survived our first power outage

[Joe0813]

well we survived our first outage and it wasn't easy. A lot of bad words were thrown out of my mouth. We lost power last night around 640pm. Attempted to start our new Troy bilt 7000 watt generator that we bought last year and never used.... FAIL for whatever reason the motor was dumping fuel into the oil and ran like a bag of crap. I tried draining all the oil out and replacing it with new oil but I think at that point the plug was already fowled. So we stayed up all night manually aerating the water with a bucket every 45 minutes. Unfortunately around here it was pretty cold and we had no heat. so we wrapped the tank in about 8 blankets and I found about 20 handwarmers stuffed them in Ziploc bags. tank only dropped down to 70 degrees. 530am rolled around and we went to lowes and bought ANOTHER generator. started it right up plugged in to the generator outlet and ran the tank, tv and some other things.
Definitely dodged a bullet with this generator

[LauraGreenImp]

Originally Posted by Joe0813

well we survived our first outage and it wasn't easy. A lot of bad words were thrown out of my mouth. We lost power last night around 640pm. Attempted to start our new Troy bilt 7000 watt generator that we bought last year and never used.... FAIL

!shriek! Glad y’all were able to get new gennie quickly. Can you send ‘FAIL’ one back?


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[Joe0813]

We are bringing it back on Monday. they will send it out and fix it "good as new" and then send it back to us. The broken generator has a push start which my wife can start. the new one we bought is only a pull start. Unfortunately for her it took quiet a bit of strength to pull start it. so we might keep them both and always have one as a backup incase this happens again

[TrojanScott]

I used to have a generator but it sat and sat so I sold it. I’ve never been without power for more than 10 hours, knock on wood. I have a few battery operated air stones. I suggest that everyone have at least that. You could have at least got some sleep. I’m buying a ups backup for a couple pumps soon.


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[Bent]

[sde1500]

I’ve lost power twice since October. 3 days then just now a day and a half. No generator yet but I do have an inverter that runs 100w off my car. Saved my skin both times. Not sure how big your tank is but mine is 65 gallons with 6 fish. I just wrap the tank and leave it all night. 8 hours no heater or air stone running and everything has survived just fine. Did that every day for 3 days. Run air and heat a couple hours in the morning, go to work, come home run it til 10pm, off for sleep. Repeat. Everything survived.

[Joe0813]

We have an 180 and lost power for about 26 hours. unfortunately didn't have a battery air pump. im going to order a few just in case. even if I tried to sleep it wasn't going to happen with all the horror stories ive read about tank crashes because of no power. 25k into this thing the second 900 dollar generator was definitely well worth it. Our forever home weve made a list of things that we will have on the house. Big walk out basement for atleast a 650-800 gallon tank, a fish room and a whole house generator

[LauraGreenImp]

[apologies in advance for super rambling post]

This has been an education! Our house/neighborhood is ‘new’ for Nville, (only 30+ yrs old) and we’ve never lost power for more than a few hours. We don’t get anything besides tornadoes here.

I’m ordering battery powered air stones *today*, so anyone w reccs please chime in! Preferably Amazon available.

And, this also made us realize we’ve already sunk (pun intended) 10K + into this tank. In only 7 yrs!! scary

I think I may go back to church for the late Mass - ok, as I’m typing, the UPS just started screaming - is this a sign from above? Just a momentary blip, but y’all should hear the language coming from hub’s office/computer room! (Tank didn’t even pause, obvs it’s also connected to UPS)

Wait. Do we even need battery powered air stones *and* UPS?


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[LauraGreenImp]

So, fwiw, hubs the engineer has already explained that we don’t need battery powered air stones, since our fancy UPS is only running his computers & tank. Anyone who disagrees - I would like to hear from you.


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[Joe0813]

You should probably make your own post so you'll get answers

[avery155]

Not a terrible idea to get a battery powered airstone, also if you have a gas stove, or grill heat rodi water up and double bag it then float in the tank. Opposite in summer just add ice cubes double bag and float in tank.

Either method have to keep and eye on the temp and give the tank a stir with a big soup spoon or a clean hand.

[LauraGreenImp]

Thx! (yeah, I should have made my own post - got carried away) Super smart idea abt double bagged rodi - **keeper**.


