have a cummins 20k and its awesome. much quieter than the others.

texsn95 said:

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Has anyone had a Kohler or Cummins installed? Not sold on Generac yet.

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I have had a Cummins 36kw for a few years now. Very quiet and runs great. Past 2 storms it went about 125 hours non stop each outage. I like ours alot.

amirite!

texsn95 said:

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Has anyone had a Kohler or Cummins installed? Not sold on Generac yet.

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My Kohler has been nails. No issues. And way quieter than Generac.

My neighbor who runs a commercial electrical company put in a big liquid coooled Kohler, it is much quieter than my gernac air cooled, but probably cost 3-4 times as much

Made room for my 50 amp breaker at the top-right. Just have to install the inlet box and interlock and run wiring.

I don't think the $3000 number is right. I read they would reimburse price equal to a 5,500w. Based on a June event in Arkansas that number is $629.00.

https://www.fema.gov/fact-sheet/costs-generators-and-chainsaws-may-be-reimbursable#:~:text=The%20maximum%20reimbursement%20for%20a,FEMA's%20Individuals%20and%20Households%20Program.

I'll try and post pics tomorrow but had interlock switch, inlet box for 50 amp connection, and had a 3/4" natural gas line plumbed right beside it. Still waiting on trifuel Westinghouse to get off back order but I'm feeling good about next power outage!

The best part is I'm going to be all in about 20% of what the Generac would have cost me installed.

Finito

Question: with a simple interlock kit, these generators should be floating neutrals and not bonded, correct?

Edit: found a video that should answer my question

Anyone have a recommendation on a soft start kit for Lennox unit? Seems like this kits are fairly generic but not sure. I'm also assuming the ones labeled for RV would probably work too but they're just commonly used in the RV world and that's why the name is included?

TIA

If it's labeled RV it's generally for a lower tonnage system than a house.

This is what you want, definitely the gold standard
https://www.microair.net/products/easystart-flex-home-ac-soft-starter

ICM controls makes one but from my research there is a significant lag in the compressor starting up (4+) minutes on some cycles. So your attic fan starts and for 4 minutes is cycling air through your attic that is not cooled down before your A/C compressor kicks on. That's a no from me.

Thank you!

Just an FYI. There's recently been a lot of chatter on the Facebook generator groups about the new Microair model having a high failure rate. Their biggest fan has basically told people to hold off until the get it fixed.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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I'll try and post pics tomorrow but had interlock switch, inlet box for 50 amp connection, and had a 3/4" natural gas line plumbed right beside it. Still waiting on trifuel Westinghouse to get off back order but I'm feeling good about next power outage!

The best part is I'm going to be all in about 20% of what the Generac would have cost me installed.

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I did the same but if the power ever goes out when my wife is home alone I'll have a Generac and a big ass portable generator.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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I'll try and post pics tomorrow but had interlock switch, inlet box for 50 amp connection, and had a 3/4" natural gas line plumbed right beside it. Still waiting on trifuel Westinghouse to get off back order but I'm feeling good about next power outage!

The best part is I'm going to be all in about 20% of what the Generac would have cost me installed.

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I'm in the same boat, but have a Duramax ordered. Won't be ready until the end of next month.

Diggity said:

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Just an FYI. There's recently been a lot of chatter on the Facebook generator groups about the new Microair model having a high failure rate. Their biggest fan has basically told people to hold off until the get it fixed.

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Damn. Just ordered one to replace the older one.

I just installed 2 Flex last weekend. Then I read about the issues on Reddit. Most are having a failure within the first 3 weeks so now I'm just waiting. It works as advertised though. Both units inrush decreased to about 35% of what it was before.

Diggity said:

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Just an FYI. There's recently been a lot of chatter on the Facebook generator groups about the new Microair model having a high failure rate. Their biggest fan has basically told people to hold off until the get it fixed.

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Yes, been reading that. The essentially pop an existing aged capacitor as they learn the most optimal ramp-up.

Backup is to buy a 364/368 unit from a local supplier before they are all sold out/phased out.

Jethro95 said:

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I just installed 2 Flex last weekend. Then I read about the issues on Reddit. Most are having a failure within the first 3 weeks so now I'm just waiting. It works as advertised though. Both units inrush decreased to about 35% of what it was before.

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order replacement capacitors for both your units. Honestly good preventive maintenance to have em on hand anyways but here's your excuse.

Jethro95 said:

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I just installed 2 Flex last weekend. Then I read about the issues on Reddit. Most are having a failure within the first 3 weeks so now I'm just waiting. It works as advertised though. Both units inrush decreased to about 35% of what it was before.

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Just did a little research, looks like the ones that are failing are due to a firmware/capacitor issue in the first run units. They did an update that should have fixed the issue. If your units say B36 instead of B34, should be good to go.

