On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:25:27 -0400, "Roger (K8RI)"
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:05:26 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:


"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote

A problem with small, inexpensive, gasoline fueled generators is that,
unless you are religious about exercising them, they usually won't start
when you need them.

An exception to that rule is a Honda generator. I'm not a foreign car guy,
or anything like that; quite the opposite. My dad had one that would sit
for a couple of years, and it would start on the first or second pull, with
fresh gas in the tank.

It is amazing how many other uses come up, once you have a generator sitting
around.

Mine is 9500 watts continuous. It doesn't even have the option of a
pull starter. I don't think I could pull it even if it did. I keep
the tank full. When I shut it down I turn the gas off and let it dry
out the carb. It's on wheels, but it'd take a truck to haul it so it
could be called portable. OTOH it'd take three and preferably four men
to put it in the truck. If it were in the shop I could do that with
an engine hoist. I fire it up about every other month and let it run
for about 10 minutes. In the winter I have to keep a small heat lamp
on the battery. It'll run about 10 to 12 hours powering the whole
house sans air conditioner (except for the little spare one stuck in
the bedroom window) on 10 gallons. I had a little 4000 watt Coleman
that used twice as much gas, but it was kinda portable and made a
whole lot more noise.

I purchased it new, *after* Y2K when there were lots of them available
at half price and less. In the last 6 1/2 years I have well over
100 hours on it powering the house. Lots of power outages due to poor
line maintenance and we are about 2 miles from the city limits and
just over a mile from the substation.

As for other uses, with help I some times pull it out of the generator
shed and use it to power my 180 amp MIG welder. It's been a while but
IIRC the engine doesn't even change pitch when welding.

You might want to mention your isolation switch.

Don