Finally bought a generator

[45B]

I finally bought a generator to keep at the house. For the low price I picked it up, I could not pass it up.

Bought a 4500 watt Sears generator with 120v and 240v on one side and two 120v 15a plugins on the other side. It is set up to use a seperate gas tank or can and a ground rod.

I have an electrician friend coming over to look at it and set it up to be able to power the main items in the house in case of emergency. He said it should ony take an hour or so to setup.

I have to get a new starter battery for it, but it has room for a car size battery on the cart instead of the small lawn and garden type that is on it now.

Anything I need to know about generators like this?

[Matt In Oklahoma]

My FIL bought a similar setup recently and had the electrician hook it up. In the meantime you can run extension cords if needed. He built a box for it for protection but that allows venilation and hides it in plain sight.



Gotta store more fuel and oil now:)

[trkarl]

Just keep the oil changed and if it doesn't have a fuel shut off valve on it put one in the gas line to run the carb dry every time you use it. I like using a high quality synthetic oil in everything but that is just MHO.

[miked2345]

I assume your electrician will put an isolation switch on it. (might be called something different in your area..) This isolates it from your incoming power line from the electric company. With out it, your generator could backfeed electricity to the power pole and electrocute a repairman who's out to restore power after a storm or whatever.

[blackhawk]

Use sea-foam in your gas and the carb will not gumm up.

[Rmplstlskn]

I too recently picked up a new genny to replace my cheap, Chinese Honda-clone that committed suicide... A Husky 6250 max watts / 5000 running watts genny powered by a Subaru engine. It sells at Home Depot for $600, I got it almost brand new (4 hours run time) for $375. Starts up first pull... Powers my 220v well pump easily. Now looking to do a sub-panel with an isolation lockout to power some loads in the house.

[Klayton]

I too recently picked up a new genny to replace my cheap, Chinese Honda-clone that committed suicide... A Husky 6250 max watts / 5000 running watts genny powered by a Subaru engine. It sells at Home Depot for $600, I got it almost brand new (4 hours run time) for $375. Starts up first pull... Powers my 220v well pump easily. Now looking to do a sub-panel with an isolation lockout to power some loads in the house.

Wait, $600?!?! Are you serious? Gotta make a run to Depot land this weekend...

[thedreamers]

Around here craigslist is full of generators and cheap for the most part. Some people always think there stuff is made of gold.

[jimmycthemd]

About to do the same thing but keep the gen set mobile. I have a 38 foot 5th wheel camper that it'd be great for in case of a local emergency. Have had two power outages this last winter and figure I can run it a couple hours a day just to keep my freezer food longer. Also have two ups systems for my electronics. Can keep them charged to listen to a small radio for weather alerts, etc..

[goatlady]

It's been my personal experience with my 2 chest freezers that during an extended power outage I can run my gennie 2 hours every third day and the freezers will stay at 0 degrees. While running the gennie I remove the food items I will be needing over the next 3 days, swap out frozen 2 liter bottles of water to use in the cooler in the kitchen, and I'm good to go. Also during that same 2-hour period I can run the water pump and secure enough water for the next 3 days or so. BTDT during a spring snow/ice storm which took out power in my area for weeks in SD.