I am looking at a new generator. I am between a generac 7500 or the northstar 8000. Now i have a coleman 5500 with a tecumseh that is ungodly loud and started using over a quart of oil in 5hrs of runtime. I havent ran the generator much until this past tuesday night when a tornado came through perryville, mo where i live. I ran it off and on and no more than 5hrs at a time. I want a bigger generator and have been looking at these too very closely. I am looking of opinions on these two and also opinions on others too.
Which generator
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Ashful
Minister of Fire
Which has the Honda motor? What is the regulation % and ripple on each? What's your application?
I went with the power stroke 8500 electric start with Honda GX 390 motor. No complaints here, just using it to occasionally back-feed house for well pump and small heat pump, or odd jobs around the yard.
I went with the power stroke 8500 electric start with Honda GX 390 motor. No complaints here, just using it to occasionally back-feed house for well pump and small heat pump, or odd jobs around the yard.
The northstar has the gx390 Honda. I am a very big fan of honda motors. Also heard good about generac too. I am just going to use it for odd and end things. When i hook it to my house, my generator i have now did just fine. Main things are fridge, deep freeze, power for my outdoor wood stove, blower fan on furnace and a few lights. My 5500w generator did fine.
Go with a Honda or if you can find a good used water cooled welder/generator for the right price go that way, A water cooled unit should go at least 3000 hrs with no problems and a LOT quieter.
jatoxico
Minister of Fire
I have a Coleman Power Mate 5500 and I agree, it is ungodly loud. After living on a generator a couple times for extended periods of time I'm really interested in also having one of the small Yamaha inverter generators. The run time on a gallon is outstanding, big enough to run the refrig, some lights, TV, charge your phones and is no louder than a dishwasher.
Running a standard 5500 watt generator flat out is way overkill to try and keep a few lights on and the refrig cold. Just far too loud and gas thirsty to run for extended periods of time.
Running a standard 5500 watt generator flat out is way overkill to try and keep a few lights on and the refrig cold. Just far too loud and gas thirsty to run for extended periods of time.
Jan Pijpelink
Minister of Fire
In 2003 I bought a "cheap" 3500W generator made by Wen. Whenever we have an outage, which is once or twice a year, I run it to connect the fridge, TV and 2 lights (when the outage is 2+ hrs, I start it up). Once we had to run it for 5 days due to a snow storm. Runs about 6 hours on a full tank. A bit noisy, but not too much. Paid $200 for it (refurbished). Serves the purpose. Still running good. Good purchase.
maple1
Minister of Fire
Sounds like you have more genny than you need.
I went to a 3000w Inverter genny - it's not just the loudness in an outage, but also the fuel consumption. I can run all we need with that plus our shallow well pump when we need the water tank filled again.
Why are you wanting a bigger one?
A lot of folks need 220 volts to run the well pump. They need a big unit to overcome the startup current inrush of the well pump. There is a solution for some but not all deep well pumps by switching to a variable speed drive by replacing thexternal capacitor box with variable speed controller. Once that's done most folks can get away with far smaller generator.
Note that the stock mufflers are pretty useless as a more effective muffler inevitably reduces engine output. Generator are sold by output and then price so a manufacturer is going to put the cheapest muffler they can get that doesn't reduce engine output. There are better mufflers sold, they tend to be quite large and can slightly reduce the engine output. Here is link https://www.jackssmallengines.com/Products/BRIGGS-STRATTON/Quiet-Mufflers frequently the generators packaging gets in the way so there may need to be modifications to fit it.
I work with really big generators 2.6 MW (2,600,000 watt) on occasion that run continuously, they use hospital grade silencers, the silencer can easily be bigger than the generator itself.
Note that the stock mufflers are pretty useless as a more effective muffler inevitably reduces engine output. Generator are sold by output and then price so a manufacturer is going to put the cheapest muffler they can get that doesn't reduce engine output. There are better mufflers sold, they tend to be quite large and can slightly reduce the engine output. Here is link https://www.jackssmallengines.com/Products/BRIGGS-STRATTON/Quiet-Mufflers frequently the generators packaging gets in the way so there may need to be modifications to fit it.
