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

I would not call it a "luxury" in my case. I'm nearly 75 now, and I don't want to deal with frozen chit in the winter. We have a NG fireplace on the first floor that will "probably" keep the house livable , but not the hot tub, of course. The garage has plumbing, and a heated slab with glycol, so that should be good for days - if the house is running, I can run hot water out there to keep the PEX thawed out, I think - and those lines have a heat tape on them anyway, should it prove necessary.

In the years I have lived here, in this house, we had one winter when it was -35F for 6 solid weeks, with at least one power outage of several hours. We had a wood/gas multi-fuel furnace at the time, so no problem! It died, and now we just have NG. Including cook stove. But blower and ignition, well pump, refrigeration, etc. need juice in the long run, if it should happen. We are in earthquake country too - just had a 4.1 a day or two ago. And then there was the 1964 Good Friday quake.....

Hope for the best, plan for the worse.

This ^^^^^^^^^

Back when I bought my portable welder (Miller) you could get either a Koehler or Onan engine. A welder that won’t run reliably for long periods of time will not make it in the professional marketplace. Mine has a Kohler engine which, in over 25 years, has never given a moment’s trouble. It has run for days during outages and while supplying power for remote building projects and has sat for long periods, always firing right up when needed. I can’t say enough good about it. It is probably the most reliable and proven IC device I’ve ever owned.

Generally speaking, no.

I run a 20k Generac with a transfer switch and had a 500 gal propane tank buried to feed it. It powers my house of about 2200 sf ft without issue. I do get it serviced twice yearly so it works when I need it.

You know the area well! Propane tank are not allowed in my urban neighborhood. Natural gas already at house

We just had a Kohler NG 20kW generator installed. Prior, I used larger portable gasoline generators. We have multiple outages per year...earlier this year we were out for 6 days. I used an authorized Kohler dealer for install. Can't comment on how well it works, power hasn't gone out since the install, but it is quiet when running on test mode. I chose Kohler based on the recommendation of a neighbor who spent many years as an engineer keeping Coldfoot AK and other AK area generators running. He highly recommended Kohler and Cummins over Generac. We are running on propane.

I've had a 22KW Generac for 6 years now and being in hurricane country we've been without electricity for as long as 12 to 14 days at a time. So far it has been good, bought one battery, and had the positive battery connection break off one time. That has been it for problems. I change the oil once a year or if we have a power outage I change it every 100 hours of running. Use 5W30 Mobil1.

One thing about Generac units is that most of them will use oil and my neighbor up the road messed his up when he kept restarting it after it shut down automatically for low oil pressure. I shut ours down every day for about an hour and add oil if needed but most folks don't. My Generac man tells me they run at 3600 RPM.

I believe Onan and Kohler are better machines but I don't know of any dealers/installers around here and there are lots of Generac units and Generac dealers in the area.

I have a Generac 23 KW air cooled, with the cel phone readouts and alerts, a 23 KW because it was the largest air cooled unit they made, now Generac makes a 25 KW. It is propane, clean burning, no residue, lasts lomger than gas or diesel. I have the annual matinence contract, done wirk by a certified Generac tecnician.
Suggest you call a Generac dealer and certified technition, and electrician. Have them do the entire job, switch, setup, startup (no warranty without a technician).

We have three building under power, heat, air, lights and powder. You will need battery backups for electronics to clean up the powder to co,puters, TVs, amplifiers, etc.

After Hurricane Michael we were down for 14 days straight. We have almost regular outages all during the year, so have a 30 second delay on our generator start up, out here in the woods, trees down, etc. We have two 1,000 gallon propane underground tanks, two tankless water heaters, all planned before we built the buildings.

I could be way wrong, but most of the full home units with transfer switch seem to be in this range - the starting draw seems to be a main factor.

Hmmm

Cummins & Onan under the same roof ??

https://www.cummins.com/na/generators/home-standby

They had a big 22kwatt one at Costco for about $5000. I'd assume an electrician could install it. I don't recall the brand, maybe Honeywell.

Bb

I have natural gas coming into my house. I assume that if there were a weather or other related power outage, the flow of natural gas would not be affected so if I hooked a back-up generator to that, I would have fuel available. What about if there were a problem with the whole electric grid? Would the natural gas still flow through the lines? Would that be an argument to have propane on hand?

Thanks for your help!

Dean

Most all natural gas systems are completely backed up from the electric power grid. They use NG fired gas turbines as prime units to move NG through the pipelines, and NG fired generators for control and auxiliary power backup.

I've never seen my NG as a SHTF scenario. It's for the common 18-36 hr power outages when it's 115 real feel.

That's what I have seen with Onan gen sets, Cummins powered.

We have a ‘04 Generac on propane and no issues, but both Generac’s I know of installed in the last 5yrs had engine issues.

Anything I install going forward would have a Cummins logo on it.

Not so much anymore.

The blackout in Texas blew up over this issue.

Obama's folks pushed EPA crap, and the Permian Basin fields and pipelines
went to electricity.

When they started rolling blackouts to lessen the pressure on generation plants,
no one had thought to give the Basin priority due to those NG fields.

Turned the power off to the NG pumps!!!
Gas stopped, NG generation plants died!

Talk about screwing the pooch.

Buddy's church is gonna build a new church. A big hangup is getting power to it.
He recently told me that's taken care of now. The gas wells that are nearby have to
install electric pumps to meet requirements. New lines will need run on church
land.

Holy crap.
They know what happened in Texas, now we are copying the situation.
Plus, we shut down our third coal plant near hear in a few years.
Nothing has been built to replace them either.

My house is about the same size but I think I'll wait till I buy my next one in TN to install the first generator in that one.

Any of you know anything about Briggs & Stratton home generators?

Yes - nat gas hookup good for backup.

But, if a big electrical breakdown, the nat gas flow might be disrupted.

Yes, would work to have a propane tank for further backup.