Your last generator Maintenance Run

[cqaigy2]

Our biggest problem is the many 'blip' outages that play hell with electronics since the hydro lines run thru forest areas and maintenance is poor.

I feel your pain, we have many short blip outages as well. I've put UPS's on my more sensitive devices. Kind of been eyeing building a Lifepo battery backup that i might eventually add some used solar panels to, but initially will charge from grid.

 

[PILOON]

On propane:
You do know that cold really affects the pressure and flow.
Very common to find that come spring that the tank that quit last cold winter still had 25/30% still in it.
High demands on a small tank will freeze the valves.
They don't sell tank heaters just for fun of it.

To really be reliable a tank is often buried to use ground heat to advantage.

Way back we had no option, no electricity so propane it was, by boat floating 6-7 100 lb cylinders to serve us thru the winters. Come spring all the remaining propane carried us onto the next fall.

My parents home had a tank about the size of a small submarine in order to heat our home via a central furnace that would frequently ignite with a loud 'BOOM', kinda scary. LOL, back then it was the local plumber that did the installation.

 

[3930dave]

I remember the primitive automotive-propane systems years back, which unfortunately coincided with typical -40 Winters.... pretty hard to start sometimes.

Wouldn't help much in the dead of Winter here, but the manifold system on RVs allows you to open both tanks at once.... might not be enough flow to run everything, but it's a good option to have if you get caught in a cold snap.....

Rgds, D.

 

[check]

My genny is a KING which is an offshore clone.

They, KING, are based in Montreal and carry a full line of power tools, many of which I have,
In the past they have provided very good customer support.

Their support dept has gone as far as to provide detailed schematics for a previous product that I had issues with and thus earned my confidence.
Also they had repair parts available.

I'll add that I have visited their facility and was favorably impressed.

I have a KING 5500/6500 that I bought quite a few years ago, and it has always started and run nicely, even if I leave old gas in it for quite a while. We have an automatic standby generator now, but I still keep the King Generator as a back up. I also use it once in a while when I have to do some work with a power tool that is too far away from a building to plug-in. It fits nicely in the tractor bucket if I strap it in.

 

[PILOON]

To Check:

Guess we both have discovered a responsible merchandiser.
I also have some of their power tools that I've worked hard with no complaints.
I found from 'face to face' conversations, a corporate honesty that I really appreciated.

 

[check]

To Check:

Guess we both have discovered a responsible merchandiser.
I also have some of their power tools that I've worked hard with no complaints.
I found from 'face to face' conversations, a corporate honesty that I really appreciated.

Nice to see. The only interaction I have had with them was when I couldn’t find my key. So I contacted them and bought a new key switch. It arrived, and I think the very next day I found my old key – lol!

 

[daugen]

I found this very interesting, particularly since I have the same generator.

the level of detail he went to in soundproofing is remarkable, though I really worry about
how much back pressure he just added to that exhaust system.
Other than reduced power, how else can that damage your motor? Valves?

listen to how obnoxiously loud this thing is as delivered. I hide mine in an outside corner facing the woods.
I like to work in wood so think I might like to build this myself. I can't imagine the materials costing more than the 150 bucks he paid
for this. though Soundown insulation or other high tech stuff is very pricey. Lumber has come back down quite a bit, time to build again.

I grew up on a farm with an ancient large Onan LP generator, 1950 or so, I'm guessing 12-15kw, that had this same kind of flex metal exhaust piping, went through a hole
in the stone wall, no need for a flange, about four feet total, to a small car muffler outside, maybe a foot long. It made a nice muted sound. Gen was connected to
well pump in same building which fed three homes on the farm. Two 100 gallon tanks outside which local gas company filled. Today I don't think they'd come out.
And one 220V line down to my grandfather's home 100 feet away, underground, winding up on a panel
in his old concrete basement. Everyone else stayed in the dark but we had water. Towards the end the gen wasn't very reliable probably because it was never properly serviced.
I remember the milkshake ring on the oil dipstick, lot of condensation must have gotten in there. I had no idea. My father couldn't use an adjustable wrench so I didn't get taught much early on.
Thankfully he gave me other gifts... Milkshake ring on a dipstick is a cry for help.,

Those old Onans were the nicest soft green color, close to a Detroit Diesel green
Nice rounded almost art deco enclosures.

 

[check]

I found this very interesting, particularly since I have the same generator.

the level of detail he went to in soundproofing is remarkable, though I really worry about
how much back pressure he just added to that exhaust system.
Other than reduced power, how else can that damage your motor? Valves?

listen to how obnoxiously loud this thing is as delivered. I hide mine in an outside corner facing the woods.
I like to work in wood so think I might like to build this myself. I can't imagine the materials costing more than the 150 bucks he paid
for this. though Soundown insulation or other high tech stuff is very pricey. Lumber has come back down quite a bit, time to build again.

I grew up on a farm with an ancient large Onan LP generator, 1950 or so, I'm guessing 12-15kw, that had this same kind of flex metal exhaust piping, went through a hole
in the stone wall, no need for a flange, about four feet total, to a small car muffler outside, maybe a foot long. It made a nice muted sound. Gen was connected to
well pump in same building which fed three homes on the farm. Two 100 gallon tanks outside which local gas company filled. Today I don't think they'd come out.
And one 220V line down to my grandfather's home 100 feet away, underground, winding up on a panel
in his old concrete basement. Everyone else stayed in the dark but we had water. Towards the end the gen wasn't very reliable probably because it was never properly serviced.
I remember the milkshake ring on the oil dipstick, lot of condensation must have gotten in there. I had no idea. My father couldn't use an adjustable wrench so I didn't get taught much early on.
Thankfully he gave me other gifts... Milkshake ring on a dipstick is a cry for help.,

Those old Onans were the nicest soft green color, close to a Detroit Diesel green
Nice rounded almost art deco enclosures.

Wow, Drew, thanks for this. VERY interesting. I have the same generator as well, and I built a shed for it, but I like disguise ideas, and I think I can incorporate some of them into my shed. The big issue is heat dissipation, and I never thought of actually running a pipe for the exhaust straight to the outside. Instead, I have a fan kind of like the one that he has, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near as powerful. Are use the generator this summer, and it heated up the shed pretty good so it is definitely an issue.

I wonder if there’s anyway to tell how much the power output is reduced by that skinny little exhaust pipe?

 

[Popgadget]

A lot of the noise from an air cooled generator is mechanical noise radiated by the cooling fins and engine block. The exhaust is not usually the major contributor. Just surrounding the unit with dense plantings will help a lot.

 

[grsthegreat]

I was told years ago that running an extension off of the exhaust in the smaller units could effect backpressure into the heads. Not sure if this was a real thjing or not, but it made sense. So i never tried it.

these small generators are just plane noisy. But when im out repairing a fence in the pasture i dont mind the noise….as compaired to running 1200 feet of extension cord. Sometimes battery tools just dont cut it.