Emergency Power/Storms/Prepping etc

[IReallyLikePizza2]

That's a great price!
My advice, buy 2. Run both under load for 30 minutes every year when you change the oil. If you have a space heater, that's perfect to apply a load.
Run all the gas out! I have put those fuel stabilizers in but it's best to just run it all out. Better is to just go with propane or natural gas.
I had something similar and we had of all things an ice storm. Stupid neighbor 2 houses down didn't trim their tree and a branch knocked out their line. 4 houses affected... But because of triage we didnt get power back for 4 days.
I had one of those Chinese generators and it worked good, but they didn't tighten the bolts. They wiggled loose and cracked an engine mount I wedged some wood in and got through the power outage.
I donated it to someone in Grand Isle and bought a new one. I loctited all the bolts on the new one.
Having been through enough damn hurricanes for a lifetime, I made sure it was a "dual fuel" generator. Yeah you get less power out of that 4 kw generator but it will run 24 hours on a tank of propane. And you don't have to wait in line for hours to get propane.

Yeah the gas rotating is the big one, all too many people don't and end up with a rusty tank

Not sure if I've posted it here somewhere, but what I did on my current spare Champion generator is T off the fuel line, and added a second shutoff with a length of hose. This lets me easily drain the tank without having to run 4 gallons of gas through it. Because the tank is not sealed, I make sure to rotate it out every 6 months without fail, and also have Sta-Bil in there. Once 6 months is up, I drain it into a can and throw it in my truck

The oil I don't change unless it hits the OCI actually running, even sitting for 2 years, the oil is fine and never ages out

I try and run it every 3 months under load, in the past I've used a space heater like you suggested, but now I have a few Ecoflow batteries, I just charge one of them up, then I can actually use the power and its not wasted. I always make sure to drain the carb when finished running too, that's also critical

I just made up the maintenance schedule, but so far the generator is perfect. My neighbor has the exact same generator that we bought at the same time, and when he took his out his shed, it wouldn't start and the tank was full of rust!

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

A friend of mine once gave a piece of good advice: Never loan out anything with an engine or (another thing I don't remember).

I find loaning out a cheap generator is pretty low risk, as long as its near your house where you can check on it. Also gets you a lot of neighbor points you can save up!

 

[mattp]

Yeah the gas rotating is the big one, all too many people don't and end up with a rusty tank

Not sure if I've posted it here somewhere, but what I did on my current spare Champion generator is T off the fuel line, and added a second shutoff with a length of hose. This lets me easily drain the tank without having to run 4 gallons of gas through it. Because the tank is not sealed, I make sure to rotate it out every 6 months without fail, and also have Sta-Bil in there. Once 6 months is up, I drain it into a can and throw it in my truck

The oil I don't change unless it hits the OCI actually running, even sitting for 2 years, the oil is fine and never ages out

I try and run it every 3 months under load, in the past I've used a space heater like you suggested, but now I have a few Ecoflow batteries, I just charge one of them up, then I can actually use the power and its not wasted. I always make sure to drain the carb when finished running too, that's also critical

I just made up the maintenance schedule, but so far the generator is perfect. My neighbor has the exact same generator that we bought at the same time, and when he took his out his shed, it wouldn't start and the tank was full of rust!

With these synthetic oils you are right. You can leave it in there much longer than a year if you don't use the generator much.
But, they don't take much oil and it's easy to change. And if you don't change it every year, you may find yourself scratching your head trying to remember when it was last changed. If you have a good means of tracking that (like writing the date with a sharpie)... Then you are fine. I just make it part of my yearly process.

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

Yeah I just write on the tank

 

[biggen]

Looking through my manual I'm wondering why Generac recommends using a 5w-30 synthetic for all temps nowadays in their air cooled generators. Seems like higher temps would need a thicker blend but that is not what they are recommending.

Generac Help Center

support.generac.com

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

Looking through my manual I'm wondering why Generac recommends using a 5w-30 synthetic for all temps nowadays in their air cooled generators. Seems like higher temps would need a thicker blend but that is not what they are recommending.

Generac Help Center

support.generac.com

The book for my Generac standby unit actually was revised from 5W-30 to 5W-20! But no way I'm going lower viscosity.

If its summer I throw 15W-40 in all of my small engines

 

[abita_brewing]

The book for my Generac standby unit actually was revised from 5W-30 to 5W-20! But no way I'm going lower viscosity.

If its summer I throw 15W-40 in all of my small engines

Then you are not getting proper lubrication. Machining tolerances have steadily improved over time. We used to run 50 weight in stuff, then 40, then 30.

It the tolerances are tight enough that they spec 5-20 then 30 does not lubricate as well. It's harder to pump, push, sling into those tight areas.

If you look back over time the perception difference becomes clear. Your grandfather used 40 or 50 wt stuff. You got newer equipment and ran 30... to which he was appalled. Time marched forward... your new stuff wants 5-20, but you insist on 5-30. See my point?

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

Then you are not getting proper lubrication. Machining tolerances have steadily improved over time. We used to run 50 weight in stuff, then 40, then 30.

