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Buying a Generator

Buying a Generator

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by: v1kings28 Active Indicator LED Icon 2 OP 
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 11:46am  
Any advice on the minimum size generator we need for our home? Best brand?  Family of 4.  Thanks! 4951
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dotti573 Active Indicator LED Icon 15
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 12:00pm  
We currently rent but this is going to be my next purchase.  Just a small one that will run the fridge mostly.  I've heard the ones with 4 plug ins are pretty good.  Keep in mind I know nothing about them and have never owned one.  If you own your home and can afford it a whole house generator is awesome also.  Happy shopping. 4951
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crawdaddct Active Indicator LED Icon 6
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 12:08pm  
Depends on what you want to run.  I have a little 3500 I bought during Rita used.  I fixed it up and keep it tuned up.  Use it to keep fridges and freezers good.  Of course thats one at a time when the power is off.  You don't have to run them constantly, unless in use (opening and getting stuff).  Lights, fans, Direct TV, and charge cell phones.  I was going to buy a 6500 prior to the storm, but the store sold it out from under me, after I purchased online.  With that I could just run all my stuff without alternating fridge and freezer.  If you want Quiet, buy a Honda.  Other than that brand really doesn't matter a lot.  Most come with the same Briggs and Stratton motors.       4951
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FoFa Active Indicator LED Icon 17
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 12:14pm  
Depends on what your needs/wants are.I have a Honda EU2000i generator.It ran my refrigerator, but that used about 2/3 of it's power when running.It has 2 plugs.The other plug I either ran the computer equipment and a fan, or at night my CPAP and a fan.I could have run the TV with the modem and the Router if I  wanted to, I did that during IKE.It wasn't really taxed.But you have to limit it with something like that.Advantages;Sips gas, the ECO throttle runs the engine for the load it is supplying.I got 9 hours (it never ran out of gas) per gallonThe tank holds about a gallonIt is SUPER quiteIt weighs about 50 poundsYou can hook two of them in parallel for 4000 watts (or buy the larger ones).It has a carb drain so when you put it up, you can drain the fuel out of carb so it will start next time.A lesson I learned with HarveyBut it is NOT a whole house generator by any means.It might NOT run 2 fridges or a freezer and fridge, not sure.I really like it, did I mention it is SUPER QUITE and sips gas.Those two points alone are a big seller in my opinionWhen gas is hard to find, sipping it is a real plus.Now a whole house generator that runs off of natural gas would be great.But seems like a bit much for the occasional outages.I do see they (Generac)  is advertizing heavy right now, but they always do that after a disaster because they sell more generators.  4951
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OldGuy Active Indicator LED Icon 7
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 12:16pm  
Saw this one at Porter Tractor Supply. Good price on a 5500 watt portable.www.tractorsupply.co m/tsc/product/champi on-power-equipment-5 400w-6400w-port 4951
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crawdaddct Active Indicator LED Icon 6
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 12:25pm  
It has a carb drain so when you put it up, you can drain the fuel out of carb so it will start next time.  A lesson I learned with Harvey  

@FoFa:
 
 
Yea, a lot of people found out how nasty their carbs got setting up for a year or two.  I use mine out at the Deer Lease, so it gets used.  My fuel line broke though when I took it out to use this time.  Had to rig up a fuel line since everything was closed.      4951
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dotti573 Active Indicator LED Icon 15
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 12:27pm  
Depends on what your needs/wants are.I have a Honda EU2000i generator.It ran my refrigerator, but that used about 2/3 of it's power when running.It has 2 plugs.The other plug I either ran the computer equipment and a fan, or at night my CPAP and a fan.I could have run the TV with the modem and the Router if I  wanted to, I did that during IKE.It wasn't really taxed.But you have to limit it with something like that.Advantages;Sips gas, the ECO throttle runs the engine for the load it is supplying.I got 9 hours (it never ran out of gas) per gallonThe tank holds about a gallonIt is SUPER quiteIt weighs about 50 poundsYou can hook two of them in parallel for 4000 watts (or buy the larger ones).It has a carb drain so when you put it up, you can drain the fuel out of carb so it will start next time.A lesson I learned with HarveyBut it is NOT a whole house generator by any means.It might NOT run 2 fridges or a freezer and fridge, not sure.I really like it, did I mention it is SUPER QUITE and sips gas.Those two points alone are a big seller in my opinionWhen gas is hard to find, sipping it is a real plus.Now a whole house generator that runs off of natural gas would be great.But seems like a bit much for the occasional outages.I do see they (Generac)  is advertizing heavy right now, but they always do that after a disaster because they sell more generators. 

@FoFa: Thanks for the awesome info.  You really broke it down and I appreciate that since I know nothing about them.  I was going to buy just like a 1750 to run the fridge but with your explanation we may have to go bigger.
 
 
4951
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buffaloglenn Active Indicator LED Icon 11
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 12:28pm  
Any advice on the minimum size generator we need for our home? Best brand?  Family of 4.  Thanks!
 
