Currently storing my generator in our garage where it gets pretty dang cold at night.

If power went out and I had to fire it up in this cold, would I have to take any initial precautions as far as the oil/gas goes or could I just go ahead and fire it up?  

I guess my question is, would the oil be too cold to circulate properly?  Would I need to warm it somehow first?  

I don't want to do something stupid and jeopardize my generator.

Thanks.

As long as you are running the proper weight oil, you'll be fine to just fire it up.  I use Mobil 1 Extended Performance synthetic oil in my gas generators.  I use 10W30 weight oil.

Electric start, or manual pull rope ?
What is your version of "COLD"?

.

Around 5 to 10 degrees F.  you will find the manual start Honda and Briggs&ScrapIron get real stiff, hard to pull over.

They will start with extra effort.

By 0 degrees, with dinosaur oil..... no start in my experience, had to take them inside for an hour, then no problem.

.

you might have better luck with synthetic oils, Mobil1 claims pour point of -58 F for their 10w30

Agree with what is your definition of cold? I keep 1 generator (drained of gas) in my un-heated porch in the winter. It only gets into the teens/twenties in there, but it is -20 outside.

Pull start.  

In the teens and below outside so I'd guesstimate in the 20s-30s in the garage.  

I turn the fuel pitcock lever and run it dry when shutting it down so the fuel is only in the tank; not the carb.

In some parts of Russia, on very cold mornings, it's not uncommon to pile twigs and leaves under a vehicle, and set fire to it.

Hopefully, the vehicle starts and can be driven off the fire before it gets hot enough become part of the fire...

I have a Generac 3250, and when it gets cold I've found what helps the most is having switched to the appropriate weight synthetic oil; pulls easy, warms up faster, smoother running. I also turn off the petcock, and run it fairly regularly (every two weeks or so in normal cold, once a week when its really cold).

You are GTG leaving it outside, assuming running synthetic oil (which you should be). Perfectly good in the garage.


Always have 2 cans of engine starter around, though.




 

ETA: Like I said, teens are my WARM storage location....

I don't see a problem as far as running. After all, you start your car on cold mornings too.

Good point.  

No problem that I know of. Think snowblowers, they use the same type of splash oiled, mass produced engines as generators and are ran in the most severe weather.

Other than pressure washers I have never run into something that said start it and use it right away, idling was bad for it.  Might be common or just the one my uncle borrowed, but it said to do that so we did that.



Letting the generator get somewhat warmed up a bit before placing a load on it might help, some generators might care more than others.



If I had it in a garage I could easily see using a kerosene heater, I have a bunch of em, in the garage so it is warmed up and easier to start even if that meant starting it at the garage door and then moving it outside.  I have smaller stuff that fits on 4 wheel dollies and what not.



This is more for pull start stuff that is not starting easy.  If you are one of those who can get pull start stuff to start easy peasy then don't worry about it.



I generally wind up with the pull cord breaking or me getting annoyed before it fires in really cold weather.



A vehicle is designed with a whole lot more than some of these cheap generators.



I have no clue about the snow mobile comparison, never had one.  I know carbed atv's can have issues if they are not cared for but then that is usually what we come down to, is it cared for and known what is needed to start in the cold or is it only used on pretty days when the temps are 60 degrees above zero.

Honda EU2000i's at altitude and below ~25F, won't start for us.

I usually take one into the shipping container and if we just got there and it's usually ~40F inside, it will start right up.

Then we take one back outside and it's usually good to go afterwards.


We use 'old' gas without snakeoil additives in the Polaris ATV and it doesn't seem to care abt how cold it is.

We also picked up a little solar panel on ebay for abt $30 and taped it to the front rack of the ATV and hooked it to the battery [need to fuse that circuit before something happens and burns down the machine and barn---

The ATV battery that was previously having a hard time last year has been working great since.  

My old genny with a 10 hp Tecumseh pull start engine was a bear to get started when using regular 4 cycle oil.  When temp were below freezing I would have to resort to ether to get it to turn over.  Switched the oil to Mobil 1 full synthetic and it made a huge difference.   Note:  that the genny lives outside in a deck box year round.