Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Home generator - Generac vs. Kohler

After the 3rd power outage in the past month and 3 major ones (longer than a day) in the past 2 years the wife and mother-in-law are pushing to have a whole home generator installed. Starting to get quotes now. Two brands - Generac and Kohler, keep coming up. Thoughts, opinions welcome please.

Bought a house in 2015? With a 20kw Generac. Needed a quick attachment point for propane stove, so robbed the feed to the generator, “I’ll hook it back up later”.

Of course, that never happened until we sold the place 2 years later without ever needing it. Hooked it back up, killed power at the meter, it fired instantly and had house powered up without issue.

Significant price differences in the quotes so far? What kind of money we talking here?

How big are you getting?

Don’t know yet, just started. Friend had one done a few weeks ago, $12k installed for a Generac, 22kw I think. But his house is a little smaller than mine. Company that did his is supposed to come this afternoon and quote it.

I am guessing 26-36kw. The summer load is the problem - A/C units, pool motor, etc. Winter load is way less (at least 50% lower) as we use natural gas for heat, stove, fireplace. May need to get some things “locked out” on generator to keep size of unit down. The only available space for it is tight, 5’ between house and driveway

EDIT - I nailed the estimate. Need a 32kw to comfortably run the house in the worst case - 100+ degree heat, all A/C units running, pool on, all the other regular crap on like lights, TVs, etc

I am running a 22kw Generac, no issue running the house including AC plus barn and garage. Cost me $10K May 2022 Generac's zero interest for 18 months made it a easy to do and it has been needed several times in the past 14 months..

26-36k? Are you powering a small town?

Get transfer switch so you can drop/select things like the pool pump. A/C WD. It all just requiresmore fuel when you won't be using it all at the Same time. ThinkWell pump, furnace, refrigeration some lights. Then you can last longer with the same fuel..

Good bud has a Genetac, had issues with Chinese engine.

Be sure to read fine print on warranty. Seems the unit is US made, except engine.

DF

I went through this same analysis a year ago after two major outages and lots of short ones. After talking with some businesses using each and generator techs, Kohler had better long-term reliability and less maintenance required. That is for a natural gas unit. The big plus for Generac is lots of parts are on the shelf. To me that confirmed they break a lot.

Just like rifles and scopes, I want the gear to work when needed, not a warranty.

So I went with a Kohler 20Kw. A/C is our heavy draw in summer and it has been plenty.

It has been wonderful. It kicks on fast enough that the clocks do not even start flashing from power going off.

I often thought about adding a home generator. Do they actually add anything to the value of the home?

Generac 20-K and switch runs big house, barns, water well, everything on property, when I built house had all lines underground to everything, now my understanding is 22-k is the size available, depending on where your place is how big a tank you need for propane, mine is 14 years old, it’s ran through snow storms, tornadoes, ice storms, up to 14 days being shut of just to cool down and add oil, do it right and forget about it!

IMHO that will depend on where you live and what the history of power outages are in that area...

Up here, not much. But I'm sure there are a lot of places where it's made quite a difference..

Do some research.

Engine problems on Generac aren't uncommon.
That shouldn't be.
Any decent generator engine is going to be designed to
run constantly for hours or days. And will probably very rarely run for any
amount of time. Mechanical failures on backup generators should be very rare.

Generac is a company who built their own reputation through advertising.
If one jumps into an uncrowded market and saturates it with publicity, the
unknowing public soon sees them as the #1 authority. They create a reputation
that may nor be reality.

Kohler and Onan have been building generator systems for facilities that NEED
reliable power for a long time. Since way before folks decided that no internet or A/C in their home was a serious crisis.



Before any Generac owners get butt hurt and jump to the conclusion that I own
or sell the competition, I don't.

Back in the day we ran a lot of Oman generators where I worked. They were good but when they break your SOL unless you can find a factory authorized dealer that has parts. I can’t say about Koehler but everything mechanical will break at some point except EV’s it’s forbidden to say anything bad about them.

I am currently in the throes of a 26 MW Generac install with its own propane tank for feed. As I am away for the summer the actual install will happen in September.

Add value? I would think so, but the important thing is to prevent contraction of the house value, freezing to death, or worse, busting your water lines and plumbing, flooding the house.....

Funny timing. Yesterday at the store I parked next to a local electric contractor. Wife and I have been talking about this subject for awhile, most seriously since power went out for 5 hours during the winter, and danged near wiped out our big expensive outdoor hot tub. I managed to thaw out the two short frozen lines myself without damage (except a small hole burned in the insulation blanket- easily replaced.)

Got his card and calling him tomorrow to set up an appointment for inspection and recommendation for on-demand , but he seems to think a 20K NG Generac will handle everything for our 3K sq foot house and the hot tub. We will see.

We don't have to worry about summer cooling up here- we aren't going to get one this year anyway, it seems.

We are gone for periods of time in the winter to warmer climes, so it's time to get serious about back-up!

Excellent recap and advice. That's exactly why I choose a 20kW Kohler over "others".

With the challenges associated with MLGW (think third world) many folks in the area are busy installing generators. But be careful, choose your installer carefully. A friend in Collierville had a gen installed. It took an additional 6 weeks to have the gas company and installer complete the hookup.

Don't fall for the marketing hype...

We did a 24kw generac on NG. The closest Kohler install was 90 min away and they didn't act real interested in my business. Everyone around us had generac amd in talking to my fellow tax payers, most were happy with them, so that's what we went with. I was looking at the figures the other day, it's run 82 hours in the past year. It doesn't miss a beat.

Certainly a luxury, but a very nice luxury.