The Chonda kept us in our home

[jrustles]

Gotta say, I'm really impressed with the little 80cc Chonda generator! Had it for 4-5 years now, snagged it on sale and never used it like this. I tore apart the muffler to install a catalyst cake, but that project was never completed. Having misplaced the filter and housing, a couple years back, it's been going with NO FILTER- approximately 10 gallons of fuel so fa. Put short, it was not prepared to be run.

So far, it's been going 24/7 since Sunday and like the cars, the gas is doped with Acetone and 2T oil. It doesnt have the amps to start the washing machine or dishwasher, but with the breaker deleted it'll run many smaller loads on top of the two main ones Fridge and furnace (blower + inductor). They can both start up with the other running while also powering a few CFLs, TVs, computer/modem and resistive loads (car battery charger, aquarium heater) - all at the same time! Of course, that's at the limit and with mindful load onset.

She's had two OCIs so far- whatever was in there for the last few years- XD-3 0w40 I think. The engine barely cracked 60C I'm guessing based on touch and probably down to 50C during the -18C bit so decided to run something lighter, 5w20 re-refined Supertech.
Aiming for about 40hour OCI, esp. with an ~8oz oil capacity I'd estimate, run hard for two days it'll consume maybe 1oz of it. Not too bad.

So them's the facts; us and our home is saved by a ravaged Chonda on 5w20 recycled supertech with acetone and 2t oil in the gas. How wrong does that sound?

This is what it looks like, except mine's been brutalized and weathered. The Chinese did a pretty good job on this one, I think.

 

[cronk]

I personally would not run 5w20 in an air cooled small engine.
Especially for generator duty where it will be running full rpm under a fairly heavy load for extended periods of time.
I would go with a 5w40 synthetic like Rotella T6 or even Rotella T5 10w30.
I run the Amsoil 10w30 Small engine oil in my chonda with good results. Not sure how available that is in Canada though.

 

[Quest]

Good to know that you are still "alive" and well with your chonda powering up your house during icestorm.

I currently have a 2T based portagen (supposedly capable of 1200Watts peak, or 950Watts continuous...with loads of 2T oil on standby.

The longest time I had w/o power was 5 hrs....not long enough to have any serious concerns about food in fridge goes bad (I have a freezer chest in the garage that all I ever need is just an extension cord to power it...in other words: 2 fridges on-rotation when needed...

I'll see if I can talk my buddy out of giving me his broken down B&S 1850Watts portable sometime next year (possibly in his trailer still)...that way, I can get rid of my 2T gennie and simply go with that B&S instead.

Q.

 

[Reg# 43897]

Great stuff! The power outages are only about a mile & a half away from here. But so far, no issues! The two Honda EU2000i's (slavable to each other) were ready though w/ a five gallon of fresh, non-ethanol 91 octane fuel plus a bit of MMO in it.

John.

 

[eljefino]

So does it have any sort of muffler on it? What's your motivation for the catalyst?

 

[The motor guy]

try 5w20 when it's 100 out. Your engine wont last too long then..... Quit being stupid and put a 30 weight oil in there. Whether it's 0w30 or whatever, just as long as it's a 30 weight.

 

[dernp]

Glad it worked out for you. Here in the London area, the ice storm was pretty much a now show. I had my Generac 4000EXL ready to go but our power never so much as flickered. Folks in the GTA had it real rough.

 

[webfors]

My champion 3500w generator kept furnace, freezer, fridge, lights and home office online for 3 hours last week. Coupled with a transfer kit and proper outlet outside it's a quick transition to generator power. 100 liters of fuel should keep us going for a few weeks properly rationed, with the wood stove going

 

[webfors]

Oh, and my chonda powered snowtek snowblower starts and runs better than any blower on my street

 

[Clevy]

I have a couple champion generators,3000 watts,Chinese engine. They were bought for 200 each. I just needed 1 for a couple weeks and buying these was cheaper than renting. That was 4 years ago.
As far as oil a 20 grade is fine in those temps. Some people don't understand that if the block is 60c the oil is pretty thick and is costing some hp and fuel economy.
Some folks have their blinders on and don't think they just follow the instructions grandpaw told them 30 years ago

 

[yeehaw1960]

I usually follow the instructions written in the literature that comes with the machine. I'm positive it says to run 10W30 detergent oil. I've heard, let me know if I'm full of cra#, that the cheap Chinese generators (or any cheap gens) may not be safe to run electronics with. Possible surges and such. Let me know.

 

[webfors]

Originally Posted By: yeehaw1960
I usually follow the instructions written in the literature that comes with the machine. I'm positive it says to run 10W30 detergent oil. I've heard, let me know if I'm full of cra#, that the cheap Chinese generators (or any cheap gens) may not be safe to run electronics with. Possible surges and such. Let me know.


