[CTinline-six]

If you have home heating with Propane or NG, find a generator setup that uses that, it's a no brainer. Much better than having to go out and fill up 44549659865035695685963 cans of gas or diesel fuel during a storm.

My parents have a 500 gallon propane tank under their yard for home heating and I got a conversion kit for their 1980's Coleman 5000 watt generator. It's not as seamless as some of the kits shown in the above post, but it beats having to fill it every so often, or having to run out for fuel. Luckily I didn't lose power and neither did they. I just have a small gas generator for running the fridge and freezer.


I fix small engines as a side gig, and as a reminder make sure you change the oil in these things every 50 hours of run time, 100 hours if it has an oil filter, and make sure the oil is full. Last hurricane I was brought a bunch of generators with seized engines due to being run low on oil.

[Haywood]

Just got power back yesterday after 3 days. Some of my friends still don't have it and might not have it until Sat. Just ridiculous. PSEG really screwed up this time. Terrible response and IT issues.

[upstatedoc]

Originally Posted by Haywood

Just got power back yesterday after 3 days. .

thats bullshit

[vreihen16]

If anyone in the northeast is looking for bargains on a portable generator, every big-box store in the region will have a glut of "open box" generators. Each will already have the oil poured into the crankcase, and gasoline fumes in the tank. Seriously, there are plenty of slimeballs in our society who do this for every storm.

A less shady trick is to go out to the store and credit card a generator just as a potential storm is forming, and then return it un-opened after the storm passes and they don't need it (or can't find a buyer to scalp during the emergency).....

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

If anyone in the northeast is looking for bargains on a portable generator, every big-box store in the region will have a glut of "open box" generators. Each will already have the oil poured into the crankcase, and gasoline fumes in the tank. Seriously, there are plenty of slimeballs in our society who do this for every storm.

A less shady trick is to go out to the store and credit card a generator just as a potential storm is forming, and then return it un-opened after the storm passes and they don't need it (or can't find a buyer to scalp during the emergency).....

This is the mentality that killed the generous return policy of Costco.

[GenXer]

It depends on how easy you want it to be or how often you're facing a blackout.

I'm only a few blocks from the substation and I've never had a power outage in 4 years. However, I do have a 2200 watt Ryobi generator just to run the bare essentials. Heat is not an issue since I also have propane portable heaters, a gas fireplace with battery backup starter. My sump pump will also run for a week on battery power. My sump doesn't fill up that much during summer or winter.

Weigh out all of your necessities before spending a lot of money.

Gasoline generators are convenient but normal gasoline will clog up your carburetor pretty fast if you don't clean it out.

For infrequent use, propane is the next most reliable and second most convenient. Portable tanks are available everywhere.

However if you are plagued with frequent blackout, a permanently mounted natural gas unit like a Generac is your best bet. It does just about everything on its own. But why spend thousands of dollars unless you need to.

For natural gas, your only good option is a Generac
For gasoline, I would highly a Honda EU3000is or EU700is etc. It's super quiet, reliable and durable.

I've never used any propane generator so I can't recommend any.

[Haywood]

Originally Posted by GenXer

It depends on how easy you want it to be or how often you're facing a blackout.

I'm only a few blocks from the substation and I've never had a power outage in 4 years. However, I do have a 2200 watt Ryobi generator just to run the bare essentials. Heat is not an issue since I also have propane portable heaters, a gas fireplace with battery backup starter. My sump pump will also run for a week on battery power. My sump doesn't fill up that much during summer or winter.

Weigh out all of your necessities before spending a lot of money.

Gasoline generators are convenient but normal gasoline will clog up your carburetor pretty fast if you don't clean it out.

For infrequent use, propane is the next most reliable and second most convenient. Portable tanks are available everywhere.

However if you are plagued with frequent blackout, a permanently mounted natural gas unit like a Generac is your best bet. It does just about everything on its own. But why spend thousands of dollars unless you need to.

For natural gas, your only good option is a Generac
For gasoline, I would highly a Honda EU3000is or EU700is etc. It's super quiet, reliable and durable.

I've never used any propane generator so I can't recommend any.

Good points. I learned a lot about generators this week since most of LI was out. Drove past a place that refills propane tanks and the line was about 10-12 people deep. Walking around my neighborhood, I realized how many people had generators. Most were filling up theirs with gas. They are very loud and obviously can't do the AC. Then, my neighbor has a whole house generator he got after Sandy. Not as loud, all lights, appliances, TV, cable, internet, AC working. I put a deposit down on one yesterday. They are more money, but I don't want to deal with the hassle of filling up propane or gas and not have the ability to have AC or heat. I couldn't sleep worth a shit for 3 nights and that's worth it to me right there. Everything here is above ground power and really old trees. It doesn't take more than 30+ mph winds to pull down trees and power lines. Plus, PSEG are useless. I don't want to have to deal with this again.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by Haywood

Good points. I learned a lot about generators this week since most of LI was out. Drove past a place that refills propane tanks and the line was about 10-12 people deep. Walking around my neighborhood, I realized how many people had generators. Most were filling up theirs with gas. They are very loud and obviously can't do the AC. Then, my neighbor has a whole house generator he got after Sandy. Not as loud, all lights, appliances, TV, cable, internet, AC working. I put a deposit down on one yesterday. They are more money, but I don't want to deal with the hassle of filling up propane or gas and not have the ability to have AC or heat. I couldn't sleep worth a shit for 3 nights and that's worth it to me right there. Everything here is above ground power and really old trees. It doesn't take more than 30+ mph winds to pull down trees and power lines. Plus, PSEG are useless. I don't want to have to deal with this again.

Doesn't matter if the power lines are above or below ground. My neighborhood is fairly new with all power lines buried underground. There are some large transmission lines nearby but no trees that would cause any issues and the main lines are high up on steel "poles". There's even a power substation across the street from the entrance to my development. With all of that, we still lost power. Actually, we were the first to lose power during Sandy even though at the time we were the newest development. The older development next to mine was up about an hour or so longer than we were.

You're right about the piece of mind a generator brings that depending on the person is worth the price of admission; except when the power company sends more voltage than it should .

[vreihen16]

I think that I found my next home generator!

Third-world technology to back up our third-world power grid. What a shame that the EPA banned the import of these and other large/slow 1-cylinder diesels for emissions reasons.....

[Kolyan2k]

At home depot

[angelr]

Originally Posted by Kolyan2k

At home depot

Lol, I am the vp of sales for a generator company that supplies a lot of the big box stores and I am anxious to see how many returns we see after this season. It's been a record breaker for us and the issue of folks returning the units after a storm is real. With some of my partners I have allowances built into the contract and they often deal with this stuff internally but not with all of them.

[upstatedoc]

Originally Posted by Kolyan2k

At home depot

Originally Posted by angelr

Lol, I am the vp of sales for a generator company that supplies a lot of the big box stores and I am anxious to see how many returns we see after this season. It's been a record breaker for us and the issue of folks returning the units after a storm is real. With some of my partners I have allowances built into the contract and they often deal with this stuff internally but not with all of them.

seriously its like returning toilet paper after the hoard