My wife and I currently live with her Mom after selling our home last year. Hoping to buy a lake house in the not too distant post-retirement future. We rode out the loss of power earlier this week with a 6500W portable generator to run a couple space heaters, lamps, phone chargers, etc. My mother-in-law now wants to look into a WHG for her place.

I understand that Generac seems to be the most popular but has a huge backlog so deliveries are running many months behind orders. Have also seen some discussion elsewhere that customer service is not so good and reviews are not that great for the equipment.

I have read that Kohler costs more but has lower total harmonic distortion specs. Do they and other manufacturers also have huge backlogs with long deliveries?

Other brands, factors to consider?

We just started talking about this so I have not started figuring out KW needs yet but it's a total electric home (about 2600 sq ft I think) and there is no natural gas in the acreage community so it would need to be propane powered.

I did a lot of research and me and many of my neighbors bought Kohler. I highly recommend them.

Generac has nailed the marketing game and seem like the only game in town, but the quality is hit or miss.

Who did you work with for the Kohler? We have a Generator Superstore in town but they are Generac. Directly work with your electrician and/or plumber for the propane/NG hook-up? Briefly - why was Kohler better for you?

I have heard from personal acquaintances that the Kohler may be a step up and Generac's dominance in the market has more to do with marketing than comparison of quality. I've heard of electronics boards having problems on Generac. The Kohlers have the option of using Cummins engines which have a stellar reputation. I went with actual Cummins generators at our farm place that is notorious for power outages. They were the option available with the dealer I trusted up there. I've not even run them yet so I can't "first hand" tell you much. They are supposed to be much quieter. All that said I think you will do well with any of the Generac, Kohler, Cummins options.

Kolache, I have a question. I have seen the recommendations for installing transfer switches to back feed the circuits you deem essential. This has the advantage of the generator being portable, my question is the following. I understand that you can't leave a portable generator running exposed in inclement weather, rain, snow, etc. They have to be covered from the elements. So if you do the transfer switch setup and you lose power in a driving rain storm or snow event that lasts days, where do you put the generator(s) feeding the transfer switch? or am I totally off and they can be run in any weather exposed? From what I can tell it seems like you have to account for where to put them while they are in use. What am I missing?

I have the portable generator/switch over set up at my house. The problem I have is that mine is only set up for 110v circuits which leaves anything 220 out of my setup (stove, heat pump, dryer). Not saying it can't be done just didn't think far enough ahead when I had it done to think about those. I have any unattached garage where I run the generator with I buried cable that runs to my house from the generator.

I have the portable generator/switch over set up at my house. The problem I have is that mine is only set up for 110v circuits which leaves anything 220 out of my setup (stove, heat pump, dryer). Not saying it can't be done just didn't think far enough ahead when I had it done to think about those. I have any unattached garage where I run the generator with I buried cable that runs to my house from the generator.

Spoke to my electrician who has done work for me for years. Very knowledgeable. I am about to start a new house and wanted his advice.

He has installed both. Says he has had numerous service call on Generac not only during this event but throughout the year.

He told me to spend some extra and buy Kohler

Russ79 said:

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I have the portable generator/switch over set up at my house. The problem I have is that mine is only set up for 110v circuits which leaves anything 220 out of my setup (stove, heat pump, dryer). Not saying it can't be done just didn't think far enough ahead when I had it done to think about those. I have any unattached garage where I run the generator with I buried cable that runs to my house from the generator.

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Unless you have a weird electrical situation, that sounds like your generator couldn't do 220. Not an issue with my portable.

I got my Kohler from Generator Power Systems in Spring.

Thank you!

Does Tri-watt service DFW area? Or only the Houston/cs are?

Milwaukee Power Supply

I've ordered two of these to sell. Certainly a lot of money but looks like they provide a lot of power for awhile.

This is a brand new product but Milwaukee is a reputable company so we'll see if these work.

TexasAggie73 said:

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If this is for your MIL how much peace of mind does she want? Is she capable of hooking and maintaining a portable generator?

