Portable generator opinion.

[Nick]

that Coleman would have had a B&S engine also....

I have a "Troy built" 8550/5500 w/ 10hp B&S
mine has the 30 amp outlet, I have a 40 ft twist lock cable that connects it to my hunting camp (off grid) and it runs my 2 18,000 btu a/c units just fine overnight burning about 1/2 a tank. (I wired a male L14-30 under the camp hanging out of the power panel)

I recently purchased an inlet box and interlock kit and set up a plug for my house, it'll power a window unit and my fridge/ freezer with a couple lights without a sweat.

 

[themcfarland]

So , you're getting a 60 hz output ?

yes, it never went above 60, however much I revved the rpm, but I did not see a regulator?? I think it was made for wide open 3600 rpms. however when there was a load it would drop by as much as 3 hz, which is nothing for a fridge but I think was too much for a tv.

I have a 13hp and the ratings say 6k with 8500 surge, I would not think it would do it out of the box/ then I started looking and it seems their same setup for the 13.5 has the same motor and the same numbers on the power head but I dont know about the guts or anything.
this is a limited life generator either way.. even if I stay on top of the oil and clean fuel. Anything made to be aircooled and run wide open at 3600 will have a shorter life then a 1800 water cooled motor I think

 

[Barney88PDC]

.... however when there was a load it would drop by as much as 3 hz, which is nothing for a fridge but I think was too much for a tv.....

.......this is a limited life generator either way even if I stay on top of the oil and clean fuel. Anything made to be aircooled and run wide open at 3600 will have a shorter life then a 1800 water cooled motor I think

This has been stated numerious times in other threads but, unless you have "clean" continous voltage and steady Hz running electronics like TV's, computers ect, is a bad idea on these air cooled units. They lack the capabilty of voltage regulation. The voltage output is a direct result of the engine RPM and they do not contain a monitor that will vary the RPM as electrical demand varies due to components such as fridge and AC's kicking on and off. As far as motors like the compressor in your fridge or AC units a little too much Hertz is much better than not enough. Many times generators are set at about 60.5-61.0 Hz no load to make up for the drop when large demand items cycle on. You never want to drop past about 59.5 HZ. The problems with alot of these "smart" appliances is that they now incorporate computer chips into them. This also is a bad idea to run with "dirty" power. ie I have a "smart" hot water tank that has a damn computer board. I wish it was the regular old school less **** to break model. I already had to change out the damn board last year. (This was not a result of running on a generator it just crapped out)

As far as the comment about an air cooled unit running at 3600 rpm's being a limited life unit AMEN. They can and they do run continously for hurricanes and they will more than likely get the job done to save your freezer and make living conditions more bearable for a few days. But they are designed as portable power units. Like construction, turn it on cut a few pieces of wood and shut it down. You are only pulling the HP out of the motor when the saw is on. Running these units 24 hours a day under constant load with the demand in the corner like in a hurricane situation is not what these units were designed for. But you can buy several units for the price of one bigger liquid cooled unit. If you can afford it and want more dependable and more constant and "safer" (meaning a much less threat of damage to electronics) power go liquid cooled with voltage regulation built into the unit. If you want to run a light or two, save your meat, and run a window unit then save your money and go to HD or Lowes and the units previously talked about in this thread will probably get the job done. The intermediate step between these basic units and liquid cooled would be the inverter type units that put out cleaner power.

 

[dantheman]

yes, it never went above 60, however much I revved the rpm, but I did not see a regulator?? I think it was made for wide open 3600 rpms. however when there was a load it would drop by as much as 3 hz, which is nothing for a fridge but I think was too much for a tv.

I have a 13hp and the ratings say 6k with 8500 surge, I would not think it would do it out of the box/ then I started looking and it seems their same setup for the 13.5 has the same motor and the same numbers on the power head but I dont know about the guts or anything.
this is a limited life generator either way.. even if I stay on top of the oil and clean fuel. Anything made to be aircooled and run wide open at 3600 will have a shorter life then a 1800 water cooled motor I think

3 HZ is a lot for a fridge compressor , if it stays that low .

 

[rockmup]

So who has RUN a NG unit for their home ? What was the cost to run something like that for 24hrs or whatever measurement of time you want to use and what size was it. Yes I know we have threads in here somewhere that probably covered this but help a lazy brother out !

I would prefer a diesel but the city of Central has told me NO. Because of the fuel storage. Not a big deal and not the end of the world so I;m just going to roll with what I can

 

[Barney88PDC]

Eff the city of central. Your house, your money. WTF about fuel storage? It would obviously be in a tank and Diesel is less volital than gasoline. Where do they get off? Are cars and trucks not allowed their either? I bet they have some trucks there that run on diesel. They could shove that regulation up their arse

 

[themcfarland]

Todd, I am seeing lots of that, I think if the fuel has a container around it, like you see for construction it might be better for the eyes of the city but I dont know.

I know that that little POS I have if it runs on LP I would be looking at tripple the fuel cost on LP, and since lp stores less energy my POS would be even more of a POS..

