Kyle Boatright wrote:
"rickandroll" wrote in message
oups.com...
You own a plane, but can't afford a grand for a good generator?!?!?

Yep. Unless you've got unlimited money (I certainly don't), you choose the
places to spend and the places to save. That lets me fund the things that
are priorities to me, such as flying.

FYI, my car has 220k miles, and I'm in no hurry to replace it... It'll
become a priority if/when it becomes unreliable.

KB

Ok , ok, I can't fault you for trying to save $$$s. I trust that you
are using this primarily in cold weather? How cold? That could
certainly affect generator performance and reliability. You may not
even be able to start a generator (especially an el-cheapo) in really
cold weather.

I think that your best bet is to buy a deep-cycle marine battery (about
$80) and an inverter. Sounds like you already have a charger, which you
can use at home to charge the marine battery in between uses. Just
remember, most inverters (the cheaper ones) do not provide sine-wave AC
and may damage sensitive electronics, including battery chargers for
power tools, so be careful what you use it for. I fried a laser printer
once, in an attempt to have a mobile office. Sine-wave inverters are
much more expensive and are usually found in RVs for Tvs, etc.

I hope your car doesn't decide to become unreliable halfway to your
hangar on a cold day!

Good Luck!

MDT at Paragon Home Inspections, LLC wrote:
One thing to think about is fuel storage - if it's a gas powered
generator, you need to run the carb and fuel lines dry , put
stabilizer in the gas, and even then you should occasionally swap out
the gas.

Since most people don't do this, seldom-run gas generators are
unlikely to start reliably for more than a year or two.

If you really need reliable intermittent generator power, look at nat
gas or propane powered units.

Or, institute a habit of firing it up for fifteen minutes every weekend or
two at the most. You can be sure it'll always start that way more than if
you leave it even properly stored for months at a time. It's not much of a
job to plug it in, start it and flip the switch and run a couple househole
ckts with it for fifteen minutes or so. Keeps the battery topped off, oil
splashed around, and just in general makes for a perfect, easy start for
years. 9 years and counting here on the same genset. Genset gets used
once or twice a winter in these parts.

Pop`