Whats the best generator for this usage?

KubotaSteve · Feb 4, 2008

I just picked up a generator at Lowes. It was 5,000/6,250 for $600. They had a pretty cool worksheet there that gave the various watts for different things as well as the additional start up watts needed then you add up what you want it for and it tells you want you need. You may be able to get the worksheet online as well.

ROUSTABOUT · Feb 4, 2008

Hi, you can run your welder on a 30 amp circuit. Plus, you can make yourself a better muffler for your generator, that is the main difference between the loud and the quiet. The longer length of pipe you can get on it, the quieter it will be. A little more back pressure may even improve the power of the engine. The welder in my shop is on a 10-2 romex and on an old Federal 30 amp breaker and has not tripped since '94. Also, my Lincoln Ranger 8 will run the AC/DC shop welder just fine, just tried it one day. You do get a little response pause when starting an arc, and it is especially bad when you are trying to weld two soup cans together on low voltage. A good quality 5,000 watt name brand may be just what you need. A three may be pushing it since you sometimes weld at 150 amps on your welder.

George2615 · Feb 4, 2008

I have a Miller Bobcat 250NT 250A 10KW Generator / welder. It runs my entire house in the summer with 2 window AC's, a 12,500 BTU and a 8,000 BTU, a fridge/freezer, chest freezer, garage air compressor, well pump, lighting, etc. I have not tried welding with it while using it as a backup power generator.

Granted, a 5500 gen will run your welder based on Highbeams experience but I doubt it will run your camper A/C, microwave, and welder at the same time. Based on my own use I'd say you need a 10KW generator to run all your stuff.
Don't cut yourself short on wattage buying a generator.

DrewL · Feb 4, 2008

volts x amps = watts use this formula to determine what size genset you need keeping in mind that you may be running more than one thing at a time

txslowpoke · Feb 4, 2008

Thanks for all the replys and info.
This generator should be considered single use mode, meaning if I am using it for welding, thats all it be providing power for at that time. Welding will be in day time, running grinders etc will be while welder is not powered up.
In camper use mode it will provide power for the A/C and microwave. Thats the main 2 uses it will be providing power for in RV usage. In summer A/C and microwave......if we have to turn one off to use the other thats OK. In winter just the microwave. The other lights will be battery powered......like the tent lights sold. The only other forseeable use would be for a waterpump for the shower.
BTW Why cant one use the quiet exhaust muffler sold for ATV's and modify for generators? Would not be that hard to build a "header" of sorts to fit that muffler.

1962 · Feb 5, 2008

When I built mine, the engine had no muffler at all. I fabbed up a flange and used some metal flexable exhaust tube and bought a cheap car muffler. It made the exhaust alot quieter, but it still has the loud diesel knock.They use that flexable tube when they mount them in an RV.

Give it a try.

gemini5362 · Feb 5, 2008

txslowpoke said:
Thanks for all the replys and info.
This generator should be considered single use mode, meaning if I am using it for welding, thats all it be providing power for at that time. Welding will be in day time, running grinders etc will be while welder is not powered up.
In camper use mode it will provide power for the A/C and microwave. Thats the main 2 uses it will be providing power for in RV usage. In summer A/C and microwave......if we have to turn one off to use the other thats OK. In winter just the microwave. The other lights will be battery powered......like the tent lights sold. The only other forseeable use would be for a waterpump for the shower.
BTW Why cant one use the quiet exhaust muffler sold for ATV's and modify for generators? Would not be that hard to build a "header" of sorts to fit that muffler.

The only thing I might add here is if you are going to use something like an airconditioner you have to worry about surge current. I do not know if there is much surge on a welder but there is on an electric motor. That is why most generators have two ratings one for normal run the other one for handling the surge the motor has when it starts. You should be able to look at the size of your air conditioner and find a table that shows how much current it pulls when the compressor motor starts.

RonL · Feb 6, 2008

Ask The Experts: Generators | Lincoln Electric

gemini5362 · Feb 6, 2008

RonL said:
Ask The Experts: Generators | Lincoln Electric

interesting article

Skyco · Feb 7, 2008

ROUSTABOUT said:
Plus, you can make yourself a better muffler for your generator, that is the main difference between the loud and the quiet.

Have to disagree there. The muffler is certainly important but much of the engine noise is radiated clatter. Carefully designed engines for low noise applications are built to have less clatter radiated from the start. Things like crankcase (housing) design, cooling airflow, and cooling fin resonances are very important.
I've tried with little success to silence some conventional (generic Briggs and Stratton, Tecumseh etc), design engines. As an experiment temporarily hang a 10 ft pipe on the exhaust to move the noise away so you can listen to the engine sans exhaust. Many are still very loud from radiated noise and that is dang near impossible to reduce in a cost effective manner.
Try the 10 ft pipe test before spending money on a muffler only to find the noise reduction isn't near as great as one would think