Whole House Generator

[frule]

I clearly said to get a large tank. Your reading comprehension needs improvement.



"And, despite what frule says, propane vs. NG absolutely matters.   In the winter time the size of your propane tank will have a tremendous impact on the amount of time a generator will run.  Not only will a smaller tank hold less propane, what propane is in there may have trouble getting to the generator the temps get colder and the propane depletes.  Or it may not run at all. Or it may run, but not at full capacity.   This goes back to my comment on design".

[fredhargis]

I ahve a 7 year old 22KW Generac (with a Honeywell label) that urns off a 500 gallon (dedicated) LP tank. Our outages are mostly 2-4 hours, but we have had 1 that wass 22 hours, and another that went maybe 14 hours. No problems with the generator yet. Generac does provide about 80% of the home standby units in the US, so there's that to consider. But there's some maintenance that I wonder about, specifically having the valves adjusted after 25 hours, then again every 200 hours (or so). Not sure if Kohler has that requirement. That said, I doubt you'll lose with either brand and you might want to compare costs (and fuel consumption since you'll have LP).

[frule]

I ahve a 7 year old 22KW Generac (with a Honeywell label) that urns off a 500 gallon (dedicated) LP tank. Our outages are mostly 2-4 hours, but we have had 1 that wass 22 hours, and another that went maybe 14 hours. No problems with the generator yet. Generac does provide about 80% of the home standby units in the US, so there's that to consider. But there's some maintenance that I wonder about, specifically having the valves adjusted after 25 hours, then again every 200 hours (or so). Not sure if Kohler has that requirement. That said, I doubt you'll lose with either brand and you might want to compare costs (and fuel consumption since you'll have LP).

Most new Generac engines do NOT require valve adjustments. They have hydraulic lifters.

[CStan]

Planning to have a whole house generator installed in the next couple of months.  The installer, a local electrician, lives on our street and has a Kohler at his house.  His son, also on our street, has a Generac that the father installed.  He (the electrician) installed his Kohler so as to have a comparison with the son's Generac.  (Both were installed at the same time and are basically the same rating.)  Thus, he feels that one brand is not that much better than the other and is in effect evaluating both at the same time under the same conditions. They have not been in use long enough to draw any conclusions as to reliability, maintenance costs, etc., so I can't decide which I should have installed. My question to you fine folks is this: do you have any personal experience with either brand, good or bad, that you can share to help in this decision?  Thanks, ronwhit

If your power goes out often enough to be able to evaluate the reliability of a generator, I'd move.

[Gary G™]

If your power goes out often enough to be able to evaluate the reliability of a generator, I'd move.

Or, not!

My farm is the beginning of rural service.
We’re off a two lane winding road outside a place with about 500 people and the house sits at the end of a 950 driveway behind a row of giant live oaks.

My nearest neighbor is within sight; the next nearest is about 1/4 mile or so.
There’s no light pollution. We’re surrounded by hundreds of acres of woods and undevelopable acreage.

There’s no leftists, woke muffers, and the most common sounds are my woodworking equipment, the mower, the hawks and folks keeping their rifles in tune all around.

When a hurricane blasts through, it can take down trees and things like transformers.
Over the course of 25 years, we’ve had several extended outages due to severe hurricane damage to the electrical infrastructure.
Once for 10 days, one for 2 weeks and once for a week.
Other outages have typically been under a day.

I wouldn’t trade this location for anywhere.

[fredhargis]

Way to go, Gary..I'm right there with your opinion.

[fredhargis]

Most new Generac engines do NOT require valve adjustments. They have hydraulic lifters.

hat's an interesting fact i didn't know, so I had to go look. It's only their 14KW and 18 KW units that have hydraulic lifters. I can't understand why they didn't put htem in all the units. It would have made my life easier.

[Snipe Hunter]

Power outages are a small price to pay for living the dream.

We lived in the country, 1/2 mile long cul-de-sac, maybe 12 houses? The kids played safely in the street and hunted in the woods. Everybody new everybody. I'd leave 4 bucks under the door mat and 2 empty egg cartons and the neighbor kids dropped off 2 dozen fresh eggs every Saturday morning. Needed help with snow, everybody pitched in. Borrow a tool? Somebody would have it. Dead quiet at 10pm and the stars... ohh the bright stars. I'd give my left arm for that again.

[frule]

hat's an interesting fact i didn't know, so I had to go look. It's only their 14KW and 18 KW units that have hydraulic lifters. I can't understand why they didn't put htem in all the units. It would have made my life easier.

I have a 16kW with hydraulic lifters, as did the 13 KW. My older 8KW did not, but it wasn't a big deal. I checked at 25 hours and no adjustment needed. Checked again at 200 hours and no adjustment needed. That was the last suggested check per the manual. I had it for 7 years and went through a 7 day outage during an ice storm and it ran perfectly. 

Kohlers are good generators, too. But the Generac dealer network convinced me to stay with Generac and my 16KW has never had a single issue.

[Cabinet Monkey]

I got a FREE extended warranty straight from Generac. It is 7 years, parts and labor. They constantly offer them. Why pay extra for one? Google it.

Extended warranty doesn’t really do a whole lot for me and I certainly wouldn’t pay for one.

5 years of annual maintenance isn’t something to sneeze at though. 

I do have to wonder whether or not you simply “prepaid” for that in the initial install cost