Your last generator Maintenance Run

   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #5,951  
most small generators use residual magnetic fields to stimulate the field around rotor and stator to produce power. Most larger units have a field flash circuit that flashes the rotor/ stator to produce power. Im not sure where your unit is asking to flash rotor. I have seen some people say all you need to do is plug in a drill to generator and manually rotate arbor to create the field. But i dont work around small units, so im not sure.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #5,952  
Is there a general rule of thumb to how frequently one should run a pto powered generator to maintain the residual magnetism? I guess for any generator?
I switched over to a pto generator several years ago, and since there is no engine to exercise, I haven't run it in maybe two years.
IF I remember right, mine said run it at 50% output for 30 mins every 6 months.

SR
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #5,953  
This was actually back in October, I pulled out the PTO generator and ran it on the load bank for a while to keep up the residual magnetism. It’s the backup to a Generac 22KW propane standby, and doesn’t get much use.
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I have the same unit. Bought it prior to Y2K from Generac.
Funny story as to why I’m bought it and all my other generators.
When Y2K was being hyped up my wife said if I can’t curl my hair I’m not going to work!
My reply was ohhh you’re going to work. That’s how it all started.
True story.
90cummins
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #5,954  
I have the same unit. Bought it prior to Y2K from Generac.
Funny story as to why I’m bought it and all my other generators.
When Y2K was being hyped up my wife said if I can’t curl my hair I’m not going to work!
My reply was ohhh you’re going to work. That’s how it all started.
True story.
90cummins
Similarly that is why we have a generator. Wife did not want to be without certain creature comforts. That was when we lived in a subdivision. Now we need it to run the well so we have water for the horses. Of course we also get creature comforts from the generator.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #5,956  
In response to how often should a PTO gen be operated to maintain residual magnetism I don’t know.
Mine has set several years between uses with no problems.
I have never had an issue with portables either.
My nephew’s standby gen had to be flashed a couple years ago after running flawlessly for 2 days after a power outage.
During the next scheduled exercise it failed to generate and had to be flashed.
No logical explanation.
90cummins
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #5,957  
I should run my PTO generator on a schedule like I did for the gas unit.
I googled various methods of flashing, and some appeared to be flat out dangerous. Seems to me the safest method I found was to plug in a drill to the running generator, pull the trigger, spin the chuck counter clockwise. Applying 12 volts to a 120v generator outlet seemed to work on YouTube, but it involves suicide type connections and a momentary connection. I'm not necessarily against that method, as I've done more dangerous things in my life!
Hopefully I'll never have to flash my Genset.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #5,958  
My engine driven Hobart welder needs to be flashed if it sits for a few months. Got to be enough of a pain that I added wiring and a push button on the panel to flash it. As long as I can get to the field windings, usually the brushes on a portable, I use a 12v battery. It’s the brushless generators that make things interesting.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run
  • Thread Starter
#5,959  
Great 411 guys.... thanks for posting your recollections of flashing.......

Rgds, D.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #5,960  
Bought a used PTO genset 3 years ago, tested when I bought it, but never used it after that.

One of my friend is building a new house, and Hydro power keep beign delayed. His plaster guy will be there on Monday, so he asked me if he could borrow my pto genset so he can heat and power the house for the next 10 days or so. ( he is unsure when he will have power, but the wood stove should be install this upcoming friday).

I told him it would be my pleasure to loan him the genset if he is silly enough to put fuel in his tractor.

Went there on Friday to help him seting up the genset.

Got there at 9:00 am, then we unload the genset frim my truck and connected it to his tractor ( A massey 1648).

By the time the genset was installed ( he did not had a draw bar, so we had to be creative) and the wiring was done, it was 11:00 am. Got the tractor running and slowly added load ( electric basebord through out the house) to the genset untill we hit 48 amp ( the backfeed breaker was 50 amp).

Inside the house was at -2 celsius at 11:00 am, it was -5 outside.
He topped off the tractor at 7:00 pm and fill it full, it took 40 liters.( tractor was full when we started). The house was then at 19 celsius.

So, rough math are 5,7 liters of fuel per hours producing 11.52 kw per hours. Which is 2.1 kwh per 1 liter of fuel.

At the actual price of 2.40$/liter, it comes down to 1.14$CAD per kwh….. OUCHHHH !! ( here we pay 0,08$ when connected to Hydro Quebec)

So it was fun to play / test the pto genset while helping and friend and getting some real world data, without paying for the fuel.

The genset ran great, had to play with winding boost once under load (48amp per leg) and I was able to stabilized it at 115v per leg at 60Hz.

I monitored the temperature on the genset with a cheapo IR gun and the hottest spot was the high speed bearing of the gearbox, at approx 51 celsius after 2 hour of operations .

So my friend will keep using it at least till this coming Friday ( and spend a fortune in diesel) and switch to wood for heat untill he finally get connected to the grid.

Just tought I’d share with you guys.

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