Back up generator?

[ADVRESOURCE]

What's a good recommendation for a back up generator. Great quality. Less than 100 amps. Fish circuit only!

[shields]

Generac brand has always treated me well, I first had the portable ones then moved up to whole home. But I always found them good


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[RobbyG]

Depends on where you live. If you have neighbors nearby and use a loud cheap Generator you will literally end up with a lynch mob on your property if you have to run it late at night.
And that's speaking from experience!
If you have the money take a look at the Honda EU series. I run a Honda EU-3000si and I can turn it on at 1am and no one complains.

Rob

[azjohnny]

Originally Posted by ADVRESOURCE

What's a good recommendation for a back up generator. Great quality. Less than 100 amps. Fish circuit only!

Whats your budget?

[ADVRESOURCE]

No budget! Just want reliable, quiet.

[azjohnny]

If you have no budget I would get a whole home model that an electrician would have to wire in. I have a Champion 7500 watt model, one thing I like about the Champion is it is a dual fuel,can be run on gas or propane. When running on propane the total wattage is a little lower

My Champion was about $800 at Costco

[trivan]

Honda generators are what most people will recommend if you want the best portable. You can wire it into your home with a transfer switch. They are quiet and produce very clean electricity, prob even cleaner then your power company, so there is no worry about frying electronics. For whole house, Kohler.

[karimwassef]

I got a harbor freight predator and it works great. Here's the little one for <$500

http://www.harborfreight.com/6500-Pe...III-68529.html

and here's the one I got for $600 (better deal IMO)

http://www.harborfreight.com/8750-Pe...ARB-68525.html

and here's the big boy, but expensive .... personally, I would probably get two of the $600 versions first... provide redundancy and more peak power.

http://www.harborfreight.com/13500-P...III-61725.html

[karimwassef]

You may also want to consider a DC battery backed up system. This can be used with an inverter to create AC, or to drive DC loads (LED, DC pumps, etc...) directly

http://www.generatorsforhomeuse.us/home-battery-backup/

[karimwassef]

and just to round out your options, there are inverter generators that generate DC

http://www.amazon.com/Champion-Power.../dp/B00JZQUSAC

[dkeller_nc]

Originally Posted by ADVRESOURCE

What's a good recommendation for a back up generator. Great quality. Less than 100 amps. Fish circuit only!

Given that you want it for fish-only purposes, and quality is high on your list, then a Honda EU2000i would fit the bill. I bought one of these in January on an impulse buy (and under threat of an ice storm). But didn't have to use it until 2 saturdays ago when a moron was messing with his cell phone and took out a power pole in the neighborhood.

There's three things to recommend the Honda EU "i" series beyond the actual reputation for reliability of a Honda engine: quiet operation, ability to throttle the engine speed automatically based on load, and extreme fuel efficiency. The EU "i" series generators' electronics will throttle back the engine speed based on the load, which greatly extends the length of time between fuelings, and also reduces the noise considerably. These things are quiet for a generator.

There are three models in the line - the EU2000i, EU3000i, and EU7000i. The EU2000i and EU3000i can be run in parallel with an additional one of the same model which doubles the maximum generating capacity. In my particular case, I powered 3 tanks with lights, heaters, controllers, powerheads and skimmers for about 10 hours on about a gallon of gas. My guess is that the generator would've run about 15 hours before running out of fuel.

That last point matters to me - my older Arctic Cat generator would run about 6 hours between fuelings, which meant getting up awfully early during a week-long span without power after a hurricane.

[karimwassef]

"a moron was messing with his cell phone and took out a power pole in the neighborhood."

QUE?? that deserves some detail?

[j_mazzy]

I saw some comparisons with the Honda to Yamaha and those Yamaha were standing tall.

[Breadman03]

When I looked into the Honda and Yamaha 2000 watt generators, they were very similar. I went Yamaha because there was a free shipping deal on them at the time.

[Tom39]

Originally Posted by Breadman03

When I looked into the Honda and Yamaha 2000 watt generators, they were very similar. I went Yamaha because there was a free shipping deal on them at the time.

+1 for Honda and Yamaha

I have a eu2000 and eu3000 and have nothing but good things to say about both. A friend of mine has a Yamaha ef2000 and has the same opinion. In the end, I think either is a good choice.
IMO and from mechanical experience working on the so called bargain generators. Stay clear of the cheap knock offs. Longevity and reliability is just not there. This is where "you get what you pay for" holds true.