My home office is on UPS battery backup and surge protection. It will keep the surges under control and protect the sensitive electronics.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: yeehaw1960
I usually follow the instructions written in the literature that comes with the machine. I'm positive it says to run 10W30 detergent oil. I've heard, let me know if I'm full of cra#, that the cheap Chinese generators (or any cheap gens) may not be safe to run electronics with. Possible surges and such. Let me know.


Unless you have specialized electronics or medical devices, pretty much no modern electronic device is sensitive. All your computers, LCDs' (and parts of plasmas too), etc convert AC to DC before it goes to the machine. And a good chunk of them use a word power supply so anything 110-240 at 50-60 hz will be fine. As long as you don't dip much below 90 or over 250 you should be fine.

Think about it - this stuff is used all over the world in countries and locales that have some pretty crummy power so it's designed to handle some pretty bad electricity.

When we're on generator (or even inverter in the car) I don't worry - just use the stuff.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: itguy08

Unless you have specialized electronics or medical devices, pretty much no modern electronic device is sensitive. All your computers, LCDs' (and parts of plasmas too), etc convert AC to DC before it goes to the machine. And a good chunk of them use a word power supply so anything 110-240 at 50-60 hz will be fine. As long as you don't dip much below 90 or over 250 you should be fine.


Thanks for that!

Small RPM oscillations on these Chondas do cause the voltage and frequency to bounce some, but like you say, it's perfectly fine for household goods.

Still intrigued about the "catalyst cake" thing??

 

[Spazdog]

My Champion Chonda ran for about a week straight during the ice storm in 2011

When it was 10°F, you could hold your hand on the valve cover. I don't think the oil temp was even up to 60°C at the top of the engine (but my 1970s public school metric system education could be off)

 

[yeehaw1960]

Cool! Now I'll plug the TV and Cable Box's power strip in next time I have to run the generator. No more sitting around a table lamp listening to the fridge run! I use the 3500W generator my Father gave me a couple years ago. I would have bought a good (expensive), name-brand one, with a Briggs on it if I wasn't capable of pulling my Chonda's carburetor and cleaning it up in a few minutes. That's the difference between me (and other's on this forum) owning Chinese engine-powered equipment and the layman owning it. It's also why I can buy a cheap riding mower and make it last 10 years. I don't have to put it in the shop if it breaks down.

 

[eljefino]

My heat guy fixed a bunch of boiler circuit boards after the ice storm of 1998. He swears you shouldn't run them off a generator. I would, if cornered. I suspect many people let their generators run out of gas while they were sleeping, and the low voltage from them spinning down and sputtering out killed things in the boilers. "Some" modern Auto Voltage Regulating units have an engine kill feature, but I don't think that comes with an output relay so one still sees power burps as it spins down.

My boiler is wired up to my transfer switch, but I've yet to need it in a power outage, thanks to a wood stove. My interest is in running at least the circulator pumps though to keep pipes from freezing, in a prolonged low temp outage like some are experiencing now.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
My heat guy fixed a bunch of boiler circuit boards after the ice storm of 1998. He swears you shouldn't run them off a generator. I would, if cornered. I suspect many people let their generators run out of gas while they were sleeping, and the low voltage from them spinning down and sputtering out killed things in the boilers. "Some" modern Auto Voltage Regulating units have an engine kill feature, but I don't think that comes with an output relay so one still sees power burps as it spins down.


I think you're right in that. I'd imagine the power from the last few minutes of running out of gas would be some nasty power - near 0 volts, then full (or more) as the AVR tries to make it all work. I think that's why nearly all generator manuals say don't run them out of gas under load as I'd imagine that power is pretty nasty and it can fry stuff as well as the AVR.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: yeehaw1960
Cool! Now I'll plug the TV and Cable Box's power strip in next time I have to run the generator. No more sitting around a table lamp listening to the fridge run!


Have at it. When we lost power the last time I was running the laptops, FIOS box, fridges, freezer, coffeemaker, etc. just fine. Didn't run the TV as I didn't want to get behind that mess and plug in an extension cord as we only lost it for an evening - it was back on mid morning the next day. Had it been off longer I would not have hesitated to power up the TV and cable box.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
My heat guy fixed a bunch of boiler circuit boards after the ice storm of 1998. He swears you shouldn't run them off a generator. I would, if cornered. I suspect many people let their generators run out of gas while they were sleeping, and the low voltage...


I know with my little briggs flat-head powered Coleman ~1600w, it you overdraw it, the gen just bogs down and the breaker never trips. I had this happen when it tried to start the refrigerator when the sump-pump was running. The fridge just buzzed/hummed from the compressor trying to start until the sump pump kicked off. You just have to be sure to manage your loads appropriately with the small gens.