And now...what I don't like, The Inverter board...
That board is about 2 or more inches thick, and potted in some heavy hard, epoxy. When something fails on it your hooped, no way to trouble shoot it or fix it. (they are all like this, inverters)
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
That blows! You can't even get a probe in there to test a component. All the spare parts in the world wouldn't help you troubleshoot/repair that thing!
Yes, not repairable. that's why I like the older stuff. It is what it is though, want good fuel economy, pay for it with less longevity. I have just got it undressed to the permanent magnet alternator stage and I am now having second thoughts about converting it....
That first one I bought , I now have almost 200 hrs on (doing lots of work in the garage), and I noticed that I am now getting longer run times, somewhere around 8hrs at about a 500 watt load, that's good, real good, somewhere around .43 liters a hour. When fuel is 1.30 a liter that matters.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
OK I am going to put it back together.I am still going to build a straight DC generator out of a inverter, just not this way, with this unit. I can do it but I am actually more impressed with this unit as I further examined it. Its value is greater as a complete, as built, generator to me. I spent coin I didn't have to, but assets are more valuable than fiat currency. I will put this away for now lick my wounds and let my wallet heal.
Costco's sale is over but I notice wallymart now has this unit on for 500.00
The Honda equivalent is the 2200 watt unit..its something like 1450.00 here in Alberta, ofcourse you should have one..buy one if you have the wallet capacity...but for a back up to the Honda, take a look at this unit....I will report back when we get some real cold here..-20, -30 and I will note how it starts up then!
(7.5 hrs@ 600 watts starting, tapering to 525 watts at the end)
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
That blows! You can't even get a probe in there to test a component. All the spare parts in the world wouldn't help you troubleshoot/repair that thing!
Yep, Though I wont be without power if these inverter types fail, I use these type for backs against the wall, must have power situations. These are ST heads This is a small one, it will put out 2000 watts in 120 or 240 volts all day long with not a electronic part in it to fail. This "little" one weighs 150 pounds. Likely can surge to 3500watts easy. Runs at 1800rpm, built to run 24/7 Just this alternator is larger than many generator units. These have largely been made this way since the 1930s. Old school, rock, paper, scissors simple. bullet proof, and can be fixed with a rock! Fully, completely built of cast iron...I laugh at emp!! and this is the smallest one I have.... Not sure where to get them now as I bought with others right from China back in 2004-5 (I think)
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
OK I am going to put it back together.I am still going to build a straight DC generator out of a inverter, just not this way, with this unit. I can do it but I am actually more impressed with this unit as I further examined it. Its value is greater as a complete, as built, generator to me. I spent coin I didn't have to, but assets are more valuable than fiat currency. I will put this away for now lick my wounds and let my wallet heal.
Costco's sale is over but I notice wallymart now has this unit on for 500.00
The Honda equivalent is the 2200 watt unit..its something like 1450.00 here in Alberta, ofcourse you should have one..buy one if you have the wallet capacity...but for a back up to the Honda, take a look at this unit....I will report back when we get some real cold here..-20, -30 and I will note how it starts up then!
(7.5 hrs@ 600 watts starting, tapering to 525 watts at the end)
Your killing me with temptation. That’s a good price for a nice little portable gen that doesn’t suck to much gas and will help a person with freezer.... I have the little honda you mention for use around the property. But dang another little one to put on the shelf is a good idea.
If I get it, I will start it to ensure it works and use engine fog and choke it out, empty any gas, let it air dry out and then and I kid you not, Mylar the sucker with some oxygen absorbers and pop in a plastic container. Keep mice, and other flipping bugs away.
If anyone has input on other things to do for storage of motors, hoses... please advise. Lots of money invested in stuff and to have things dry out, rust.. and frig up your plans in five years from now isn’t good.
I have put this unit back together. One thing I did since I had it apart was to wrap the muffler up in some nice thick fire resistant packing. I don't know what it is called but I had some laying around so I thought what the hell, lets wrap this muffler up tight with it and see what that does for sound deadening.
That packing must be 3/8th thick. I wont get to try it until tomorrow.
I am at roughly 230-240 hrs on my first unit, its running well, no smoke, doesn't burn oil, I will take it out of service tomorrow and start running this new unit in its place. My first one will have the oil changed, the carb drained, the engine fogged, the muffler dampened like in the pictures above, then it will be wrapped up in pallet wraping ,the stretchy wrap you can buy from Staples for like 20 bucks for a thousand foot roll, then it will be put away into long term storage!
I took this unit apart as far as one could short of pulling the piston and checking the cylinder for honing marks. I got to say, even though I complain about things like the choke to close to the pull cord, at 500 bucks delivered this is looking like a damn good deal, at the 650 I paid when it wasnt on sale....a damn fair deal.
I have other pictures of the inside construction, like how they mitigated vibration between the components, I just haven't posted them cause you get the point...
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Just back to add....The gas cap...what a piece of crap, I could not even blow through this one with it in the open position, I could with the first one (even though it gave me problems) that caused the unit to stop randomly. Anyway that's my only real complaint about these units.