It the tolerances are tight enough that they spec 5-20 then 30 does not lubricate as well. It's harder to pump, push, sling into those tight areas.

If you look back over time the perception difference becomes clear. Your grandfather used 40 or 50 wt stuff. You got newer equipment and ran 30... to which he was appalled. Time marched forward... your new stuff wants 5-20, but you insist on 5-30. See my point?

When you say I am not getting proper lubrication, what are you basing that on?

Mitsubishi who actually make the engine, spec 5W-30, and Generac used to spec 5W-30 for the genset for the last 10+ years. Then they standardized on 5W-20 across a bunch of gensets and their own oil they sell, so they adjusted the book. I'm doing UOA on every oil change, which gets good results with 5W-30

For the small engines, I'm basing it on endless oil reports from people on BITOG forum with engine failures in high heat with thin oil.

I have no idea what oil my grandfather ran, and I don't choose oil based on anything other than facts and science

 

[tigerwillow1]

Sprinter engines changed from 5w40 to 5w30 retroactively a few years ago. I don't mean the new engines. 5 to 10 year old engines suddenly needed thinner oil.

 

[abita_brewing]

There are some unknowable items there. Bob's forum members... that's anecdotal. Posts made on the net... trend HIGHLY toward the ones with poor outcomes... the data has been filtered before it even gets to your eyeballs. It's like this forum... I never would have signed up if not for problems w/ my BI software and AI processing.

If you've got clearances made for 5-20 oil and put thicker oil in there... it's not going to fit as well. Look at it this way... if someone's saying 5-30 is better then surely 20-50 would be even more better....

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

There are some unknowable items there. Bob's forum members... that's anecdotal. Posts made on the net... trend HIGHLY toward the ones with poor outcomes... the data has been filtered before it even gets to your eyeballs. It's like this forum... I never would have signed up if not for problems w/ my BI software and AI processing.

If you've got clearances made for 5-20 oil and put thicker oil in there... it's not going to fit as well. Look at it this way... if someone's saying 5-30 is better then surely 20-50 would be even more better....

Sure, but you just skipped over the part in my post where it say the manufacturer of the engine itself specs 5W-30, or oil analysis

 

[abita_brewing]

I can make an educated guess. These gensets are sold worldwide for differing climates. Your unit stays relatively warm in the south. Other ones do not. If they are spec'ing 5-20... a very legit reason could be that they are biasing the oil spec toward quick pumping and pressure build up given the 0-100% rpm then 'full' load 2-3 seconds later.

When you are setting policy like that... you pick something that will work for all units in all situations.

You should know, from oil analysis, that viscosity tends to decrease over time. So, in theory, a 5-20 changed often could stay thicker than a 5-30 with more hours on it. Tons of variables here... both for the mfg and end user.

The oil discussions are largely moot as most people run synthetic and never accrue enough hours to get into a wear-related breakdown.

 

[mattp]

I think my generator manual says to use thinner oil if operating in a cold temperature.
They give a range for both viscosities and there's overlap.
That's the way it should be handled. Especially for equipment sold all over the country/world.

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

I can make an educated guess

Neat, but I'm not guessing

Do you really think I spent over $20K on a generator just to put the wrong oil in it?

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

$300 WEN GN400i came in today, pretty neat little generator for the price

 

[mattp]

Nice!
Loosen all the bolts and red or blue loctite them before tightening them.
Silicone works if you don't have loctite.
I may not have posted that I had one of those Chinese generators and the engine mount bolts backed off and an engine mount broke.
Of course this happened in an emergency...

Now the debate can continue on what weight oil to put in it?....thicker by some accounts is better...how about 80w-90?...
Kidding aside does the manual have two separate viscosities based on temperature?

And, I side with the beer guy on this, tolerances are getting tighter. I wouldn't be surprised if the manual for that generator recommends 0w-20... Imo, that would be a good sign that they upgraded that line of generator to tighter manufacturing tolerances.

Regardless, for 300 dollars, if you get a couple hundred hours of use out of it, especially in emergencies, you make out okay... Crazy world we live in. You can buy a generator like that for less than a cart of groceries.

 

[mattp]

I just checked Amazon and it's $400. Where did you get it for $300?

 

[biggen]

I wish Honda made a Tri fuel Gen. I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Would be a nice to have a backup portable but I don’t want to fool with gasoline.

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

Generator is direct from WEN, no shipping and no tax!

WEN GN400iM RV-Ready 4000-Watt Open Frame Inverter Generator

Generates clean power to safely operate sensitive electronics such as phones, tablets, TVs, and computers Parallel-ready panel allows you to connect any 2 WEN® inverter generators for increased wattage output 212cc 4-stroke engine produces 4,000 surge watts and 3,500 rated watts Lightweight body...

wenproducts.com

For oil, it wants 30W oil. Once break-in is finished I'm going to fill it with 15W-40

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

I wish Honda made a Tri fuel Gen. I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Would be a nice to have a backup portable but I don’t want to fool with gasoline.

Just add a Tri-Fuel kit. I added one to my cheap Champion generator and it was super easy