The manifold to run CNG or LP for the Chonda machine was something on the order of 250 or so, not including the extra size line for the NG. I decided I could buy more ammo for the fuel trips for that much
The best advice I have in the generator venture is, to buy a slow running quiet diesel with at least 20KVA and a belly tank as well as an external.

 

[rockmup]

I'm not too worried about it. I live in the City limits. It is what it is.

What about the Honda inverters like the Honda EU6500is ? What about running that on NG ? They make a tri fuel kit for them

 

[jrfount]

Oddly enough I was just discussing buying a NG unit with one of my buddies who has one. He runs a 16kw generac and used it during Gustov for for 6.5 days. His normal gas bill= $40.00 after hurricane = $220.00 or around 27.00 dollars a day. Generac also gives optimal cubic foot consumption rates on their website for calculating run costs if you wanted to be able to adjust for changes in fuel cost.

 

[Barney88PDC]

I'm not too worried about it. I live in the City limits. It is what it is.

What about the Honda inverters like the Honda EU6500is ? What about running that on NG ? They make a tri fuel kit for them

I have a few drums that I will fill if the need arises. You do not want to keep diesel for years just as a standby. As I am sure you know there is an algea that can start growing in the tank that is a nightmare. They do make an algeaside to help prevent it but too much trouble IMO.

I wonder if they said no based on a noise ordinance but if you get a good muffler or like another member said a Quiet Enclosed model I do not see the problem. Again Eff them.

 

[toddrod]

So who has RUN a NG unit for their home ? What was the cost to run something like that for 24hrs or whatever measurement of time you want to use and what size was it. Yes I know we have threads in here somewhere that probably covered this but help a lazy brother out !

I would prefer a diesel but the city of Central has told me NO. Because of the fuel storage. Not a big deal and not the end of the world so I;m just going to roll with what I can

I have a NG conversion on my Troy Built 5500/8500 with a 10 hp B&S. For Gustave I ran it for 5 continous days and my bill was $65 once I subtracted my normally usage.

 

[ryan]

i have a coleman 5500 i would sell for $400, its used, but it works.

 

[themcfarland]

My math was. well higher... that is almost as good as standing inline for gas, and the output is not much lower.. say 5%

 

[rockmup]

I have a few drums that I will fill if the need arises. You do not want to keep diesel for years just as a standby. As I am sure you know there is an algea that can start growing in the tank that is a nightmare. They do make an algeaside to help prevent it but too much trouble IMO.

Yeh, I am aware of that but I'm not a fan of the algesides either. we used to add that to our storage tanks at the end of winter.

I wonder if they said no based on a noise ordinance but if you get a good muffler or like another member said a Quiet Enclosed model I do not see the problem. Again Eff them.

It was an informal inquiry on my part, I was told it would be a storage issue (fuel) and maybe C&R's where we live, though I don't believe we have any. We didn't when we bought this place because I refuse to live where they have them

Oddly enough I was just discussing buying a NG unit with one of my buddies who has one. He runs a 16kw generac and used it during Gustov for for 6.5 days. His normal gas bill= $40.00 after hurricane = $220.00 or around 27.00 dollars a day. Generac also gives optimal cubic foot consumption rates on their website for calculating run costs if you wanted to be able to adjust for changes in fuel cost.

Thats what I wanted to know !

I have a NG conversion on my Troy Built 5500/8500 with a 10 hp B&S. For Gustave I ran it for 5 continous days and my bill was $65 once I subtracted my normally usage.

Thats great ! I think for this season I'm just going to buy the Honda inverter with the Tri- fuel set up.
Thanks

My time is worth a lot to me sometimes and I have no desire to deal with gasoline gen sets again

 

[Geardo]

I bought a cheap Chinese generator after reading this thread.

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/15131645/srt/pa/pging/1/page/1

I've been happy with mine, and the Chonda engine runs so quiet and smooth compared to a B&S

 

[my-rifle]

Now yo9u guys have me worried about whether I should run my workstation and cable modem on my Briggs And Stratton 5500 gasoline generator if we lose power. When I bought the generator I bought Briggs And Stratton instead of the Chinese models, because I've bought Chinese motors before, and they turned out to be costly mistakes. Briggs though has been around so long I thought their stuff would be damned good. The Hondas were way too expensive to run a house on. $2000 for a generator makes it cheaper to bug out than stay. At that point solar starts to look like a good alternative.

Should I really be concerned about running my LCD TV and workstation on my air-cooled Briggs and Stratton?

 

[Barney88PDC]

YES

 

[my-rifle]

In that case I'll use my laptop and the ole pitcher-tube TV.

One of the great things about laptops is the power converter tends to clean up dirty power pretty well.

 

[SKYWLKR]

The CRT TV is more sensitive to the crappy signal than LCD or other electronics.

Almost all electronics have a self cleaning ability innate in the way they turn the power into DC , it's the stuff with AC motors and ARC bulbs that have issues.

I run all of mine stuff through APC True Sine UPS's (fridge, TV, modem,lights). It keeps things running when I power off the Genny for refueling or oil changes or plug changes etc.