[RobbyG]

My Honda EU-3000 is 12 years old with 400+ hours on it.
After a hurricane knocked out power for 3 days it ran 24/7 without a hitch.
Only thing I have changed on it is the battery (once) and the spark plug.
I can't say enough good things about it. It's expensive but your paying for reliability, almost silent operation, clean power and really low fuel consumption.
My 5 gallon container will last me about 24 hours and that's with powering mosy of my house plus the all tank equipment including the chiller: Only things not covered are the 220v ACs and hot water heater. If you need the complete package get the EU5000. Personally I can do without AC when my neighbors are suffering with candles and flashlights.

Rob

[atreis]

OP said "great quality" for a single circuit. That makes me think Honda or Yamaha.
OP also said 100 amps, which is enough to supply most circuits full time in most houses (leaving out really big loads like AC and electric range) and is well out of the range of an easily handled portable generator. 100 amps = 12,000 watts. That makes me think a permanent installation of a smaller standby generator like Generac. (Sorry - the "Predator", Champion and other cheap chinese generators don't qualify in terms of "great quality" - especially if you look at the quality of the power produced when near full load.)

Whichever of these is really what the OP wants - the OP should be sure and install a transfer switch.

[karimwassef]

It depends on the definition of quality. If quality refers to the quality of the power generated (harmonic distortion, frequency stability, power factor, sag, etc...), then I agree with you: some generators do not produce the highest quality power.

If quality refers to whether they work when you need them and start up in a storm, then lower cost generators can work fine. Will they create some stress on sensitive electronics? Sure, but there are cheaper ways to mitigate that than to pay 2x for the generator.

If you want to get the best, I suggest going to all DC equipment and creating a battery wall. Then you can use a cheap generator to keep the wall charged in case the outtage runs long.

If you want the least hassle or risk and are ok paying a little more, get the Japanese generators.

I don't know of many tanks that need 100A line power. I run a ~700gal and I only peak out at 50-60A with everything (including air conditioner) on. If you need that much, you might as well do your whole house and get a manual transfer switch installed. An ATS (automatic transfer switch) for that power may cost as much as half the generator.

[Dmorty217]

Honda, Yamaha and kohler make the best engines... After that the generators are all built very similar

[dkeller_nc]

Originally Posted by karimwassef

"a moron was messing with his cell phone and took out a power pole in the neighborhood."

QUE?? that deserves some detail?

Hmm - I suppose I should've specified that the moron was screwing around with his cell phone and ran his car into a power pole. Taking out a power pole with just one's cell phone would indeed be a neat trick!

[karimwassef]

Ahh!! Yes... But I never doubt the depth of human moronic achievement...

[ADVRESOURCE]

Thank you for all of your input. I do have a subpanel specific to my 240 tank. I have natural gas at my office that can be tapped into to reduce the need to fill gas. I would like clean power that won't mess up my chiller, led's, skimmers Ar other electronics.

Do the Honda and Yamaha generators have a natural gas option?

[atreis]

There are conversion kits that will allow them to run on natural gas. These are used a lot for some types of RVs and are known to be effective and reliable. Keep in mind that the engines have somewhat lower power output when running on natural gas. (You'll need a somewhat larger generator.)

[karimwassef]

I would have some redundancy on the fuel source. The last tornado next to my home ripped up the natural gas lines creating massive leaks so they had to shut down the grid to prevent a potential explosion. This lasted about as long as the power outtage (three days).

In this case, batteries run out, natural gas and power are off. Unless you had access to gasoline, solar power or wind... You were done for.

The police deemed it a disaster area and no one could get in (or out). I was trapped inside (leaving meant abandoning my home and reef) so I negotiated a gasoline drop off at the police border so my friends & family could run shifts replenishing the tanks for my generator.

Everything in the reef survived due to a combination of DC batteries, inverters, generator and human supply line for gasoline.

It's times like this that you have "creative" ideas. I started thinking of hooking up a bike to a peddle pump on an aux flow loop. Really, heat and flow are the only "must haves" to maintain most life...

That's another good learning- you can create a critical survival loop that only draws minimal power to stay alive (survival mode).

Good luck... Nothing is as good as having friends keep a backup supply of those too

[alton]

The inverter generators have really caught on for clean power and being super quiet. Generac makes a nice one for $799 and Power Source makes one for $599. What is nice is they can be paralleled to double your power in the future. So you buy a 2,000 watt now, and then in the future you can buy a second and connect them.