Best Generator

[Freedomfirst]

Hello,

I am an electrical contractor who repairs and installs electrical generators grudgingly because of the poor quality selection. Does anyone on this forum have any recommendations on the best type of generator on the market? I like 1800rpm liquid cooled but they are pricey and do not have many if any offerings in the 8kw range. My concerns are reliability, lifespan and fuel consumption.

Thank you,

Jim

 

[wayne440]

The "best" generator depends on your point of view. As a retailer the best generator may be whichever brand has the best ad campaign and profit margin. As an installer, you want something easy to get in place and hook up. If you are a person on a life support machine, you want the one that works every time, and other features are secondary. Small 1800 rpm sets are readily available, if you do not limit your search to spark ignited engines- a well engineered diesel will do well for reliability, lifespan and fuel consumption when properly maintained. My home standby set is a 29 year old diesel- I figure it is good for many more years.

 

[waross]

My home backup is a six kW driven by a 3 cylinder diesel. It was purchased second hand and has about 18,000 hours on it. Try that with a gasoline set.

Bill
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"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[wayne440]

Bill,

I will probably not see my 15kW Onan run to 18K hours, I will probably have seen my last one well before then.
A 6kW, 3 cylinder diesel, is yours a light tower unit? I also have one of those, very handy.

Note to the OP- the reason you cannot find small high quality sets is that the average buyer will not pay for a good generator. They look only at the price and believe just about anything a sales brochure says. Quality and reliability do not sell residential generators, slick advertising does. The last "good" gaseous fueled set in your size range was probably the 7.5kW Onan JB - it has been out of production for 20+ years.

Wayne

 

[waross]

Yes Wayne. An ex rental Ingersol Rand light tower. We have used the lights for a couple of teenager parties and for night skating.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[electricpete]

My home backup is a six kW driven by a 3 cylinder diesel. It was purchased second hand and has about 18,000 hours on it. Try that with a gasoline set.

Hmmm. If it was a car with average speed 50mph, that would be 900,000 miles. Yup, that's pretty good.


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(2B)+(2B)' ?

 

[catserveng]

I think Wayne nailed it, you want a "good" generator, but most companies that market and package sets are VERY cost driven. Want a really good set that meets your specific needs? Build one. I have built several small diesel and gas powered gensets for friends with different needs. A friend who is a farmer has a lot of old International equipment and tons of spare parts, used one of his engines, found a really nice Marathon tail end to fit, built it with an oversized radiator and a fuel tank with filtration that met his needs.

Pick an engine that you are comfortable with and can get parts for. Mount it on a skid or base that meets you needs. Need to move it around, make it quiet, sit up above a flood line? There are a number of small diesels on the market that a very robust, like Yanmar, Hatz, Deutz and others.

About 4 years ago a former coworker got set to move to Alaska, he wanted a set that would meet his needs, I asked him to write down all the things he wanted in a set, like engine type, run time on a tank of fuel, worst case expected ambient conditions, etc. Then to list all the things he didn't like about commercial sets on the market, like where the fuel fill and batteries are, access for service, fuel filtration, etc. Last thing I asked him was to figure out where he would get parts, and how he would get them up to where he lives. The end result was a small John Deere diesel, a way overbuilt skid type frame, a hybrid cooling system, a PTO and a nice little oversized tail end. He runs the heck out of it and so far is happy. But it is a one off, and likely no makers of gensets will make a unit like that a standard offering.

Light tower gensets are a good starting point, but there are really tough ones and really crappy ones out there. And there are a large number of folks who buy and use commercially available gensets in that size range and as long as they meet their needs, they are "good", at least until they don't work.

My 2 cents worth. Mike L.

 

[waross]

Look at F.G. Wilson diesel sets. F.G. Wilson made the Olympian line for Cat until Cat Bought F.G. Wilson.
They were quite popular in Honduras and I installed dozens of them.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter