Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire whole house generators??

anything better than a generac??

I did a ton of comparisons between Generact and Kohler. Kohler was built better, every component was built heavier. Found many bad reviews on the Generact and only several on the Kohler. Wanted a Cummins but was way out of my price range and closest service/ tech was 200 miles

I bought my 20kw Kohler, built the pad, bought and installed a 500 gal lp gas tank and ran the line.

Had to have a Kohler tech wire it to receive the 2000hr 7 year warntee.

Have had the generator since Feb, it had 48 hours of run time. All good

I had a 22Kw Generac installed when we build our house 6 years ago this month. It runs on natural gas and like all generators I guess, tests itself at prescribed times. Oher than the testing, ours hasn't run for 3 hours over that period of time and we've had no issues with it. I suppose the Kohler is likely rated higher, as is the Cummins. You're buying peace of mind.

Generac here and most around us also have Generac. On NG.

No problems. Good to have when you have a third world power grid.

Ask any service technician - Kohler.

The Cummins/Onan generators are mostly used as RV generators and are only available AFAIK up to around 12.5 KW, but they are possibly the best stand by generator going IMO. If you need something bigger, the Kohlers are the best rated, though a bit more expensive than the Generacs. Where the real cost usually comes in is the options that are available - most of which are part of the Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) . Automatic excercising, battery charging, block heaters, low oil alarms, fire alarms connected to your alarm system, etc. are all good options to have but can get expensive..

When I retired from the power company 7 years ago about 40% of my neighbors, including me, bought generators. They knew that response time to outages was going from minutes to hours.
There was a local Farm COOP that had a deal on the 22KW Generac, about $5000 for the generator, pad and transfer switch. I'm about the only one thats had trouble. First off, it had a bad circuit board and would not program. Two weeks later it was replaced under warranty. Next, it threw a rod the first time it started under its exercise schedule. (and yes I put oil in it) It was replaced under warranty about 4 weeks later. Next, it started surging when under load. They replaced the throttle body, again under warranty. Next a factory connection in the transfer switch failed. Again it was replaced under warranty in a couple of weeks. Its run trouble free since then!!!

If I were to do it again I probably would go with something else. The same guy did all of my repairs. He says that he has problems with other brands too!

For the air cooled engine units I’d get a Kohler over the Generac.
I spent the extra $$$ for a 22kW Cummins with 2.4L liquid cooled engine. They no longer offer that model now the smallest Cummins offers with liquid cooled engine is a 25kW though it’s the same engine I have in mine.

Basically twice the price as an air cooled engine model but it also runs at 1800 rpm versus the 3600 rpm the air cooled engine units run.
Unit doesn’t get as hot, oil lasts longer before you have to change it, etc.

I do live in an area that has been and could be impacted by hurricane caused power outages which is why I spent the extra money for liquid cooled engine.
If you’re not expecting to be out of power for more than 2 or 3 days I’d get the Kohler with air cooled engine.

Timely thread. Ready to pour a pad for a generator now. Want to run on propane if possible.

Did any of you ask Shiester before you got your whole house generators? According to him, none of those 20K to 24ishK generators will work on a whole house and he's an electrician and contractor.

Nope - had my house checked by an electrical contractor with everything running so I’d know what the full load was, then checked starting load requirements on central AC unit which was the highest starting load then sized generator accordingly. When literally everything is running my 22kW generator is pulling a 60% load.

I know our 24 KW diesel powered generator won't run our whole house. It is the reason we have two electrical panels in our garage. One is on the generator and one isn't. It all depends on your house load. In our case, all electric, with a heat pump with 11 kW of strip heat, two 80 gallon hot water heaters, a 3 hp booster pump for water and all of the other electron consuming devices.

Any of you wankers with a tractor/pto might give consideration to a PTO generator. Hook it up to the tractor, plug it into the house and run it. Relatively small units with a lot of output, and easy to tuck away when not in use.

Apparently, your reading comprehension skills are severely limited. I said the Onan were the best of the ones I'm familiar with, but they top out at 12.5 KW. If you can get by with a 12.5 KW generator they are a great contendor. After all, the topic of the thread was whole house generators... and more people than you apparently realize could get by just fine with a 12.5KW generator for quite some time ....

But you just keep spouting off nonsense- it makes the threads interesting and no doubt draws the attention you so desperately crave...

Cummins makes whole house units.

https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/power/cummins-onan-home-standby-generators.html

Sounds like you got yours sized just about right for your purposes and went the right route IMO. Way too many people just assume they have to run the biggest generator they can find or one their buddy told them about- until they find out how expensive they are and then the install and upkeep on top of it. That is when you start to talk about what their budget is, how much equipment they really need to run during an outage, how long their outages are, and what fuel they are prepared to store onsite... there is a huge price difference between a 22KW diesel unit with an automatic transfer switch with all the options and a 12.5KW propane unit with a manual transfer switch panel with no options. And 90% of the people I talked to could get by quite nicely in our area with a 12.5KW or smaller unit for a couple days to a week our outages usually last. Especially considering this area is served by Natural Gas and most people around here have gas water heaters, heat, and sometimes ovens and dryers....

As a contractor, budget is always a consideration when discussing a job- which is why there are so many Generac generators being installed. They are the cheapest alternative in almost all markets- but not always the best if you read the reviews on line....

You're right Steve. I haven't been around the generator installs since I closed shop in 2010 so I just peripherally kept up with the market. If I was in the market the Cummins would be what I would be looking into. At the time I was doing them Onan was only offering the RV units but the whole house units were just being developed. Looks like they are finally getting competitive with their pricing also. They used to be way more expensive than almost everything else on the market...

Price of diesel these days, I don't know if that's a very good idea! LOL!

I've got an older Onan that I mounted 6 gallon fuel tank on.
Our retirement home is small, so it's not like we have to maintain an all electric home.
Summertime, we need A/C, some refrigeration, TV, charge phones and a few lights.
Winter, we heat with wood and cook with propane, so, it's not like we need TMI in the backyard! LOL!

Yeah, it's getting common for newer all electric homes to need more than the old standard 200 amp main.

Diesel. When you're on LP, you're still "on the grid"