If you have problems with it stalling out, leave the gas cap off, or real loose, or as I have done and drill out the cap...problem solved!
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
i understand why you would wish to dampen the sound but wondering if the heat buildup may effect engine performance or wear ?
All I can say is WOW...that packing turns this unit into a honda 2000 noise wise, maybe even a touch better.
I did think of the heat issue, decided it was 6 of one/half dozen of another and went ahead. If I was running this unit hard, like steady at near max output, 1800-1900 watts then I might be more concerned about keeping too much heat in the head but as I am using this thing at only three different loads 1000 watts, 600 watts, and 500 watts, (usually 500) depending on charger setting then I am not to worried.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
That's a cool trick to cut down the DBs peppercorn!
None you improvise, one (or more) is luxury.
Pulled my first unit into the garage and found time to do up the muffler, or I should say over do.I didn't think to take a picture when I was doing this, only after I closed up the unit.
This time I wrapped the full muffler up including the ends, and strapped thick gauge perforated plate to the outside of the insulation. My thought was this plate would hold the insulation tighter against the muffler than just wire would. This is now the quietest inverter I have ever heard, even on high idle it just purrs like a kitten, all the high notes have been knocked out of the exhaust.
I plugged in a chain saw to give this a test and the electric saw was way louder than the generator...and electric saws are pretty quiet!
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I was playing with this unit today, I set it out side and ran a pipe from the exhaust of the generator to a piece of culvert buried in snow. I just wanted to see if I could completely kill any exhaust noise....it made no difference, not at all that I could discern. As I thought about it, I came to realise that the noise left wasn't really coming from the exhaust, what was left was mechanical noise coming off the engine block! its that quiet!
I set the thing inside the garage and shut the door, walked around to the south wall where there are no doors or windows, I was about 15 feet from the wall and I could not hear a sound, not a peep..nothing (its just a 4in insulated wall) I walked around to the front of the garage where there are two big lift up doors. these metal doors don't fit well and come about a inch short of the floor (no gaskets) at 50 feet I could just make out the sound of something...
I would bet that a person could run this unit in the back of a typical city sized back yard, with 5 24x30 inch cement (2 inch thick) walkway blocks of the type sold at homedepot arranged around the units sides, and one block on top, and I bet the homes on either side would not hear a thing.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I have been running up the hours on my my second unit. There is a difference between the two units. I noticed it the first time I tried to pull start the second unit. With the first unit as you pull on the cord the engine turns over easy with little resistance. When I pull start the second unit, there is real resistance, almost like kick back...very strange that there should be a difference but it is very noticeable. I haven't seen any other change in running characteristics...though I don't consider the engine broke in yet. I will just have to wait and see what develops, maybe its something, maybe nothing?
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Closing in a generator and dampening noise is identical to any sound proofing.
In addition to any "as built" methods by the manufacturer, you need mass around whatever you’re trying to muffle. So take your pick of what’s available, fits in your space and the costs of material. Wood, concrete block, poured concrete, steel, fiberglass type "sound batting" insulation and all the combinations thereof. But mass combined with design is what makes it work. 2,3 layers of drywall with a lead liner sheet between layers is good, put a bead of caulking at the bottom of the gyproc boards or perhaps the concrete blocks peppercorn mentions. So sound transmission to adjoining material is reduced. Tape all the joints and seal with drywall mud. Alter the joint seams to further reduce sound transmission.
You also need to look at vibration so things like a concrete or plywood base don't pick up the vibrations and rattle. A good dense but sound absorbing rubber base under the generator wheels or frames and whatever flooring you have can help.
You can't forget the need for air intake and for cooling purposes.
Some larger 40 foot boats have nice insulated panels around the 5,10KW generators used for onboard heating, cooling and power. Sitting on a back deck, you can hardly hear them.
Searay yachts use an in water exhaust system for their big diesel engines. Meaning the exhaust is directed into/under the water surface. This really muffles the exhaust sound and again, being near them, you hardly know the two big diesels and generator engines are running. So maybe worth an experiment in a suburban setting. It takes a good discharge pressure but it does work. The other advantage of exhausting into water, is that odors are reduced and if you have a diesel generator, that is especially important. Now, in Canada, exhausting into water in the winter will be a challenge
if one is running a larger generator for extended periods of time, it may be worth looking at the heat given off by them and see if that can be used to supplement the heat a workshop! I know that in my unheated room, it can be a nice plus that helps me do other emergency type work in relative comfort.
Shrubbery, cedar trees... are also things one may look at to muffle noise.
Then there is the need to access the generator for maintenance, so that needs to be factored in when building a "box" around the unit. So the seams for the access panels need to be looked at for tightness and perhaps overlapping of joints.
Side bar to a gen room is securing the sucker down so it is harder to liberate. Good anchor bolts that are hard to get at should be looked at and multiple methods of chain or cable used with different locks. All designed so they are difficult to access with bolt cutters etc.
highly recommend discrete alarm contacts as well