Your last generator Maintenance Run

[grsthegreat]

Some sensitive electronics like UPS systems “sometimes” have issues with the dirtier sine wave that 2 pole generators put out. That being said, ive run my house off of 2 pole generators since 1996….heck, i built my house off of a generator, and ive never had any issues.

My generac whole house is a 2 pole unit, so technically its somewhat dirty power. But while on the generator, all my electronics including 4 UPS systems have never had any issues.

My 22kw generac only cost $4500 back when new…..well, mine was free (but thats another story). I like inverter units made by Honda, but they just want too much for them. I was looking at one for use around property (like the quiet aspect), but bought a briggs 6.5KW for about $500 as opposed to the nearly $4000 honda wanted. Ill live with the noise. And it runs my skill saw and drill and wire feed welder just fine.

 

[JCoastie]

yeah, you want a pure sine wave inverter, not a modified sine wave.
A lot of UPS put out a modified sine wave, that's junk!

 

[Racer4]

My new UPS doesn’t like running on generator power. I think it happens when the well pump kicks on. The UPS just shuts down.

 

[LittleBill21]

A nice used 25-40HP tractor to run the PTO generator and your all set.
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Why do you say " It's also an inverter generator which, unlike the PTO genny, is safe for electronics."
I have had absolutely no issue with electrics on my pto generator nor has the farm and we have been using them from the 60's.
Depending on the quality of the inverter they can and have had issues with electronics as they are a modified sine wave and depending upon how many steps they make to make the full modified sine wave is important.

They are generally not modified sine wave. I haven't seen a modified inverter generator sine wave, most have THD below 3%

 

[LittleBill21]

Some sensitive electronics like UPS systems “sometimes” have issues with the dirtier sine wave that 2 pole generators put out. That being said, ive run my house off of 2 pole generators since 1996….heck, i built my house off of a generator, and ive never had any issues.

My generac whole house is a 2 pole unit, so technically its somewhat dirty power. But while on the generator, all my electronics including 4 UPS systems have never had any issues.

My 22kw generac only cost $4500 back when new…..well, mine was free (but thats another story). I like inverter units made by Honda, but they just want too much for them. I was looking at one for use around property (like the quiet aspect), but bought a briggs 6.5KW for about $500 as opposed to the nearly $4000 honda wanted. Ill live with the noise. And it runs my skill saw and drill and wire feed welder just fine.

UPS's have issues with the frequency drift, not a dirty sine wave, they generally want around .5 hertz deviation, i have not seen a mechanical generator with a non electric governor hold better then 1 to 2 hertz

 

[ultrarunner]

yeah, you want a pure sine wave inverter, not a modified sine wave.
A lot of UPS put out a modified sine wave, that's junk!

View attachment 877992

Modified is what my 1990 inverter is and it runs all my power tools and light boom but it will not run a Mikita or Dewalt cordless tool battery charger.

 

[grsthegreat]

ive been told there is a way to adjust UPS devices to use with a generator, but i didnt need to do that with mine. my generator holds 60HZ very well.

 

[LittleBill21]

ive been told there is a way to adjust UPS devices to use with a generator, but i didnt need to do that with mine. my generator holds 60HZ very well.

higher end UPS have settings deal with this, most consumer cheap units, do not (they have a sensitivity thing, but that is generally related to voltage not frequency (I have 13 ups's in my house, and have gotten burned by this, until I went inverter generator)

 

[WinterDeere]

They are generally not modified sine wave. I haven't seen a modified inverter generator sine wave, most have THD below 3%

Exactly. "Pure sine wave" is pure marketing bullsh*t. There is no such thing, other than in theory. Check the THD spec, that's the proper metric.

 

[LouNY]

UPS's have issues with the frequency drift, not a dirty sine wave, they generally want around .5 hertz deviation, i have not seen a mechanical generator with a non electric governor hold better then 1 to 2 hertz

I've run my pto generator on at least a half dozen different tractors non of them had an electric/electronic governor and all of them have held the hz to under 1 hz except when I tried to use the IH574 on the 1000 rpm shaft at half throttle then it was not stable enough.
I know that many inverter generators and power supplies advertise pure sine wave power. I have not stayed on top of the latest and greatest power systems but I know of no way to get pure sine wave except from a rotating field any "solid state" device is going to be a modified sine wave it may have enough steps and buffering to be almost indistinguishable from a true sine wave but it is still a modified sine wave.