Don't you love it when you have a power outage and the generator doesn't work...

[alve]

I knew we had a big storm coming in so yesterday I went out and bought a 5500W generator. I put on the wheels, filled oil and fuel and started it up last night. It started up very easy.

This morning our power went out. I was glad I had bought that generator yesterday so I told the family no worries, we will have power in no time. I pull out the generator, open fuel valve, pull out choke, make sure the 110V breakers are off and the power switch is on and pull the cord. After pulling about 10 times (each time it just sputters for a second or so) it was flooded...
Went in the garage to get some tools, rolled out my aircompressor and took out the spark plug. Offcourse the plug was wet with gasoline so I blew it off with the air gun, blew with the airgun the fuel out of the chamber and put it all back and tried again.
Offcourse it didn't want to start again, just sputtered for about 10 seconds and died again and offcourse eventually it flooded again.
Anyway after several times removing the spark plug, drying it and the chamber and letting it sit for about 20min it still did not work.

Eventually I gave up and had to find another solution since the temp. in the tank dropped already 3 degrees and there was no flow at all. The only thing I had going was a battery operated airpump.

Since I only had one air pump that was in my main tank I had nothing for my QT and the temperature in there dropped a lot faster than my 156g. On tuesday I had added 1 mail Lyrethail Anthias and 3 females and the plan was to keep them in there for a month. I didn't want to take the risk that they would die because of no water movement, no heater and no airpump in there so I moved them to my DT after only being in quarantine for 5 days. I am not too happy about that and hope I won't regret it later on... I was not going to introduce anything new to my tank without at least 4 weeks in the QT...

Luckily I have a 110V outlet in the bed of my pickup so I parked it in front of the house, plugged in an extension cord and had the main pump and one 250W heater going. That was about all I could put on there without overloading but it was enough.
After 5hrs the power came back on and the temperature only dropped 3 degrees. :)

Is it normal that generators are so hard to start? Until the power came back on I was about ready to pull out my sledge hammer because I was so upset that I had a generator and could not use it during a power outage

:mad2:

I guess I will go back out and try it again now it has been sitting for about 40minutes...

[useskaforevil]

my only experience with a generator was at a feild station in costa rica. but yes they suuuuuuuuuuuuck

[reefkoi]

Yeah I bought a cheapo $600 5500K unit from Sams or something a few years back that damn thing would never start, once in a while you could get it going on a warm day. I finally took it into a shop and found out the head was cracked! Cheap china garbage!
C

[reefergeorge]

Buy a Honda inverter generator, and be worry free.

[alve]

Yeah I am done with this thing. I spent hours now trying to get it to run. 3 times I thought I had it, that the engine started up but it died every time after about 15 seconds.
Somehow I have a feeling I will be loosing a whole lot of time on the phone with customer service over the next couple days to get somewhere with this thing...

[Roy G. Biv]

I have a crappy little honda in my garage, I left untreated gas in it. It starts up like a champ!

[RumLad]

There is of course that old saying "You get what......

[snorvich]

you pay for". My generator turns itself on once a week as a test and automatically turns on 5 seconds after power is interrupted. Saved me a couple of times so far. Of course, you get what . . . "

[filmoholic]

they suck and never work when you need them! bottom line!

[chucksta1]

Bad gas / contaminated gas / Unit doesn't need choke above 50 F / something got wedged in the needle valve seat and it won't shut / Low oil level sensor malfunction / Low oil pressure switch saw no oil pressure for over 30 seconds and cut ignition /

Could be anything, but one thing I do is NEVER leave gas in the unit. I run it dry and siphon fresh from the car when needed.

If you can't get a name brand whole unit, try and get one powered by a name brand.

[HDAlien]

Another vote for the Honda generators. Bonus is they are quiet enough to leave on all night if necessary without complaints from the neighbors.

[jeffbrig]

I have a 7000w generator with a 13hp Honda engine. It has served me well, running virtually nonstop for 6 days after Hurricane Wilma. Best thing....it's always started on the 1st or 2nd pull.

[Savas]

I completely support buying a Honda generator. They are great. Just remember to let it run outside - not in the garage - actually outside.

[alve]

I aggree the Honda generators are great. Unfortunately I didn't have the budget for spending about $2000. I bought a 5500W generator with 11HP engine that was on sale at Pep Boys for $500. I know the quality is pretty bad but I figured that for maybe a couple times a year it should do the job. I didn't expect it wouldn't work from the beginning...

I brought the generator to work with me today and had my mechanics look at it. They found out that the choke was always fully open, no matter if you push it in or pull it out and it caused the motor to flood immediately. They fixed that and now it starts up from the first pull. We will try again later this afternoon when the engine is cold. Let's hope it still does it when I need it again next time...

[Savas]

If you are going to have a generator, you should run it monthly for 10 minutes to ensure it works and keep everything lubricated. That will give you confidence in it also.

[quincy2008]

I bought a Honda generator last week and the power went out last night. I had to run to the gas station and upon return filled up the generator and it started immediately. I ran all three aquariums for 3 hours until the power returned. This was a dry run for hurricane season. I strongly recommend Honda Invert generators. They are expensive but work.