@v1kings28:
 
@fofa said it well. I will add another post based on recent Harvey experience. 4951
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OldGuy Active Indicator LED Icon 7
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 12:36pm  
I use a fuel stabilizer, Sta-Bil, for the gas that goes in my generator. When I shut it down, I always shut the fuel off 1st and let it run till it dies. Hadn't run it since the storm last year, got it out for this one and two pulls on the starter rope and it was running. 4951
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buffaloglenn Active Indicator LED Icon 11
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 12:40pm  
For Harvey, we had two generators.  One is a Honda, which we borrowed, and while fairly expensive to buy, it did a good job of running a window unit AC and one light and charged our phones.  It is super quiet, way, way quieter than the bigger generators, and would run all night on one gallon of gas.  That was our nighttime routine during the power outage for Harvey.During the day, we ran a 10 year old storm responder that is 8500 surge watts / 5500 running watts.  It's a hoss, and it's loud.  We could run two refrigerators, three dehumidifiers, four fans and all the power tools we wanted at one time.  We could backfeed into our box (don't yell at me safety pups) and run our upstairs AC, which we did on the last day when the power came back on.  With a full load, it could run about 8 hours on 5 gallons of gas.  So, not nearly as efficient as the Honda, but a much bigger generator that could even start and run one of our big AC units.  I think it was around $1000 ten years ago, so not sure what it would cost today for a similar one, but it requires two people minimum to load into a vehicle.  Instead of backfeeding, you could easily get an electrician to wire in a transfer switch and receptacle box for a big generator cord, and then power around 10 circuits in your house.  4951
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shodan66 Active Indicator LED Icon 15
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 12:55pm  
Saw this one at Porter Tractor Supply. Good price on a 5500 watt portable.www.tractorsupply.co m/tsc/product/champi on-power-equipment-5 400w-6400w-port

@OldGuy:
 
 
We borrowed our friends 7000 watt duel fuel model unit of this brand.  It worked fantastic, but at 74dBA at 23 feet it was LOUD.  The 5500 watt model has the same 74dBA rating.I've been looking at their 3400w inverter generator www.tractorsupply.co m/tsc/product/champi on-power-equipment-d ual-fuel-3400-w.  It's twice the cost of the standard generator but it provides a much cleaner feed (important for electronics), has a 30amp for use with my camper, and at 59dBA rivals the equivalent Honda (58dBA) for half the cost. ETA:  The 3400 is also dual fuel.  Much easier to store an extra propane tank than keeping gas from going bad.  4951
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mm4731 Active Indicator LED Icon 13
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 1:11pm  
[ Removed By Request. ] 4951
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ctl74 Active Indicator LED Icon 10
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 1:22pm  
As we were on day 4 with no power last Wednesday, my husband bought a 6250w from Loews. It was $865 with tax.We ran two fridges, two televisions (we have DirectTV), two air purifiers, and a portable a/c unit. (Add in a lamp here and there, too.)It was noisy, but it was very manageable! I'd say it was around 8 hours of use for 5 gallons of gas.DH also said it could be wired into the circuit box, but we haven't attempted that yet. 4951
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OldGuy Active Indicator LED Icon 7
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 2:17pm  
ETA:  The 3400 is also dual fuel.  Much easier to store an extra propane tank than keeping gas from going bad. 

@shodan66: I'm waiting for one that starts up on gasoline, then you plug it into itself and runs off an electric motor...
 
 
4951
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FoFa Active Indicator LED Icon 17
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 4:04pm  
I have a friend in Pearland that bought a 8,000 watt generator.He has it plugged into a 230 volt outlet that feeds his circuit breaker.But as I understand it, you have to be able to turn off the path to the main power lines.IDK, just what he told me.You don[t want to give your neighbors power or electrocute a lineman fixing the power lines.So he has some kind of manual switching box that breaks connection to the power lines, and enables his generator.He runs his whole house off of it, but he says you still can[t go crazy, The A/C and Refrigerators (he has 2) draw a lot of power if all are running at the same time.No blow dryers, turn off unused lights, no electric dryers, that kind of thing.He also goes through 20 gallons of gas a day using it.He said it's nice when you need, except hauling 4, 5 gallon gas cans to find gas.And finding gas sometimes can be troublesome.I can run mine 24 hours a day for a day and half on 5 gallons.I have a 5 gallon and a 2 1/2 gallon, which gets me almost 2 1/2 days of run time.But I can't run my A/C, but I can run fans.I don't see where propane would be an advantage unless you had a large stationary propane tank. Those 20 pounders would not be easy to find or refill IMO.From the 5500 watt,Will run for up to 8 hours at 50% load when the 6.1-gallon tank of gasoline is fullSo you can get 2250 watts of power for 8 hours with 6.1 gallons of gas.It didn't say what the fuel usage was at full power. 4951
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plakata Active Indicator LED Icon 6
~ 6 years ago   Sep 7, '17 5:29pm  

- - - - - - - -
>> ETA:  The 3400 is also dual fuel.  Much easier to store an extra propane tank than keeping gas from going bad. 
 
@shodan66: I'm waiting for one that starts up on gasoline, then you plug it into itself and runs off an electric motor...
 
 

@OldGuy: The perpetual motion machine!!  I'm ever so close to finalizing that project.  I only need a few savvy investors.
 
 
4951
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