horror story here to. Bought one of those little generac 5550 generators to power our HOME and to help with our construction of our shed/grenhouse project. We bought it in April of last year but being city dwellers for the most part we didnt use it till we got up there for Thanksgiving. It ran fine for about 10hrs or so and then it started beltching out black smoke. Thinking I know some about engines in general I was going to take it apart till the wife said to wait because it was under warranty.

So we hauled it back to our city home (5hrs) and looked for a warranty repair store and found one. Seems those models in particular have bad cams, and can and will just literally eat up the tappits (lifters). So my place of work was closing between the holidays so back up we went to try and finish our PROJECT . Well it worked for about 4 hrs after we got there, it ran just fine at first then it just went to a very slow idle then died, well so much for that week. Without power we cant get water out of our well ( you get the picture) we are cut off pretty much from the outside world up there. So we get back to our home in the city and I call there 1-800-I-DONT-CARE # and get a recording. OK there has got to be a way around this somehow, so I went to the internet and got the number for tech support.

For anybody getting a portable generator listen to this, as per tech support...the said unit will not be under any kind of warranty if you are OFF THE GRID. After telling them that the homes primary power source is solar they kind of backed off (but not much). Finally I got the local service center, the main one where the do training and all the warranty work goes thru them first. Finally getting ahold of them the first thing out of there mouth is are you using this unit for primary power?.

After ( I hate lying) err lying and telling him no and explaining that I had just taken it in to get it fixed and reading him from the invoice what they did, I asked for someone that has a reputation of doing a good job. Well I got one and took it to them the next day. Come to find out the cam they replaced came loose, they had to re-tighted it and re-adjust the valves. The first place charged me for air/fuel filters and shop rags/tax/sparkplug to the sum of $28 which I wasent happy about and told the other place if I got charged for anything be ready for one P'oed person. Well it just so happens a rep was there and he is sending me everything the other place charged me for (Yeah me).

He still couldnt answer me as far as all the little metal bits that are floating around in that engine from the cam eating away the lifters. All I got from him is that I need to write an e-mail to the company and hash it out from them. NEVER and I mean NEVER will I buy another portable generator from one of those home service centers. From now on its going to be a better more expensive unit.

mrcaptainbob · Jan 9, 2005

Would it be a fault of the store or a fault of the brand? As Home Depot was selling (at the time) both Generac and Coleman....I purchased both of my Colemans from there and have never had a problem with either one. I would think it's more an issue of brand.

kozak · Jan 9, 2005

I would say Home Depo is on the outer edge of providing some performance in this area as they do provide some other smaller quality products (just don't ever have them install something - I KNOW - they contract out) To a certain extent, these outlet / stores get snowed by salesman of providing a quality product when in reality it is sub-standard WHEN COMPARED to the actual work required. I believe it was this same thread that the when Manufacturer was queried about a problem they came back and said "is this for primary power". Well if it is not for PRIMARY POWER why are you purchasing it. In other words, they are trying to dupe the customer in saying their 5000 W generator is only good for powering small power tools....in the range of 500 W. Do I say any more.

Soundguy · Jan 9, 2005

( save yourself some grief, buy a brushless generator. Will cost you a little more )

I'm quite happy with the brushless pto gen I got from northern..

Soundguy

kozak · Jan 9, 2005

Yeah, defintely would have considered (h*** bought a PTO) gen, but did not have my dynamo humm at the time. Alot cheaper, more power, and as other threads have demonstrated, just disconnect when required for something else if you only have one tractor. Outages SHOULD only last max 8 hours. If not, what does it matter, (unless something critical to an operation) you would just keep the tractor dedicated for power supply until return to normal operation.

kozak · Jan 9, 2005

By the way, impressed with your hole theory. Isn't it crazy. On the one hand they want you to think in terms of current flow from positive to negative BUT...current is actually flowing negative to positive. (i.e. negatively charged particles attracted to positive potential.) Transfer of electrons from one postively charged atom to the next. Nobody knows or really cares because it is easier to think of power or voltage in terms of potential (or higher threshold). Therfore, higher potential must mean the source of current. I admit although I understand hole theory...because I was taught conventionally, current must flow from postive to negative. Of course it works because the reverse is happening from negative to positive. Where I start to lose it is grounding. A whole science of its own......it at least seems.

dbelisle · Jan 9, 2005

Your theory is correct for DC voltage, electrons are negitive and they move to the positive. But AC voltage is moving a 60 cycles a second so it really doesn't make much of a differance in house wiring. The big thing to remember as has been stated before. Make sure the grounds and neutrals are seperated and are connected only where the service enters the building. The two big reasons for this are to keep voltage on the neutral form returning on the ground if the neutral is compromised, and to keep lightning out of the house or try to to keep it out of the electrical system.

Dave in NH

_RaT_ · Jan 9, 2005

I understand that most Honda generators are of the brush design. A fella from Dewalt explained the advantages of both putting down neither saying each had their advantages. Brushless having more overall potential for power but at the price of having to idle higher to develop the voltage necessary to go to full RPM while at rest. Typical in construction generators where the generators idle down.

cokeman · Jan 9, 2005

What a coincidence. I just ran my generator for an hour with a jigsaw on it for a load. I run it every couple months but I think I should step that up after reading this post.

BTW it's a Generac 4000EXL purchased from Home Depot about 3 years ago. I have about 50 hrs on it and it's never let me down. I really thought I was buying a well made product and it has nice features such as electric start, full pressure lube, oil filter, idle control (lowers rpm at no load), and 5 gallon gas tank.

After reading your post it's hard to believe we have similar products from the same manufacturer. I hope you can get it repaired and it lasts you a long time with no more grief.

Dean

PS. I looked at a Honda with similar features but the price was out of my league. I like Honda though. I have a Civic in the garage that my wife just loves.

Soundguy · Jan 10, 2005

( By the way, impressed with your hole theory. Isn't it crazy. On the )

Hole theory went over the heads of about everybody in the electronics class when we first went ove rit. That's what you get when you put people in electronics who didn't sign up for it... I knid of thought of it in QC terms.. and as a 'High early failure rate'.. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Soundguy

varmint · Jan 11, 2005

Reading this thread has left me feeling like I should have spent the big bucks and gone with a Honda generator (twice the money) instead of the Porter Cable (with B&S engine) that I "thought" was a good deal at $500 for 5.25KW... so far it's run fine, sensitive to level and the oil switch, but otherwise okay. Still, when an ice storm knocks out the grid, and you need power for water/heat, you don't want any more complications. Maybe we'll get lucky and not have any 5 day outages this year.

varmint · Jan 11, 2005

Just noticed this information while looking on another website for transfer equipment: Briggs and Stratton has taken over Generac, at least for portable generators... stay tuned.

ByronBob · Jan 11, 2005

I've run a 1/4 tank of gas through my generator reading this thread just to run some type of loads through it. My 1650kw Coleman is 12 years old and never gave me problem yet through 2 ice storms.

Now the new one from HD is the 5.25kw B/S model (thank god not generac) which I haven't needed yet to power the house. Makes me scared if there IS an issue.