r/Generator

As the title says, I just received a quote for a whole house gen at $35k. Based on quotes I've seen online, I can't help but think that is way overpriced and someone is trying to get one over on me. I did contact them through email just in case there was an error and they said the price was correct.

Some info about the installation:

Generator: Kohler 20RCAL­200SELS 20KW Standby
Generator Air Cooled with 200 Amp Automatic Transfer Switch

Home size: 1500 sq ft

Installation price includes underground install of gas tank and fill, concrete slab installation, permits, and cat 6 network line installation.

I live in central Florida. If there's any other information needed, let me know. Also, I am currently awaiting another contractor coming out and giving a quote as well.

Lots of discussion on this, but there never seems to be definitive answers other than links to Youtube videos that are n/a to the Champion 11kw Inverter. Here's the schematic of the CO sensor, which has a black wire to the "Engine Stop Microswitch", plus a path to Ground, which I highlighted in the diagram.

Is this black wire the one that grounds out the ignition if the CO sensor is tripped, or does some other wire need to be pulled (or re-routed, or connected to some other wire)? I would prefer to do this via "disconnect a wire" (which can be plugged back in if warranty service is needed) rather than trying to tape over the sensor.

https://preview.redd.it/0g7rw7lpih2h1.png?width=1861&format=png&auto=webp&s=9f6887f214c8e5049b426d2e46b7bfbc055d6756

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Filed a claim after losing about $1,200 in fridge and freezer food during a long outage in Pearland TX and it got denied. Called my agent to understand why and apparently standard HO-3 policies exclude food spoilage from utility service failure.

It's only covered if the outage was caused by a covered peril that also physically damaged your property, so basically your roof has to come off too for the food loss to count.

He said I could add a food spoilage endorsement for about $35/year but it caps at $500 which is less than half what our worst outage cost us. We had 3 outages last year totaling about $1,800 in food that would've been completely prevented with a battery station keeping the fridge running.

At this point I'm looking at backup power as self-insurance for a loss that's genuinely uninsurable through normal channels.

Had a 7kW Generac portable for about 10 years. It's been solid but the last two times I needed it the pull start took multiple attempts and it ran rough for the first 20 minutes. Carburetor is probably gummed up again despite using stabilizer.

Debating whether to rebuild the carb for $150 and keep going or switch to a battery entirely.

My actual needs during outages are pretty minimal. Fridge, wifi router, a few phone chargers, maybe a lamp. Probably under 500W continuous. I never run the AC or kitchen appliances off the generator anyway.

The appeal of a battery is no gas storage, no maintenance, no pull starts, no exhaust ventilation concerns. My wife has asked me multiple times to move the generator further from the house because of CO risk and honestly she's right. Anyone made this kind of switch?

Hello, seeking advice in the best generator for a mobile massage chair business, 2 zero gravity massage chairs, LED lights and possibly a few other low draw devices as well as a 13,500 BTU AC. I don't want to do over kill and only needs to run consecutively for up to 4hrs. Also considering installing a soft start for the AC to help the initial surge, any suggestions?

Got a Honda gennie here that binds up when pulling it. I pulled the spark plug and checked valves but it still binding. I then disconnected the 3 main wires (power) going into the board and it now doesn’t bind. Is this a board issue or alternator? I tested the output for continuity and the plugs are all good.

Edit: Based on new info, these are said to not like to work in parallel quite like my Genmax pair do. These parallel to 240v ONLY as there is no neutral wire coming out to their parallel kit. That sucks... Unlike my pair of Genmax, which have 4 wires (2 hots, neutral, & ground) that parallel and each have a 14-50R connection so it works perfectly.

If I didn't have my pair of Genmax GM7500aIED's from Sam's Club, this is a model I would consider IF they had the ability to parallel as 120/240v.

Not to mention, this is the same basic generator as the Duromax XP7000ih that's "on sale" for $1,799.

A-iPower GXSC7100iRD at Costco for $899

https://preview.redd.it/rzql2ud3t42h1.png?width=1842&format=png&auto=webp&s=9d3a60e2d54ea9523fcf37e3b40f17fc39264083

Got a new Predator 5000. The pull works great. It arrived with the start switch to ON, and the pigtail already connected. Assuming it was a dead battery on the electric start (since the lights didn't even come on), I ordered a fresh battery, which I usually do anyhow for most things so I know when it was installed. The pull start worked fine once I hit the choke. But even after a new battery change, it doesn't want to start using the key fob or the onboard start button. The key fob, at least does have the red light now, which it didn't at first. Pigtail is hooked, and I cannot see any other issues when I try to trace the system. My husband had open heart surgery two years ago and struggles with the pull start, so I REALLY would like to get this going. Any ideas on my next step?

