Need your combined advice on this generator - need pros and cons - Page 6

 

consider a tank of propane with sufficient supply (maybe 5-7 days?).

I wish him luck, but if he wants reliable backup, I can't imagine that unit
doing the job.

However, to do it right will either be more expensive, or require a lot more
work on his part to ensure that the unit will run when it's called upon.

 

Looking at the on-line brochure, it says nothing about it being made by Generac.
Even if it were, that would be no great recomendation.  Generac has a reather
questionaable reputation among generater folks.  The brochure does imply that
the conversion is done by the dealer.  If so, I question if can really put out
rated power with all 3 fuels.

It will be expensive to operate!  According to the dealer, at 1/2 output it will
slurp 1.44 therms per hour.  (With less load, it will not take much less because
it is reving at a constant assumed 3600 rpm with any load)  Ok, let's do the
math!.  We will use my fuel cost which is $
.06 per therm (add customer charge
and taxes) 1.44 X $
.06 = $
.53/hour.  $
6.63/day $
56.43/week  $
,099/month.
Remember, that's at a conservative 1/2 load!  On road gasoline, it will cost
much more to operate, and go through any reasonable stored supply quickly.
(1.36 gallon/hour at 1/2 load)

The warranty is only from the dealer and seems to only include parts.  I see
only a small muffler, so it will be LOUD.  The generator and engine are almost
certainly Chinese made.  Does the dealer stock parts in depth?  Will they be
around in 10 years and STILL stock parts for that unit?  ...because they will be
your only source!

The good stuff:  They say all the right stuff about the engine, full pressure
oil system, oil filter, sleaved block   It also seems to have an auto-idle
system that may help fuel consumption a bit, if you insist on running it with
zero load.

My take:  For that price I wouldn't touch it with the proverbial 10 foot pole.

If he really buys it, tell him to be careful what he tells the gas company.
Some have a special (much higher) rate for standby generators.

Vaughn

 
Did you notice that it calls for synthetic oil? Changing that every
three
months, or whatever the instructions call for, might be a bit pricey.

 On Sun, 9 Jan 2011 14:03:50 -0800 (PST), Michael B


Generac.

will

because

Hi MIchael

I have a Honda 3000i and it calls for oil change after every 50 hours
of operation.  Speed of engine varies with load, and it runs on NG.
It uses regular oil though.

Thanks, I did not see that part about the synthetic oil, good point.

Jim

 

Just a note on the EU series of Honda Generators: don't use synthetic oil
in them.  A tech at Honda told me he'd been seeing a lot of fouled oil
level sensors due to synthetic.  I guess something reacts with the sensor
and can make it give false positives (i.e. it shuts down your generator
because it thinks there is no oil).

It's a pain in the ass to change that sensor so although he said
synthetic was fine for the engine and the rest of the gen, it could screw
up that sensor which is the last thing you want to do -- believe me!

just a fyi

-zachary