New generator up keep

Rat407

Rat407

Joined
Dec 13, 2002
Messages
2,529
Location
North Carolina
Wasn't sure where to post this. Got a generator for hurricane season here in eastern NC. It is just about over and thankfully as well as hopefully nothing coming this way for this year.

I have a Generac 8K portable and was wanting to keep it exercised so to speak once a month with running it for about 30 min. I have non ethanol fuel in it with stabilizer. The tank isn't full, maybe 3 gallons in it most. I know you are not supposed to run them without a load. What would be something I can plug into it and run for 30 min once a month? It is outside in my storage shed and I will pull it out into the open to run for those 30 min. I have a box fan but don't think that would have enough draw on it. Thanks.
 
something with heating elements.

Hair dryer, Space heater, even a toaster you might have to put it down a couple times on super dark ;)

otherwise.. go loud and annoying a large vacuum or shop vac.
 
Once every month is overkill TBH; it's not necessary, but OK if you want to do so. I do my gennys once in spring and once in fall, and they have literally lasted more than twenty years and still run great and make power as expected. As others have said, any reasonable load is OK. My fav go-to is a stand light with two 500W halogen lamps.

Note that your generator is large enough that I suspect it has 240V capability; 120V per side. So you'll want to plug in a load into each of the outlets so you exercise both sides of the powerhead. It may seem confusing. If you (or someone you know) has a voltmeter, check across the outlets until you find 240V for the "household" outlets. Then use a load on each side of that 240V potential (120V in one outlet and 120V in the other outlet).
 
Rat407 said:
Wasn't sure where to post this. Got a generator for hurricane season here in eastern NC. It is just about over and thankfully as well as hopefully nothing coming this way for this year.

I have a Generac 8K portable and was wanting to keep it exercised so to speak once a month with running it for about 30 min. I have non ethanol fuel in it with stabilizer. The tank isn't full, maybe 3 gallons in it most. I know you are not supposed to run them without a load. What would be something I can plug into it and run for 30 min once a month? It is outside in my storage shed and I will pull it out into the open to run for those 30 min. I have a box fan but don't think that would have enough draw on it. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Install a manual transfer switch. Run it against your target loads. End of story.

Congratulations on your wisdom of using E0 fuel. For your climate I would suggest a 15w-40 diesel oil. Synthetic RT6 is available at Walmarts everywhere.
 
Rat407 said:
Wasn't sure where to post this. Got a generator for hurricane season here in eastern NC. It is just about over and thankfully as well as hopefully nothing coming this way for this year.

I have a Generac 8K portable and was wanting to keep it exercised so to speak once a month with running it for about 30 min. I have non ethanol fuel in it with stabilizer. The tank isn't full, maybe 3 gallons in it most. I know you are not supposed to run them without a load. What would be something I can plug into it and run for 30 min once a month? It is outside in my storage shed and I will pull it out into the open to run for those 30 min. I have a box fan but don't think that would have enough draw on it. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Some good ideas so far to create load - the box fan might only be 55W which is why I leave one plugged in and moving heat and fumes away from my 9500W when it’s running …
 
Astro_Guy said:
Install a manual transfer switch. Run it against your target loads. End of story.

Congratulations on your wisdom of using E0 fuel. For your climate I would suggest a 15w-40 diesel oil. Synthetic RT6 is available at Walmarts everywhere.
Click to expand...
Why would he need 15w40 diesel oil. I'm in SC ran my generator on 10w30 just fine.
 
doitmyself said:
Why is it recommended to not run them without load? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Shouldn't run any engine without a load. As for a modern non-diesel generator, it's an old wives tale. Doesn't do any good to exercise a generator without testing its capability tho. An inverter generator shouldn't be ran at idle for glazing and carbon reasons, the inverter itself doesn't care. A regular generator runs at 3600rpm which is a significant load in and of itself, and the powerhead doesn't care if you use it or not.
Rogueman2016s said:
Why would he need 15w40 diesel oil. I'm in SC ran my generator on 10w30 just fine.
Click to expand...
Just in case his racing generator runs out of oil pressure on the salt flats.
 
dnewton3 said:
Once every month is overkill TBH; it's not necessary, but OK if you want to do so. I do my gennys once in spring and once in fall, and they have literally lasted more than twenty years and still run great and make power as expected. As others have said, any reasonable load is OK. My fav go-to is a stand light with two 500W halogen lamps.

Note that your generator is large enough that I suspect it has 240V capability; 120V per side. So you'll want to plug in a load into each of the outlets so you exercise both sides of the powerhead. It may seem confusing. If you (or someone you know) has a voltmeter, check across the outlets until you find 240V for the "household" outlets. Then use a load on each side of that 240V potential (120V in one outlet and 120V in the other outlet).
Click to expand...
:O I didn't know that loading each side was a thing. Would this apply to a Honda EU22i?
 
I have a Harbor Freight 3200 watt genny that I bought about 10 years ago. At first I used to run it every month, but try to run it every 3-4 months now. When I do run it , I hook up a 300 watt work light and my old shop vac. My reason for doing that is, I want to make sure it's doing something beside just running. I added fuel injector cleaner to the gas when I gas it up, to hopefully keep the carb clean so it starts easily. I haven't had a real need to use it for anything, but every once in a while I'll plug my hedge trimmer when the hedges need a cut so as to burn up the old gas.,,
 
I have a champion generator over 10 yrs old it does plenty of sitting I periodically run it only keep enough fuel in it to start it put a small load using a space heater sometimes don’t put any load never had to replace the carburetor and never ran on diesel oil. I use 87 or 89 w/ stabil or just a basic fuel treatment like stp red bottle and any 10w30 from Walmart. during hurricane season I keep it full afterwards I drain that fuel and run it in one of my cars

Only things I replaced was the plug and fuel line in 10 yrs
 
Rat407 said:
Wasn't sure where to post this. Got a generator for hurricane season here in eastern NC. It is just about over and thankfully as well as hopefully nothing coming this way for this year.

I have a Generac 8K portable and was wanting to keep it exercised so to speak once a month with running it for about 30 min. I have non ethanol fuel in it with stabilizer. The tank isn't full, maybe 3 gallons in it most. I know you are not supposed to run them without a load. What would be something I can plug into it and run for 30 min once a month? It is outside in my storage shed and I will pull it out into the open to run for those 30 min. I have a box fan but don't think that would have enough draw on it. Thanks.
Click to expand...
How are you taking the power from it now? Are you using the 240 VAC recepticle or one or more of the 120 VAC recepticles? You should figure out how to power the target loads now as opposed to waiting for a real emergency. If nothing else this exercise will demonstrate the need for a transfer switch. Once that is installed the question of how to exercise the generator becomes a moot one.

Could you share what it is you hope to power in an emergency? 8K is a pretty big generator.
 
I store my Gasoline generator with VP-C9 fuel that never goes bad. Start it once a year. 25 years down the road, no issues what so ever. The little beast has thousands of hours on it now.

Note, I don't run it on VP-C9, for that I use regular fuel. It is easy to run it out when done with it, and put in the VP fuel.
 
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