Please help me like I'm five because although daddy was a mechanic, and I know "words" I don't always remember what those words correspond with). ;)

Thanks!

Trying to sell this Winco Generator, there's nothing wrong with it. Any suggestions on where to sell? I have it on FBM for 20,000 and am not getting any hits, also on Craigslist. Is the price too high? It has a fuel tank underneath. This isn't my first time posting on here; you guys helped me with another generator. But these size generators seem hard to sell.

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My wife and I are breaking ground on a new home next month and we've decided that, as we aren't getting any younger, we like the idea of the security of a whole-house generator. Even though I see Generacs everywhere, from what little research I've done so far, I'm leaning more towards Kohler. Our home will be approximately 3,700 square feet and will be heated via NG with a NG water heater. Any generator we install would also run on NG. We're concerned more with snow load and ice storms and losing power in the winter. Losing power during the summer to a thunderstorm or something similar is also an inconvenience, but not nearly as drastic as losing power in the middle of winter. Even though it is technically a "whole-house" generator, we don't intend to run every single thing in the house or have every single light on in the middle of an emergency. We would plan on manually turning off lights and devices we don't need. We're focusing on staying relatively comfortable with a normal amount of light where it is needed and a normal amount of entertainment, computer, TVs, Internet, etc. Nothing too crazy. We don't plan to be doing laundry during a power outage. I'm trying to get an idea what size we should be considering for our home. The most common Kohler residential units seem to be 26, 20, and 14kW. I was leaning towards a 26kW unit, but didn't want to assume that we would need one quite that large. We're not adding this to an existing home, so it's not really possible to do any sort of load study like you might do on an existing property.

Opinions on the size we should consider?

Thanks.

Hi, I’m looking to buy this power generator. I have two questions:

1.) How durable is this? I’m new to this, but to me it looks like a bunch of moving parts that can break, rust, and fall apart extremely easily. Is this thing meant to last a decade?

2.) How much wattage should I get? I’m using it as a backup generator for Wifi. Hopefully, won’t have to use it a lot. If a blackout goes on to long, we will use it for household lighting, but the main contingency is for Wifi.

I've seen a few posts of people complaining about this but no solutions. Has anyone been successful at bypassing the remote start timeout feature?

I bought this generator specifically for my elderly mother in law to be able to remote start generator during frequent power outages as it is not safe for her to walk out in the dark in storms. But the remote system goes to sleep after 12 hours.

I keep the generator on a battery tender that is plugged into a circuit on the house that is not on the transfer switch powered circuits. My plan was just leave the generator switch always on. Then when power goes out she can start the gen with remote and she has instructions on how to operate the transfer switch.

But, because the remote system times out, she must walk out in uneven ground and cycle the generator main switch off and on to reset the remote start timer. Useless!!!

Thanks for any guidance. We cannot afford to install a full blown automatic backup generator system to her home.

Hi all.

Looking for recommendations for a generator for home backup for emergencies/power outages. We moved to the mountains and just experienced our first outage for 18 hours but a few months ago we had a huge snow storm and were out for several days. The most important thing is it needs to be able to run a well pump, fridge (extremely old) and deep freezer. Those are the biggest necessities. It does get hot in the summer so might also need to run a window unit AC for a few hours at a time. Ideally would also like to be able to use the tv/internet because I have kids but its not a necessity. Would prefer something quiet but we're on 10 acres so I dont think the neighbors would mind. Im also thinking maybe something small/solar for little things like charging phones. (I know this group isn't really geared towards solar powered generators but figured I'd throw that in there. TIA!

When trying to figure out what oil to use for my WGen11500Tfc, I've come across some posts that it seems to have a washable oil filter.

I've done all the maintenance steps in the manual and cleaning the oil filter is NOT one of them nor listed in the others.

Do I need to remove it and wash it? How often? With what? If I do need to do this, do I need to watch for any pitfalls like gaskets that come apart and need to be replaced (thinking of you - valve cover)?

Thanks!!!