Northeast folks... good luck in todays storm

[Summerpaws]

What's your address? I'm only a few hours away and I can help "arrange" an extended outage for you.

Funny story, a few years a go I sold an 002A to an electrical engineer who came with an oscilloscope and his own load bank to test the machine. He and his wife were both wearing Generac sweatshirts, so after we made the deal ( note: he was super impressed with how clean the 002's power was ) I asked about the sweatshirts.
The wife said they both worked for a company that installs and services Generac whole house units, so I asked WHY do you want a 30 year old diesel generator if you work for a generator installer??
She said they get tons of angry customers who pay $20K or more for a propane backup generator only to find out ( the hard way ) that the propane they have on hand is only enough for a couple days and the propane delivery trucks won't come out until the storm has passed and are so backed up at that point that it takes several more days to get a delivery.

That's ok Ray. Thanks for the offer though! As nice and convenient the Generacs are, they are still powered by lawnmower engines. Over the years my neighbors have had issues with theirs. At one point it wouldn't run on its weekly test because the oil was low. Not sure what the outcome of that was. Before I bought the 802, I powered my house with the Onan generator in my motorhome. It was a gas generator but it was no lawnmower engine. Remember the ice storm the week before Christmas 12 or 13 years ago? We lost power for 8 days. The Onan ran the house without a hiccup. When I sold the motorhome, the 802 was the logical replacement. I will say the Onan had crappy power compared to the 802.

Oh, the reason I absolutely need a backup generator is I live next to a swamp. I have 3 sump pumps and in the Spring and most of the Summer, my house would have a foot of water in it in just a couple of hours if those pumps didn't run.

 

[Fungal]

Automatic generators are nice and work for many people. I know people who keep all their tools in a kitchen drawer.

OK... funny story time.

Some years ago my wife and I had sold our house to upsize (had another child, needed the space), and I offered to show the new owner how to service the whole-house generator that was included with the house. He was a pilot, so I assumed he was at least somewhat "handy."

I had the housing off the generator, and was doing the yearly generator service while he watched (oil, filters, plugs, etc), just so he could see what was what... and at some point I realized I needed some needle-nose pliers... and mine had walked away from my tool bag. So I asked him if he had some needle-nose pliers I could borrow. He said "Sure. Absolutely. Be right back."

He comes back and hands me something like this:



Except much bigger/fancier... like a big flat briefcase, with a clear lid, and every perfect/spotless Chrome/Vanadium tool snapped into its own spot in the tray...like something straight out of the Sharper Image Catalog. It was still in the original plastic shrink-wrap... had NEVER BEEN USED.

I was dumbfounded... I didn't know what to say. I literally sat there for a couple of seconds with this toolset in my hands... processing.... and realized that I was completely wasting my time, AND his. What manner of man has a set of tools that he's NEVER used? (the spotless, meticulously-arranged, nearly-empty garage should have been my first clue). This guy was NEVER going to work on that generator... not ever. He'd never even taken his own tools out of the plastic wrap.

 

[rickf]

I don't know why I never saw this thread until now, especially since I was in the middle of the storm. We got right on 2 feet of wet snow, but the power never completely went out. It was threatening to do so with many brownouts. I had turned of the fridge and freezer and computers to protect them. But I never had to start the generator. am really curious about Ray's fuel usage. I always went with .5 gallon per hour for 5000 watt and 1 gallon for 10,000 watt.

 

[edgephoto]

OK... funny story time.

Some years ago my wife and I had sold our house to upsize (had another child, needed the space), and I offered to show the new owner how to service the whole-house generator that was included with the house. He was a pilot, so I assumed he was at least somewhat "handy."

I had the housing off the generator, and was doing the yearly generator service while he watched (oil, filters, plugs, etc), just so he could see what was what... and at some point I realized I needed some needle-nose pliers... and mine had walked away from my tool bag. So I asked him if he had some needle-nose pliers I could borrow. He said "Sure. Absolutely. Be right back."

He comes back and hands me something like this:

View attachment 963167

Except much bigger/fancier... like a big flat briefcase, with a clear lid, and every perfect/spotless Chrome/Vanadium tool snapped into its own spot in the tray...like something straight out of the Sharper Image Catalog. It was still in the original plastic shrink-wrap... had NEVER BEEN USED.

I was dumbfounded... I didn't know what to say. I literally sat there for a couple of seconds with this toolset in my hands... processing.... and realized that I was completely wasting my time, AND his. What manner of man has a set of tools that he's NEVER used? (the spotless, meticulously-arranged, nearly-empty garage should have been my first clue). This guy was NEVER going to work on that generator... not ever. He'd never even taken his own tools out of the plastic wrap.

These are the same guys you see broken down on the highway with the hood up staring at the engine. I saw my neighbor who is really handy do this. So ,if I stare at it long enough it will start up, right?

 

[Ray70]

I don't know why I never saw this thread until now, especially since I was in the middle of the storm. We got right on 2 feet of wet snow, but the power never completely went out. It was threatening to do so with many brownouts. I had turned of the fridge and freezer and computers to protect them. But I never had to start the generator. am really curious about Ray's fuel usage. I always went with .5 gallon per hour for 5000 watt and 1 gallon for 10,000 watt.

Hi Rick, those fuel numbers you listed are the rated full load numbers for an 002 and an 003. 90% of the time whatever gen I was running at the moment was showing almost no load on the meter. Only when the well pump kicked on, or clothes dryer, oven etc. did the load go above 25%.
To suck up that much fuel per hour, you must be at near full load all the time, but that's not real world use.
My brother in law has my old 002AASK in CT and he was getting about 24 hr. out of a tank of fuel, but that is mostly just the fridge, a few lights and the circulators on his boiler, very light load.
This is the exact reason I have the 3 machines available at all times, to conserve fuel by matching the energy supply to the demand, but still have reserve for when SOMEONE turns on the oven without telling me first!