SIAP

All of the marketing is Generac. Read B&S on this board. What's the consensus?

Generac

Cummings then Briggs hands down.

Cooper Bessemer KSV-20.

Portable

NoahAg said:

---

Portable

---

Bingo. Just add a HVAC soft start and you have everything you need at a fraction of the price. The average home with natural gas or propane appliances is not going to need more than 12kW/50A to operate all systems. The standby systems seem to be upsold to 20-30kW.

If you go the portable route and intend on back feeding your panel. Make sure your breakers are balanced.

I ran into this yesterday with my 7000w Honda. I was careful to keep my wattage in the 3-4000W range but the generator kept tripping. Turns out my panel pulls ~2.5x more load on one side (my 4 fridges/freezers and network cabinet are on the same power phase) of the panel causing me to trip the over current even though I was below the rated power of my generator.

Based on my research it's like Ford, Chevy, and Dodge.

None of them are truly better than the others. Just lots of personal preference and personal experience.

Generac is far and away the largest producer. Because of that, there's going to be some lemons. It also means parts and techs are easy to come by.

Anyone that says Generac is junk is a fool. They're not perfect but they're in a lot of places because they do work.

My best advice is to find an installer you trust and has fair pricing. The brand of the generator is secondary.

There's give and take with every generator brand out there. Just like there is with Ford, Dodge, and Chevy.

Had Generac at two different houses. Both have worked fine for both short outages and lengthy ones like right now if you maintain them. They eat through oil and like a car the battery has to be replaced occasionally (I assume this is the case with all of them). Loud AF so wouldn't put it next to your bedroom.

Just went through this after Beryl. Although it missed Rockport, not going to chance going through another two weeks without power like after Harvey. Visited with my neighbor that has Generac, seems to work well. Talked to my electrical guys and they recommended Cummins/Onan. Spent 40 years previous to retirement in West Texas Oilfields. EVERY Schlumberger and other outfit that needed power used Onan. Also, dealer for Cummins is local with local service.

Long story, short, went with Cummins. However, as others have stated, the Generac is also a good unit. For me it was local service with someone to call if needed.

Getting my standby generator installed on Monday. Went with Generac because that's what the electrician recommended.

P.H. Dexippus said:

---

NoahAg said:

---

Portable

---

Bingo. Just add a HVAC soft start and you have everything you need at a fraction of the price. The average home with natural gas or propane appliances is not going to need more than 12kW/50A to operate all systems. The standby systems seem to be upsold to 20-30kW.

---

Quote:

---

If you go the portable route and intend on back feeding your panel. Make sure your breakers are balanced.

---

This^^^^^^^^

I ran my entire house, AC included, and a swimming pool, with a portable 9500/12500 generator. You just can't run everything at the same time.

ETA: I would recommend to all users to do a complete oil change on their units now that the emergency has passed

So my parents have a remote start and service function. Power company fires dad's generator weekly for testing remotely, has the ability to take their house off the grid to reduce load during potential overloading, they got a free 5 year complete service plan hands off. Thought it was an interesting symbiotic relationship

Cummins/Onan is the route i would go.

You are spot on.
Man made will break. I have sold and installed all of the brands, they all have some sort of issue that someone will not like.
Hire the best installer/service provider you can find.
That is the most important tool in the box.

We did this exercise a few years ago and talked to Generac, Kohler, and Cummins reps. After getting installing quotes, and researching each unit we went with Cummins.

I am over 220 hr on my and just did an oil change and air filter swap. Very easy to do and I saw very little oil blow by. Will be doing spark plus soon.

Deats99 said:

---

So my parents have a remote start and service function. Power company fires dad's generator weekly for testing remotely, has the ability to take their house off the grid to reduce load during potential overloading, they got a free 5 year complete service plan hands off. Thought it was an interesting symbiotic relationship

---

I'm assuming it's a permanently installed generator run on natural gas? The free 5 year service plan may make up for the cost of using natural gas vs grid electricity during load shedding, depending on how often they do that. And the nuisance of generator noise when everyone around them has power. Interesting symbiotic relationship.

Dad ran data centers for big banks for years so the benefit of weekly cycling of a generator and remote digital monitoring is not lost on him.
At 75+ taking the maintenance and service of a 15-20 kw generator off his plate makes me happy.
I don't think the have grabbed his generator yet for load shedding in 2 years

100% agree with this. I've had my generac since summer of '20 and it has been great. I did have an issue in early '22 but it was due to me ignoring maintenance. Got on a service plan with a local out of Hockley and have been flawless ever since. Have a good friend who started selling kholer's and touted how good they are vs generac. I'm guessing to use chewy's truck analysis generac is Chevy and kholer is Cadillac. I am confident in saying if you get one spend the money on the service agreement unless you are going to do it yourself.

Swag,
Get a service plan unless you are going to do it yourself! It should also do a weekly start and run for five minutes. Make sure to have it do this in the morning say 9 or 10. If it fails you still have a full day to get someone to come service. Initially mine was set for 5pm and when I had an issue it took longer to respond. Just a lesson learned….

