Generac Portable Generator

[DonL]

Well put JW,

Once the Ball gets rolling it is hard to stop. But no damage done, That I see.

One reason that so many people like Terry's Forums is because Terry supports Freedom of speech.

Sometimes the Heading don't match the Subject.

Sounds like a Software Glitch to me...


Have a great Sunday, Everyone.


DonL

[Speedy Petey]

Your analogies don't work to me at all .....

Foreign built cars have nothing to do with small portable USA built generators...

If Generac uses Briggs engines......and they do on under 15 kw units...and they sell replacement parts in Briggs boxes....it's reasonable to assume Generac has a big connection or is owned by Briggs....

Briggs owns a pile of companies with familiar names from everything I have read.



Almost all generators are built using various components from different suppliers....like a huge assortment of machines...

Engines from one manufacturer
Generator ends from somewhere else....and they use commonly available items like voltage regulators......
They build the frame and add their wiring and controls.....
and label the unit as theirs....

Import built stuff is built the same way......but most of the electrical components are junk and the engines are "knockoffs"
They copy the Honda engines in every way.....size shape and colors.....they actuallly run decent and last.....The electrical compnonets don't.


I have worked on MANY larger Generac standby generators.......

Just had a home unit labeled as a GE and sold by Home Depot.....It was a Briggs......same as the ones we sell that are labeled as Briggs...

I am NOT making a direct comparison to cars. I was making the same point as you that some parts come from the same place.

If you look back, I said Generac USED to have a bad rep. IMO this is from the Briggs days. Older Generacs (maybe two years ago) are NOT the same as the ones offered today. Generac is now owned by Eaton, and the units are MUCH better. They are identical to the currently available Eaton units. The older Culter/Briggs units were junk IMO, especially the vertical 7kW units. Their service was also TERRIBLE. Since the breakup of Cutler/Briggs things have improved tremendously.
The new Eaton/Generac is a new beginning IMO.

As far as portable units go, anything under the Briggs name is not what one would call high quality. Some of the portable Generac units fall under this as well unfortunately.

[ballvalve]

Medicine is one very good example. There is one medicine that I need on a regular basis that cost more than $800 at my local drug store. This very same medicine, made by the same manufacturer here in the good ole USA sells for less than $30 in Mexico or Canada. Is this due to third world countries or is due to the sue happy good ole USA? If it don’t work hire a lawyer and make him rich.

As one can see this hogwash about everything leaving America has to do more with America than anyone else. We have done this to ourselves with our demands of higher pay and more benefits. Overtime for anything over 15 minutes of labor and a 55 minute break for every hour of work.

Certainly I agree with the medicine, but recent careful [independant] studies show about 25% of the imports, most of which are Indian or Chinese, no mater the package, were aldulterated and some false. Many cancer drugs have been diluted or repacked because they sell for more than cocaine. One must be very careful in the [by the way] illegal imports.

Monday I'll have 9 Slovak professors here for dinner and they are tops at Phizer Europe labs - I'll get their very much inside info after a few bottles of wine and report back. One is a cousin, so he will speak freely on the side.

The Generac-Briggs spoke so highly of are made by those unions and beat the price of the imports, so that system must work under the right management. To keep my point brief, England would be germany if not for our manufacturing base, though one hopes if such a war starts again we can get the machines and the drive to save ourselves. If we lose Briggs 7 or 9000 main employees, thats a lot of machine tools that can make weapons instead - for the country that buys them at auction.

I never mentioned NAFTA, I think the issue is patriotism and perseverance. My father heated his parents house with coal picked up on the rail road tracks. Walked thru town to shoot the evening meal - rifle in hand, Now kids dont even know where heat comes from, and the Swat team would close all roads in the city for a kid with a .22 .... Made a top sniper of Japanese on 15 islands. I was skinning rabbits when I was 9. And we were in a real city. I'm full of lead pellets and Dad never got through a airport metal detector.

Just bought a 32$ mexican arc fault breaker. I am certain we could make it here for $32.50

[Rich B]

One thing is for sure about the Internet.....No matter what you say someone will take issue with your staements.

The OP'er asked about portable generators......

I see a lot of them....

Honda is number one....

Generac would rank a lot lower in quality, but very similar to many USA brands...

Anything Made in China is not worth the boat ride over to the west coast where it was offloaded.

I repair generators.......My company has sold lots of units......

I have a well used Honda EB 3500......It's over 10 years old.....Has never failed me and my neighbor used it this past week for 3 or 4 days striaght.....I am an auto racer.....Drag racing.....I go to weekend races and the Honda goes with me....It powers my pickup truck camper and some items in my trailer when I go to a long weekend race.

I am about to put an Onan 4KW RV unit in my trailer........I have one I can repair and use. I will still take the Honda with me just in case.......Onans are great BUT they do break.......Oh and I fix them too.......All the time.....Every RV unit they make....

[ballvalve]

Certainly I agree with the medicine, but recent careful [independant] studies show about 25% of the imports, most of which are Indian or Chinese, no mater the package, were aldulterated and some false. Many cancer drugs have been diluted or repacked because they sell for more than cocaine. One must be very careful in the [by the way] illegal imports.

Monday I'll have 9 Slovak professors here for dinner and they are tops at Phizer Europe labs - I'll get their very much inside info after a few bottles of wine and report back. One is a cousin, so he will speak freely on the side.

It turns out that my cousin is the Phizer salesboss for Czech-Slovakia, and he was taking, on behalf of the drug company, 25 liver specialists
on a "conference" to san Francisco and Yosemite to push a new liver drug, of great expense. One can stop wondering why one tablet can cost 400$, when that is paying for these doctors vacation. And they get huge kick backs for prescribing them.

Finally, scary part, I inquired of the 9 that came here about Silymarin, or the extract of Milk thistle, A OLD liver remedy, natural, and recently concentrated and given in large doses to greatly prolong livers going toward failure and incredibly, having saved several people from Amanita mushroom - 'death cap' poisoning, which destroys the liver. No knowledge, except a scoff of sorts. And these were double blind long term studies.

The medical system is a bit closed minded and deeply oriented toward free junkets around the world for fleecing their patients.

They didnt have any generator opinions, but did say most of the small engines in Europe tend towards Briggs now.

[illinois524]

[QUOTE=BobL43;318952 After finding it was not needed, I drained the tank, pickled the engine, and left in in my shed for several years.[/QUOTE]

could you please explain to me when you say "pickled the engine". I know you are trying to say you did something to the engine so that could sit for a period of time. What is that? Also just wondering if you have ever thought about a nat gas conversion kit so as not to have to worry about gas sitting to long or draining the tan? Generac told me that it is possible to run their unit on it.

[BobL43]

could you please explain to me when you say "pickled the engine". I know you are trying to say you did something to the engine so that could sit for a period of time. What is that? Also just wondering if you have ever thought about a nat gas conversion kit so as not to have to worry about gas sitting to long or draining the tan? Generac told me that it is possible to run their unit on it.

Pickling the engine: after draining the fuel tank and running the engine until the carburetor is empy and the engine stops, I remove the spark plug, squirt a little motor oil into the spark plug hole, pull the starter cord several times to get that oil spread around the cylinder and piston rings and reinstall the plug. That is to inhibit rust from forming in the combustion chamber.

I do not have natural gas within 2 blocks where I live, and for the number of times I've needed the generator since year 2000, I could have done without wiring in a transfer panel to connect it up. A few extension cords would have been fine. I did install one, though, and it made it convenient to use.