I work with really big generators 2.6 MW (2,600,000 watt) on occasion that run continuously, they use hospital grade silencers, the silencer can easily be bigger than the generator itself.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Excellent info on the variable speed controller. Also, I may be contacting you soon, with questions on big genny's, as I'm quoting a job that will intermittently require roughly 2.5 MW for several months. I only have 1.5 MW headroom left on the building supply, after base load.
My generator with the Honda GX390 is quite quiet, compared to the two generators I owned before it. I was pleasantly surprised with that.
If running TV's, check your regulation spec's! Most cheap generators are designed for job site use, and have horrendous voltage regulation with transient loads. You don't want to blow up the TV every time your well pump or other large load switches off.
I am on county water so i have no well. Our house is all electric so i want a big enough one to use our cookstove and oven. Also a dryer would be nice too. I wouldnt run everything at once of course. When i run my current generator for 5hr at a time, i never put over 2.5 gal of gas to top the tank off. I want the option to run more stuff if i have too. Especially if i have to for some reason run my heat pump. I would rather have a little more generator than what i need than not have a big enough one.
jatoxico
Minister of Fire
Running an electric range, oven or dryer takes big power. I think delivering those kinds of watts continuously would be hard on most portable units. Even the coffee maker draws big. Personally I wouldn't even try with anything less than a whole house system but now you're into a different category $-wise. Those mostly run off propane if NG isn't available. For the amount of time it's needed I'll live with the micro and a hot plate.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
I have a Generac GP7500 that I converted to propane. Put an inlet box outside by the service entrance, interlock kit on the panel, built a little plywood doghouse for the generator, and ran a quick connect propane line off the house's main tank over there.
When I need power, I wheel the generator out to its doghouse, connect propane and power, flip the interlock, flip off the 30A dryer breaker off so nobody uses it, and I am all set.
Even with the HP reduction from the propane conversion, 7500 is really overkill for what we ask of it.
When I need power, I wheel the generator out to its doghouse, connect propane and power, flip the interlock, flip off the 30A dryer breaker off so nobody uses it, and I am all set.
Even with the HP reduction from the propane conversion, 7500 is really overkill for what we ask of it.
If you can afford it and live in hurricane country get a whole home genset. We did it for the inevitable multi day outage and it's been the best investment we have made. Ours is a 22 kw generac (100 amp) and will easily power our entire load, laundry AC everything. It does burn an astronomical amount of natural gas but that's fine, I work in oil and gas. One thing to remember though is that it needs yearly oil changes, biannual battery replacement, and new filters. Don't be cheap since they are expensive to replace or repair the unit.
I live in the sticks and we lose power often up here. I recently bought a remanufactured Generac iX2000 inverter generator for $349 shipped. I redid my breaker box so it would power what I wanted it to and backfeed it through a 20 amp outside outlet. As I only use around 200 KWh of power a month it will power most everything I need with the exception of my deep water well pump but I'll deal with it if we lose power for days. At least I can run my LED lights, the refrigerator and chest freezer, the TV etc.
I have an 8k watt harbor freight generator. Runs the whole house. I've had it for about 2 years now and used it 3 times due to power outage. I get it out once a month and run it for 15 mins. Starts on first pull. It seems to be great and so far nothings broke. It replaced a 20 year old Colman 5k. I learned from that one that it is good to get them out every now and then to run and see if anything is wrong. Otherwise its 12 degrees out and you can't get it started because the oil shut off sensor broke fuel line rotted and a pin hole rusted in the float bowl. Haha
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I have the above referenced ix2000 9about 250 hours of use). When it runs it does a good job. I had one that couldn't provide power (warranty replacement) and the current one is very hard to start. Once running it does a good enough job. I now also have a champion 3000 (open frame generator with wheels and a pushbutton start, used it for 5 hours yesterday). Between the two they meet my needs. If I was starting all over today, I would buy the champion inverter generator, wheels, push button start, I think 3000 watts.
Everyone has different needs.
Everyone has different needs.