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[Joe0813]

Originally Posted by avery155

Not a terrible idea to get a battery powered airstone, also if you have a gas stove, or grill heat rodi water up and double bag it then float in the tank. Opposite in summer just add ice cubes double bag and float in tank.

Either method have to keep and eye on the temp and give the tank a stir with a big soup spoon or a clean hand.

Good idea with the grill, never thought of that

[cch1321]

Generators are a must in the winter in the NE. Didn't lose power at all last year and the generator sat under a tarp for 14 months. Lost power in this storm and probably saved the tank. Powered the whole house (including 1400w of heaters) (sans refrigeratorsll for about 12 hours and didn't even go though a whole tank of gas. 6250/8000w Is what I'm running.

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[Joe0813]

Originally Posted by cch1321

Generators are a must in the winter in the NE. Didn't lose power at all last year and the generator sat under a tarp for 14 months. Lost power in this storm and probably saved the tank. Powered the whole house (including 1400w of heaters) (sans refrigeratorsll for about 12 hours and didn't even go though a whole tank of gas. 6250/8000w Is what I'm running.

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we are sending the troy bilt 7000w out wed to be fixed. And we are thinking about keeping the briggs and Stratton 6500w just incase anything happens we have a back up

[cincyjim]

We lost ours the first time for 30 hours and the second for 6 hours. Next to man's best friend is a generator!!! Lifesaver for the tank!

[Kevin Guthrie]

I bought a portable generator from Home Depot one January morning about 20 years ago and used it a couple dozen times. I have never had problems starting it, possibly for these reasons:

Honda engine, not B&S.

I use my lawnmower gas containers. It is either fresh or in winter I keep them filled and treat with Stabil.

When the power comes back on, don't just put the generator back in the shed. "Winterize" it, meaning drain the gas, fire it up to drain the lines and carb, then coat the cylinder with oil by removing the spark plug, squirting in some oil, and pulling the starter rope once or twice before putting the spark plug back.

I check the oil too - still clean from the original fill up.

[andrewkw]

It's a good idea to test out your generator once a year or so and not let fuel / oil sit too long. I only moved to an area with unreliable power about a year and a half ago and have survived a couple of long power failures. The first was 30+ hours and the other was only a few hours.

One thing that really surprised me, and may surprise you if you have a just in case generator you never use is how much fuel they consume. My generator takes about 5 gallons of gas for 11hrs of use (7500watt). I got it going fine the first time but didn't realize just how often you need to refuel.

[NCreefer73]

The post made me think . Even tho I’ve got a generator I still need to prepare as tho I don’t have one . Thanks for the post
Ps. The hand warmer trick was brilliant have to get me some of those


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[Joe0813]

Was definitely shocked how much gas it went through. We actually just went out and bought more hand warmers just in case this happens again. We also bought a metal bowl and a few propane torches

[Cloudburst2000]

Does anyone have ideas for when you can't have a generator (apartment living, etc)? I see battery powered airstones. I can likely get ice cubes to float in summer from store (as freezer would be not working). Won't be able to get hot water to float in bags in winter though as oven/stove is electric. Any other ideas for those who live in an apartment and are not allowed to have a generator?

[Kentech5]

Maybe a few of those reusable hot packs, the bigger ones for shoulders. They can be boiled to reset them and might make a difference if the tank isn’t too big


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[Joe0813]

Originally Posted by Cloudburst2000

Does anyone have ideas for when you can't have a generator (apartment living, etc)? I see battery powered airstones. I can likely get ice cubes to float in summer from store (as freezer would be not working). Won't be able to get hot water to float in bags in winter though as oven/stove is electric. Any other ideas for those who live in an apartment and are not allowed to have a generator?

the camping propane torches and heat a metal bowl with water in it. should help a little if you really needed it to

[NCreefer73]

Originally Posted by Joe0813

the camping propane torches and heat a metal bowl with water in it. should help a little if you really needed it to

Use marine battery with power inverter


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[herostar]

I have a UPS power supply/battery that's meant for a computer hooked up to a pump in my tank for this exact reason. I bought one that runs my tunze pump for ~12 hours for about $125. If you watch for sales you can find a better deal on a bigger unit.

I highly recommend this for anyone with a tank, regardless of whether your power source is consistent or not.