We have a whole house 22Kw Generac and it worked flawlessly for this storm. It kick on in about a minute when the power failed and our electrical items didn't miss a best when the power came back. All we noticed was the lack of noise from the generator. A WHG is much more expensive ($10,000)than a portable and we have a monitor and maintenance agreement with ours plus a 10year warranty. We were able to run all of the normal items that we wanted. It's hooked up to our natural gas line, so no need to keep propane on hand.

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LOL, no she would not be able to deal with a portable generator. That option is not on the table for her. Peace of mind and comfort would be high on the list of reasons to get one. She needs a standby generator that she would only need to test run as needed, make sure the propane tank level is adequate and leave everything else to her son-in-law and/or service technician as required. My wife and I will be traveling a lot and the MIL will need something as close to self sufficient as is practical.

I found out we have a self-employed electrician in our neighborhood that has been installing standby generators as part of his business the last few years. So far he's installed nothing but Generac and has had no complaints. Another neighbor's family business is mostly industrial generator systems but they started selling and installing whole home standby generators the last few years. Looks like they mostly sell Kohler generators for that application. Going to get both to come out and look things over to give us quotes.

We have ours on a monitoring program and it does a self test automatically once a week. Don't be like my BIL in New Orleans and when they needed it to run, the battery was dead. His wife was not a happy camper.

This generator did not run Tuesday morning when the power went out at daylight like it was supposed to. Luckily I went by to check the dripping faucets for an elderly relative who was out of town during the week. When I arrive about 10 am the generator was not running but had been coming on every Sunday for a short time as designed for a couple years and had previously worked flawlessly the few times electricity had been out over the past couple years.

Had two broken pipes in attic that morning while I was there and got the house water shut off quickly. Would not have happened if the generator had worked and the heaters stayed on probably.

Called the guy who checks it routinely and I did the manual restart. It ran for about 15 minutes and it was surging and would almost die. The lights would dim inside. Eventually it died completely. He has not had time to come check it since and the power was back on that afternoon but from the codes on the led readout, he thinks it is not big enough to run both heat pumps at the same time. Home has two electric water heaters also but I don't think they would have come on with nobody home that morning.

Have you checked your battery? I started mine each morning to make sure the cold didn't kill the battery, and if it did, put it on a charger while I could. Luckily, we never lost power.

aTm2004 said:

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Have you checked your battery? I started mine each morning to make sure the cold didn't kill the battery, and if it did, put it on a charger while I could. Luckily, we never lost power.

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No, it's a relatives and not mine but it's less than two years old and started easy when I manually started it.
The service tech thinks perhaps it is sized to run the two ac units but the two heat pumps use more energy. Thus it would not stay on. I'll post the two read outs it threw after I manually started it and it ran for a while before dying.

Looks like you may be right.

Quote:

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Underspeed... (code 1600) possibly caused by excessive loads. Customer should turn off large loads such as air conditioning, electric clothes dryers or electric oven/burners. If the customer reports that the unit keeps going into fault even with minimal loads connected then a service call is needed.

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https://oakelectric.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/OAK-generator-fault-codes7-30-2017-ver3.pdf

Ours is a 20kW and has run both ACs during the simmer, but a heat pump may be different.

All you noticed was lack of noise? Every whole home generator I've seen has been loud as ***** Not going to deny the convenience or powering the entire house, including ac, etc. But, unless somethings changed, a whole home generator is louder than my two small inverter Yamaha generators.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Yes, it is loud . What I meant when the power came back on, no flicker of lights or anything. Just noticed no sound from the generator. Didn't have to reset one digital clock.

VegasAg98 said:

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PM me for info on Kohler. Tri-Watt Electric is a licensed Kohler dealer. My partner and President of the company would be happy to answer questions and set up a quote.

You can email me at miknava at gee mail. And I'll connect you. I'll answer what I can but it's not my day job.

Tri-Watt Electric is 100% Aggie owned.

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I see u have stars...tried to PM u and it said u arent a valid TA subscriber. Shoot me a PM please if u get it fixed.

Just pm'd you.


That is strange as I've been getting tons of pm's