I have to say the Harbor Freight Honda clone generators seem to run pretty well. The voltage regulation is pretty atrocious on some but most home appliances and power tools seem to put up with it. Not so sure I would trust them with fussy electronics unless its though a UPS or at least a surge suppressor. The key thing with HF gear is the consumer is the only quality control so you got to run them and make sure you got a good one. I heard a clerk mention once that they had a load come in for a sale and they were running out of room out back to hold the returned ones.
SCOTT S.
Burning Hunk
I bought the little Honda 2000 and it has been great for us can hardly hear it run and it sips fuel 10 hours on a gallon. It can't run our deep well pump. But it will run a fridge and freezer at the same time and when they are up to temp you can run one and other things at the same time. Had a big old genset before and between the noise and spending 40 bucks a day to run I'm happy with my choice.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
Back before I got my generac 7500, I sat down and made a list of all the stuff I might possibly want to run concurrently, and sized off of that (it's basically the whole house minus the electric dryer).
It turns out that what I actually run concurrently is much less than what I might want to run; I'd have done better to get a smaller inverter generator. Even after inverter losses, I'd probably use less propane, and I'd definitely have cleaner power.
Lesson learned for next time!
Hey, if you get more than one, whatever the size, MAYBE the second one will start after the first one doesn't. 
Ashful
Minister of Fire
You guys running a whole house on 8000 watt generators need bigger houses. 
jetsam
Minister of Fire
You guys running a whole house on 8000 watt generators need bigger houses.
My house is 2300 square feet, and more than half of that is used primarily for dust collection and spider playgrounds. (We were looking for a smaller house, but we couldn't pass this one up because of the land it's on.)
A bigger house might give the spider empire more room for growth, but it wouldn't do much for me.
Hey, if you get more than one, whatever the size, MAYBE the second one will start after the first one doesn't.
Convert to propane today. Less power but zero carb issues and you can have a really seriously large gas tank.
I can also swap out one fitting and run off BBQ tanks, or run it off of gasoline in a pinch.
jatoxico
Minister of Fire
As I mentioned earlier in the thread this is the move I'd like to make. IMO many folks over estimate their power needs and under estimate the noise, expense and difficulty of running a large generator for extended periods of time, especially in a suburban environment. I realize you can't run everything at once but that's no big deal.
Question; I figured to keep the larger gen-set because I run it back through the panel with a transfer switch but do you (can you) feed a transfer switch with the Honda? If I can do that I might sell the big unit.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
The transfer switches that I've seen need two 120v hot legs. If the Honda doesn't have any 240v output, you would need to tie the hot inputs together to connect.
Here's why you shouldn't:
1) If someone connects a different generator to the inlet plug, it's not going to be a good day. If the generator's hot legs are 180° out of phase, it's going to be a 100ms race to see whether the main breakers can kick in before things start burning and melting. My first guess is "no".
2) You are giving that one 120v leg two paths through the main breaker, rendering it effectively useless during normal operation
3) Actually, I think point 1) was sufficiently bad to move this idea into the "omg do not do that" column, so I'm not thinking this through any more.
jatoxico
Minister of Fire
The transfer switches that I've seen need two 120v hot legs. If the Honda doesn't have any 240v output, you would need to tie the hot inputs together to connect.
Here's why you shouldn't:
1) If someone connects a different generator to the inlet plug, it's not going to be a good day. If the generator's hot legs are 180° out of phase, it's going to be a 100ms race to see whether the main breakers can kick in before things start burning and melting. My first guess is "no".
2) You are giving that one 120v leg two paths through the main breaker, rendering it effectively useless during normal operation
3) Actually, I think point 1) was sufficiently bad to move this idea into the "omg do not do that" column, so I'm not thinking this through any more.
Thanks for that. I only have a vague understanding that you need to balance loads and pretty much no understanding of what phases means when running a gen-set. I'll take it at face value that I shouldn't do that. With my lack of knowledge it's not likely that I would have started tying together two 120 volt lines but it helps to know (even a little) why.
I really need to sit down and read up a bit on loads and balancing etc. I really don't get it at this point.
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