well. you ready for the lights to go out again? and non ethanol fuel?

It's supposed to run 18 hours on a 20 Lb tank. I stopped on my way home and filled up a 20 and 40 LB tank and when I got home the power was already out. I am running all computer equipment and home network, 82" TV and audio system and 26 SQ Ft refrigerator and it's at a 25% load.



Yes there was a line of people at the UHAUL store filling up their propane tanks.

 

How are you guys liking the dual fuel models?

Personally I'd just get an extended tank with enough capacity to run to the OCI (Oil Change Interval). Whenever the tank is empty and I need to refill it, I just fill the tank and change the oil at the same time.

 

Have you ever had an issue w/ bad gas?

For the most part 10% eth still works fine w/o stabilizer, the 2 main issues are water and oxidation. Oxidation of the fuel gumming up the carburetor cup (EFI models don't have this issue, but you have to have a really big backup generator to run EFI and those are usually in the range of $4-5k starting) or water in the gas.

• Water shouldn't really be an issue with ethanol blends since ethanol bonds to hydrogen molecules to create a homogeneous solution and spreads it out, it can be a problem if your tank's seals are bad and air gets in.
• Fuel in the cup can varnish and create hard and/or gummy contaminants that block off the jet.

Though Propane/Natural gas should have zero problems running and starting up, but it'd be a major pain to get a 50-100hr tank to and from uhaul. I think liquid fuel works fine too as long as you know what to look out for. The hyper anal could a cheap inert gas like nitrogen or argon to their fuel tank to prevent oxidation completely.

 

I don’t use my generator often, it sits for long periods. Just easier for me to not worry about draining the bowl after use.

 

It used to be luxury feature that differentiated generators, but a fuel cutoff has been around for some time. Instead of draining the bowl by removing the cover, I just flip the fuel cutoff from the tank, and the generator runs until the cup is dry which is usually a minute or so. Most generators have this feature now.

However, Yamaha is even fancier, not only do that have that (they've had the fuel cut off feature for over a decade now), they now have a carb bowl drain so you can empty the fuel and pour it back into the tank.



Wanna toggle my drain cock?

 

Same, I have a wen i2000 and it gets harder to start with old gas. Propane won't have that problem.

 

Nice generators people. I am keeping up with oil changes. Did the first one as directed at 10 hours. At my needs, my unit really sips fuel. About half gallon in five hours. I’m headed to cloverdale to buy race fuel for Saturday’s shutdown. Bring it.

 

With propane the OCIs are like 2-4x longer. You'll end up burning more oil than you need to change it and topping off is ok every 100hrs.

 

Just FYI but they are gonna do it to us again on Saturday or Sunday. My 30+ year old Honda generator still chugs along just fine.

 

Got notice they might be shutting us off again too on Saturday. MIL yelled at me to go buy a generator. This thread has been helpful but need to do a ton of more research.

 

Didn't know such fancy generators existed. I traded a small Honda and cash to a neighbor for a 3.5kw Arctic Cat, does my whole place except the clothes dryer. I have to just flip a lever on a switch to energize my breakers and cut off PG&E so no feed back to their system. Well, fridge, lights, electronics. Just need to suck the fuel out and run carb dry. At least one neighbor has a Generac on a slab, connected to his propane tank. Sweet setup, auto start, no fuel to worry about. Just a few thousand for the small one he got. can't warrant that yet.
Duane

 

I plan on having a switch panel Installed myself but just bought this one. I will also put it in a sound deadening weatherproof enclosure.

So Far its run for 12 hours. I picked up the propane tank and it still feels full.

 

I've mentioned on TW recently, when I had my garage built, I had my Electrician put in a breaker panel and a double throw lever to disconnect PG&E and connect my generator to my system. All in my garage. Just have to rotate the genny 180 to pull start it, then rotate back to direct the exhaust away from my wall. Its next to my old, unused freezer which I'd love to take to the metal recycler.
Duane

 

i think i will eventually do this. i want the electrician to put a "box" next to my garage side door and run a cord to the service box. i basically want a port on the side of my house for the generators. i dont want to run them in my garage (or have to hork around a heavy cord from outside to the service box - inside). i will then buy a second honda, and run them in parallel to power up essentials. i like the 2000 size since i can grab one to go camping, and have two for the bigger events.

i'll then auger down a deep hole, sink a heavy galvanized bolt and have a locking point for the motorcycle cable to keep generators from walking away.

 

....or move to Santa Fe, NM. hahah.

 

In FL, I fist used my $600 - 5500watt gen when camping out in the woods, so we could have AC in the trailers in the summer, but quickly learned getting more fuel became a daily trip out for 10-15gals. So later I got 2 of the Honda eu2000 units, with a parallel kit which has a 30amp plug, and a 6gal gas tank to run both. During the last hurricane I only used 8.5gals in 2.5 days, running 24hrs a day. Fed the entire house, 8,000btu window AC unit, lights, tv then radio, fridge, would even start my well pump. Only house on the street that had water, some came to fill buckets to flush their toilets. The carbs are the easiest I have ever cleaned after sitting to long, 1 can of carb cleaner and 20 minutes later both gens were back running like new. youtube has nice videos of this. After reading this thread, I'm thinking about converting to propane. These are over 10yrs old, the new ones have a unit with the 30amp plug built in, so all you need are the parallel wires. When the hurricane winds calmed down, the gens got hot sitting in the bed, so I moved them to the ground with open air, just chained them to a trailer to fend off sticky fingers.

 

Just keep in mind you need to vent it. these units are air-cooled and they depend on fresh air circulating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qPRIq-9U-4

This is the most functional sound-deadening setup I've seen.

 

Wonder how it would work for the neighbors dogs?
Duane

 

With the generator, that's some tender meat. Might be a bit gamey.

 

I keep getting the text messages warning imminent doom. So I go to: https://psps.ss.pge.com/ and it says I’m not to be affected. So, why are they texting me that I will be shut off?

Off to the garage to finish the emergency prep work...