Joseph in Cypress said:

---

Swag,
Get a service plan unless you are going to do it yourself! It should also do a weekly start and run for five minutes. Make sure to have it do this in the morning say 9 or 10. If it fails you still have a full day to get someone to come service. Initially mine was set for 5pm and when I had an issue it took longer to respond. Just a lesson learned….

---

Oh ya I plan on doing the monthly maintenance plan! But good tip on the run time! I'll be sure to do that.

Always thought Generac because of their massive ads but after a bunch of research settled on Briggs & Stratton which are very selective about who sells and installs their generators!

Following.

It comes down to:

A) Convenience, do you want your life disrupted
B) Cost, see A
C) Budget
D) What do you have to have run in an emergency?

We do not need whole house and are on a budget so B & C are biggest factors. Going out to manually flip the panel and do the breakers 1 by 1 is OK on the basis that this will be (hopefully) a very infrequent thing. The 2nd part is, we will not have our genny running 24/7. More like 3x 3hr runs during the day to cool the house off, and keep the fridge/upright freezer cold.

Running 100% gasoline so fuel is an issue, including sourcing it if things go on longer than expected. Our goal was to limp along for 2 weeks. It's also loud so won't run at night to avoid pissing off the neighbors.

My dad has a generac and is now looking into upgrading to a larger unit so he can run his shop at the same time.

Are generacs quiet like the smaller inverter style or are they the obnoxiously loud like the large portable ones?

LOUD!!!

Helped Cummins get hundreds of generators in the field, QSK78 that can output 2500kw. Run one of those and never have to worry about not having enough power. Downside is the cost,7 figures. Maybe everyone in the neighborhood can kick in.

Honestly you need to be realistic and think if you are going to service it and if not what company has people around to service it for you. I prefer Cummins but for what 95% of what people need almost any generator will work. I think most generators are designed to live around 10k hours which is just over a year running 24/7. Running standby and turning it on for a bit once a month would take decades to get to that amount of hours.

Naveronski said:

---

Are generacs quiet like the smaller inverter style or are they the obnoxiously loud like the large portable ones?

---

It's an engine, it will be loud. Enclosures will help but everyone on your block will be able to tell who has a generator on.

P.U.T.U said:

---

Naveronski said:

---

Are generacs quiet like the smaller inverter style or are they the obnoxiously loud like the large portable ones?

---

It's an engine, it will be loud. Enclosures will help but everyone on your block will be able to tell who has a generator on.

---

That's disappointing; I was hoping they were closer to the hum of the smaller Honda inverter generators, but I guess you have to have a more powerful engine to generate the power required for a home.

Naveronski said:

---

P.U.T.U said:

---

Naveronski said:

---

Are generacs quiet like the smaller inverter style or are they the obnoxiously loud like the large portable ones?

---

It's an engine, it will be loud. Enclosures will help but everyone on your block will be able to tell who has a generator on.

---

That's disappointing; I was hoping they were closer to the hum of the smaller Honda inverter generators, but I guess you have to have a more powerful engine to generate the power required for a home.

---

Once you are inside your house and realize you have power because of it you will quickly not hear the generator.

If you are that worried about the noise look at a liquid cooled one, they are quieter.

I have a diesel. She purrs along at 1800 RPM. It runs all the crucial items. If I were getting another, I'd check out a diesel milspec variety. There was one for sale on classifieds. I'd personally insist on diesel. I've fired up diesel tractors that havnt run in 30 years and it still runs on the old fuel. You won't do that with gas.

Jason_Roofer said:

---

I have a diesel. She purrs along at 1800 RPM. It runs all the crucial items. If I were getting another, I'd check out a diesel milspec variety. There was one for sale on classifieds. I'd personally insist on diesel. I've fired up diesel tractors that havnt run in 30 years and it still runs on the old fuel. You won't do that with gas.

---

How much diesel does it use a day? Main advantage to natural gas is you can use utility gas, which typically doesn't go down and you don't have to refill / store.

ftaggie09 said:

---

Naveronski said:

---

P.U.T.U said:

---

Naveronski said:

---

Are generacs quiet like the smaller inverter style or are they the obnoxiously loud like the large portable ones?

---

It's an engine, it will be loud. Enclosures will help but everyone on your block will be able to tell who has a generator on.

---

That's disappointing; I was hoping they were closer to the hum of the smaller Honda inverter generators, but I guess you have to have a more powerful engine to generate the power required for a home.

---

Once you are inside your house and realize you have power because of it you will quickly not hear the generator.

If you are that worried about the noise look at a liquid cooled one, they are quieter.

---

Because of the location of my electrical panel, my portable generator sits right outside my bedroom window. And you know what? With my AC at 76 and my CPap running, I slept like a baby for the last two nights.

Is your cummins diesel powered? What is the local company?

will.mcg: Howdy, answers:

1. It is natural gas. Diesel would require storage tank and no room and do not want to store a liquid fuel on site, residential. Thinking, spills, theft, fire.

2. Aransas Propane LLC, Gregg Radley, Owner. 361-729-2111. Cummins/Onan dealer, installer, service.

3. Electrical, Custom Electric, Rockport, 361-319-0264