Posted: 9/28/2008 4:07:08 PM EDT
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Rescue plan or not we're still hosed. I'm thinking about getting a EF 2600 Yamaha generator just to have on hand. Gas powered $689.00 shipped -- sounds like a great deal to me. I'm not looking to run anything more that a sting of lights, refer and a micro at times. I'm also thinking about maybe going with a small diesel generator instead --any thoughts on which one to get? It seems to me that now is an excellent time to buy. I mean, I can get all kinds of cool stuff rigt now that will come in very handy and in fact might even save my life, for worthless pieces of paper stamped with numbers. Seems like the deals of our lifetimes are staring us in the face as the dollar is just beginning to lose value and will only get worse I'm afraid. If I get the gas generator how about the tri-fuel accessory? |
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I have a tri fuel setup on a Yamaha EF2400is generator. I really really like it. It is quiet and puts out plenty of juice for most of my needs. I run it mostly on propane, occasionally on gasoline and I have never tried running it on natural gas. I have several BBQ style tanks as well as a 1000 gallon buried tank. It runs my essential items for my home like a few lights and my furnace fan or wood stove fan and a refrigerator and freezer through a generator panel next to my main power breaker box. For the occasional running of my 240V water pump I have a 6500watt gasoline powered genny. When I was in the market for a genny my thoughts ran through these items in order to decide which type to buy... What type of fuel do I have the most of? What type of fuel stores best? How many watts do my required appliances use? How quality is the manufacturer? How will I hook the unit up to my home? |
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I prefer diesels as diesel fuel is easy to store, keeps well for many years, and diesel engines are about 50% more efficient than gas. Diesels will also run on a mix of diesel fuel and veggie oil, waste motor oil, etc. which is good if #2 is hard to find. the down side is that you will spend twice as much money to buy a diesel. You'll save it back as the diesel engine will outlast a gas engine by 5 to 1. Ops |
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Personally I find the Yamaha line of generators on par with Honda. In fact, the Inverter styles I would prefer Yamaha over Honda. On the base what I think of as "Tool" models, non-inverter types like the EF2600, I'd actually rather go Chinese and get twice the wattage for $200 less, Maxtool or Champion. I'm pretty certain the Yamaha will last longer but even if you are looking at twice as long, there is still an advantage to two generators rather than one which at 2,400 watts you could have three Champions. Still that's a personal preference and really an individual need thing. The Honda and Yamaha both just naturally put more into their Inverter models like the EF2400i. What I like about the EF2600 is it has all the minimum safety features like their "Oil Watch" system. It has a meter, fuel gage, and very quiet for a non-box generator at 67 dbs. I like having a 220 v outlet but at that size and type of gen, its not a show stopper. Taking startup surges into consideration, other than a light or two, at 2,400 watts you are really still looking at most two appliances. Ideally when sizing its best to figure on using only 50% of your watt rating. A microwave is around 800 watts and a fridge about 600 watts. Still that being said, my family just used a 1,000 watt gen rotated between two freezers and two fridges for four days. The 2,400s are just an awkward size when it comes to purely a sizing exercise with the 3,000s or larger are much more generous in the sizing area. What I'm saying here is 2,400 watts really isn't enough to wire to your house directly unless its an inverter type and you're looking at running electronics. A couple extension cords is about all it can power in larger appliances anyway. It is the main reason why I went the way I did opting for a 4,400 watt so I could wire to my house. That personal preference thing. My thing was wanting my ceiling fans in summer. I kind of see the 2,400 watt non-inverter types as two major appliances at one time as apposed to the very small gens one appliance at a time. Going inverter though, its a very versatile size since now you're talking all those low wattage electronic devices in the mix. AS for fuel types, that really depends on your overall survival fuel plan. I personally like as many things sharing a common fuel as possible. For most of us our single largest fuel users are our vehicles. Having common fuels with these has some very distinct advantages allowing you to take from one for the other in times of need. This is especially important with generators since if the power is out odds are you are not going anywhere anyway unless its just your home or immediate area without power. Its a heck of a thing that when all the utilities go, unless you have damage to repair, we end up with the most time on our hands and least ways to spend that time. Time for a good book I guess. I've been both a hurricane and blizzard total loss of all services for a week each time. After the repairs were done, I got a heck of a lot of guitar playing in. Anyway a fuel plan should be as diverse as possible and if you have more than one fuel around anyway very advantages to have as many things as possible to use as many of the different fuels you have. Tj |
Thanks TJ for the great information and to all the rest of you who took the time to reply with your input. I really don't need anymore power than the Yamaha EF 2600 puts out and I like all the features you mentioned as well as the ability to do the tri-fuel thing. I think I'm going to go with the Yamaha. Thanks again -- 
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One thing your generator should be able to do is run your heating system. You may not need total comfort, but your house is an investment and you need to protect it by keeping it from freezing up. Even if you can keep the living room warm with a woodstove your basement and bathrrom pipes may freeze. Diesel is the cats meow, but if you have nothing else that runs on diesel I'd get gas so your stored fuel will serve multiple uses. |
I'm glad its working out for you. As any of these EU 2000 owners can tell you during an outage a small gen has one major advantage in an outage and that's its fuel consumption. In many ways generators don't fit the mold of bigger is always better. We look forward to your review after you get and it and fire it up.  Tj |
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TJ, When Ohio had wind storms from Hurricane Ike and hundreds of thousands of people lost power a few weeks ago, I ran my 4400 watt generator for several days to keep food from spoiling and to keep the family comfortable. First of all, you were correct in stating that these Briggs & Stratton generators do not sip gasoline like the Japanese models. However, I found that my neighbors were willing to barter with us to get some power (totally unsolicited offers). The sound of my 8 HP generator brought neighbors to the house like bees to honey when the power was out. One neighbor had a portable ice maker and made ice for everyone that was too far from my generator to keep their refrigerators and perishable food cold. Other neighbors came over to charge cell phones and flashlights, donating a bit of "lawn mower" gasoline to the cause now and again. During this same outage I found that I have a neighbor that has one of the cheap Chinese 2200 watt generators (claims that he bought it on-line) but he couldn't power many things at once in his house. While I had a reasonable level of comfort (fans, TV&VCR, lights, frig and freezer under power), he had to keep switching equipment on and off of this small generator. What I learned from this generator outting was the following: *Get enough generator for your needs and keep it maintained. *Have plenty of heavy-duty power cords and power strips ready for the outage as well. *Don't talk yourself out of keeping a few gas cans filled for such an occasion. *People can pull together to make a difference under such conditions. *Given the attention that the noise of a generator brings, find a way to secure it so it doesn't walk away from you! *Since the cost of a generator to run my HVAC system is very expensive, I'll rely on a small window air conditioner and our kerosene heater to keep the house comfortable.
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