Wife wants one of these things...maintenance program is $40 per month?

is that normal?

They don't service monthly, they may bill you monthly.
It's basically yearly service or 100 hours for air cooled. Yearly for water cooled.

Oil, air, spark, battery when they die.
Just like a vehicle.

$350-$500 seems to be the going rate. Less when you prepay or do a longer contract.

And like vehicles, maintenance plans are where they make their money from people who don't know how to change a spark plug, change oil, change battery, etc, or can afford to pay someone an exorbitant amount to not have to mess with it.

I would either maintain myself or find a local mechanic/handyman who can come do that work every 100 hours.

The problem with doing it yourself is when they **** the bed during an event good luck getting service if you aren't on their service plan

I guess, also like vehicles, it makes sense to do it as part of warranty coverage.

But iirc tons of people had issues getting their maintenance folks out to fix their Generacs after Beryl when their generators stopped working

Portable for the win. I had mine stored in the garage after Uri in 2021 until the derecho in May 2024 drained of gas and fresh synthetic oil. No maintenance required.

sadly, even friends of mine that bought the service plans were having trouble getting anyone out after the hurricane.

P.H. Dexippus said:

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Portable for the win. I had mine stored in the garage after Uri in 2021 until the derecho in May 2024 drained of gas and fresh synthetic oil. No maintenance required.

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Come on.

They both require maintenance to keep running.

Standby is expensive and gives you all the power you need and automatically kicks in but you have to service it regularly regardless of use.

Portable is cheaper and as long as you drain and store it properly between uses you can forget about it. But you have to manually transfer it and once you get it running they tend to strain under load and require all the same maintenance while being used to keep them going. Which means you have to shut it down to do so.

I'm a portable guy all the way due to financial value, but at least be truthful about it.

AgLA06 said:

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P.H. Dexippus said:

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Portable for the win. I had mine stored in the garage after Uri in 2021 until the derecho in May 2024 drained of gas and fresh synthetic oil. No maintenance required.

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Come on.

They both require maintenance to keep running.

Standby is expensive and gives you all the power you need and automatically kicks in but you have to service it regularly regardless of use.

Portable is cheaper and as long as you drain and store it properly between uses you can forget about it. But you have to manually transfer it and once you get it running they tend to strain under load and require all the same maintenance while being used to keep them going. Which means you have to shut it down to do so.

I'm a portable guy all the way due to financial value, but at least be truthful about it.

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This bold part is not true. No need to drain anything with a tri fuel if you're running NG or LP. There is not necessarily any strain, oversize your portable for your application so it's not running full throttle.

A 10 minute shut-down for an oil change every 100 hours is no big deal. Just have to watch some YouTube and be reasonably handy. Portables have come a long way in the past 3 years.

AgLA06 said:

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P.H. Dexippus said:

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Portable for the win. I had mine stored in the garage after Uri in 2021 until the derecho in May 2024 drained of gas and fresh synthetic oil. No maintenance required.

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Come on.

They both require maintenance to keep running.

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No one said otherwise.

Question for the knowledgeable folks on this thread. I'm in Florida, and going to take advantage of tax free weekend to buy a portable generator to run fridges, window units, etc in the event of a storm. However, I don't have natural gas lines in my neighborhood. Would it make sense to buy a dual-fuel (gas plus propane) generator? Or is buying propane tanks a bad idea compared to just refilling with gasoline during a post-storm environment? I honestly have no idea how big a propane tank you'd need to keep a generator running for 24 hours.

Thanks for any advice.

HerschelwoodHardhead said:

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Question for the knowledgeable folks on this thread. I'm in Florida, and going to take advantage of tax free weekend to buy a portable generator to run fridges, window units, etc in the event of a storm. However, I don't have natural gas lines in my neighborhood. Would it make sense to buy a dual-fuel (gas plus propane) generator? Or is buying propane tanks a bad idea compared to just refilling with gasoline during a post-storm environment? I honestly have no idea how big a propane tank you'd need to keep a generator running for 24 hours.

Thanks for any advice.

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Depends on how much storage space you have for propane. You can buy Katherine tanks but they just become large and heavy. Upside is they're stable for a long time. Gas containers are easier to fill before a storm hits. If there's a threat and the storm misses, you just run thr gas through your car. Get a gas can transfer pump, much easier to move fluids.

Dual fuel is probably the way to go. Mine is gas only. I keep 40 gallons on hand at the start of hurricane season, but get ethanol free, about $1/gallon more.

There are a lot of variables. Unlike others our plan is to not run it 24/7. Maybe 3x a day for 3-4hrs a go. To limp along and not run it at night.