Portable Honda Generator Alternative

[Shaneesprit]

Petrol Gensets = Honda every time
I have never used these tiny sets, but from my experience of all sorts of Gensets, I would say it’s a Honda every time or at the very least some thing Japanese
Plus if you are ever turning off a Genset where it will be off for more than a week - Turn the fuel off and let it run out, in the Carb rather than switch off the ignition

[john61ct]

Propane / LPG is indeed less energy dense than petrol.

Plus requiring a much bulkier and heavier tank.

But IMO the advantages can still outweigh the cons if you can swing it, especially on a larger boat.

Assuming the required safety measures are meticulously followed, regular testing inspections, proactive flex hose replacement etc

[Mr B]

I just bought myself a new 3.5 KVA Generator for my boat, 212cc engine,
Pure Sine Invertor, Its 540mm L x 450mm W x 480mm H
It fits neatly into my rear locker,
It will also run in my RV too, It weights 40 Kgs, Its very quiet standing next to it,
for $380-00 It started first pull on the cord after putting oil and 91 Petrol in it,
They say dont put ethanol in it, I dont put ethanol in any thing I own,

Kings are a large 4x4 offroad accessories company here,
This is one that they had made for them from China,
It has a 2 year warranty, They do have a few other sizes as well,
It also has an 8 Watt battery charger built in,
I ran my 2200 Watt power saw on it and it didnt bat an eyelid,
Its a good back up if my batterys ever go flat,

I bought it to run my watermaker pressure pump off it,
240 Volt pressure washer, It runs 2200 PSI,
Buying both the generator and the pressure pump for $450-00 was more than half the price of a 110 Volt motor at $1100-00 New to run my Little wonder watermaker pressure pump,
The 240 volt pressure washer has self priming and can draw water thru my thru hull,
Its also good for washing my boat down,

[Lake-Effect]

Slight derail - I've often wondered if many cruisers would be better served with a small generator that only puts out a high-current "12v" suitable for charging battery banks? This is based on the assumption that most of the electrical/electronic stuff is 12v, and there's an inverter on most boats for the few AC requirements.

Of course this doesn't help anyone who wants an AC gen for loads like air conditioning or microwave.

[Strayed Arrow]

Went with Yamaha because Honda didnt have the fuel shutoff at the time.

[Woodland Hills]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Propane / LPG is indeed less energy dense than petrol.

Plus requiring a much bulkier and heavier tank.

But IMO the advantages can still outweigh the cons if you can swing it, especially on a larger boat.

Assuming the required safety measures are meticulously followed, regular testing inspections, proactive flex hose replacement etc

Don’t forget that propane is the most difficult to refuel as well as having the most awkward to store containers. They also leave rust stains everywhere.

Sure you can just exchange tanks, but you pay a premium for the convenience and if you use plastic tanks, you have to find a place to refill them.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Slight derail - I've often wondered if many cruisers would be better served with a small generator that only puts out a high-current "12v" suitable for charging battery banks? This is based on the assumption that most of the electrical/electronic stuff is 12v, and there's an inverter on most boats for the few AC requirements.

Of course this doesn't help anyone who wants an AC gen for loads like air conditioning or microwave.

Many times I’ve heard the virtues of a 12V generator expounded on, and in truth I don’t see that it’s a whole lot different.
Now days with large inverter chargers you can convert either to the other pretty efficiently.
I maintain that AC generators are “better” based on they are far more readily available, parts are far more easily obtained, and since they are so many of them, prices are much less too.
This off sets any small efficiency gain in being DC and not having to convert, in my opinion.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Woodland Hills

Don’t forget that propane is the most difficult to refuel as well as having the most awkward to store containers. They also leave rust stains everywhere.



Sure you can just exchange tanks, but you pay a premium for the convenience and if you use plastic tanks, you have to find a place to refill them.

Aluminum fixes the rust issue, I wouldn’t have steel tanks myself, but the price of aluminum tanks is prohibitive, and propane is often times hard to find, very expensive when compared to gasoline and a lot of work.
I paid I believe $20 for a 10 lb bottle to be refilled in Georgetown, now that included the gentlemen taking it to the refill facility and returning it to his shop, but it was that or walk a few miles to do it yourself.
10 lbs of propane is roughly equal I believe to about 1 1/2 gl of gasoline.
Gasoline was available to the dinghy by hose, but it was of course about $5 a gallon.

Propane only makes sense in my opinion for vehicles run in a building like forklifts and standby generators for your house etc.
Many Diesel powered Motorhomes have gasoline generators converted to run on propane, and that doesn’t make sense to me, why not leave them gasoline? I guess Motorhome drivers would mis-fuel?

[john61ct]

Aluminum tanks are the only way to go on a boat.

Forklift style at 43.5# capacity can be adapted if you find a willing tech, use adapters to decant from whatever the locals use for swap-exchange.

[Woodland Hills]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Aluminum tanks are the only way to go on a boat.

Forklift style at 43.5# capacity can be adapted if you find a willing tech, use adapters to decant from whatever the locals use for swap-exchange.

I disagree: fiberglass tanks are much lighter, never corrode and give a visual indication of the fuel level. West Marine sells them as do others. There was a recall of fiberglass tanks a while back, but that was because the Swedish manufacturer tried to make them in America. The US contractor was unable to build them with the same quality as the Swedes and they were all recalled. The tanks on sale now are Swedish made and have never had any issues. We have had a 3 gallon and a 5 gallon for years and love them.

BTW the only good thing about propane or natural gas as a fuel is that they can be stored indefinitely with no degradation.

[john61ct]

greatly extended engine life, that's not nothing

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by john61ct

greatly extended engine life, that's not nothing

Your attributing that to Propane?
If so, it’s not necessarily true based on my experience with forklifts. Propane essentially forms no carbon at all or very little, so that oil looks clean for a very long time, so it’s very likely that with a good grade of syn oil you could greatly extend oil change intervals, but other than that propane doesn’t reduce wear.
Carbon is abrasive and of course causes wear, Diesel forms a lot more carbon than a modern gas motor does, but will often out last a gasoline motor so there is more to engine life than fuel choice.

Besides, how many Honda generators have you seen that were worn out? I’ve seen several broken, but have yet to see one that the engine was worn out. I know it has to happen, but apparently it’s not common, and when it does I’d bet it’s most often due to infrequent oil changes.

[john61ct]

I agree most owners are not going to try to get 15000 hours out of these units, the other components likely wear out sooner.

But as an attribute of the fuel more generally, not this specific context, yes my statement holds.

Powering vehicles for example, look at Schwan’s Home Service fleet as an example.

[Shaneesprit]

I was once working offshore ( oil platform pre production ) and we took 2 diesel Gensets from the same manufacturer, basic copy products really the first one lasted the whole day however never started a second time! The next day we were using the second genset
However one of the reasons we were there was to change out a Lister Petter Genset that had been running for around a year 8000Hours without so much as an inspection let alone a service,,if you want reliability buy from a brand you trust!

[john61ct]

Wow living outback Australia my wife at the time had a pre-war Lister genset installed her cocky Dad gifted her from a remote shack on his sheep station, likely an Indian clone?

That slow steady chug chug embedded deep in my subconscious, prolly still going without an overhaul. Now **that** was alternative tech, our solar panels cost more in those days than installing a new roof. . .