gist41980

I have this one, I run my reef (baracuda pump, 3 power heads, 2 300w heaters, and 2 250w MH, plus skimmer, furnace and tv with it all at once.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tools/g...pliant-4457225

Its always started on the first pull, even in 20 below temps. I've also have had it for over 3 years without any problems. Use it powering my race car trailer all summer and the reef when the power goes out in winter or bad rain storm.

Here's my write up on this topic, from top to bottom. It gives you all you need to know to get the right kind and how to maintain it.
http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.p...tect-your-reef

It's worth the extra money to get one with an electric start. You wont have to be out in the cold/rain, yanking on a rope.

I'm a big fan of onan/cummins generators since I work on them. They're so freaking dependable all we ever do is service and maintain them. By far the priciest of the bunch though, but it's like anything else, you pay for the quality.

Regardless of whatever you get, you can install a transfer switch fairly easily and not have the (forgive me for this part marc, but it's true lol) absolute cluster of wiring running through the house. They sell panels with load shedding capabilities that if you're on emergency power it will only power up certain circuits in the house if you're unable to cover everything.

Me personally I can cover my entire house. I have a 12.5kw diesel generator in my cellar. Auto start, auto transfer, everything. The only thing I don't have is a UPS system so it takes about 5-6 seconds for my house to power back up in an outage and the generator turns on. It will continue to run for 15 minutes after the power comes back before switching back to utility power which is another quick blip and that's it.

I agree with you Dread. The wires going everywhere is awful, but I don't have a whole house generator nor do I have natural gas as an option. So instead, it's diesel or gasoline powered, or get a giant propane tank. Gasoline is the easiest one, but of course I have to be here to start it. I"m hoping to get that part wrapped up next week, so it's ready for a power outage.

If you have natural gas thats the way to go no old fuel worries and runs much cleaner than gasoline, As far as engines on the small gen's Honda is really dependable. If your looking for one thats really portable the new Yamaha suitcase gen's are super quite, lite and well worth the cash over the various other brands with the same outputs

The honda's are dependable... we service some for the local news companies and all that have mainly onan sets. You don't get the hours out of the unit though like the diesels. The diesel sets generally run at 1800 rpm with a 4 pole rotor but most of your smaller gasoline sets run at 3600 rpm with a 2 pole rotor.

Regardless of what you get though, make sure you can get parts for the thing. I can't tell you how many kohler and generac units we've replaced simply due to the parts not being readily available for repairs. Also finding somebody to work on them can be a real pain.

natural gas can bring on other problems too though. You don't need to worry about fuel in an outage, but they don't respond great to heavy load and are very sensitive to changes in the specific gravity of the fuel. They do work, but I don't feel they're as dependable as a diesel set.

http://s770.photobucket.com/albums/x...t=IMAG0020.jpg
^that's one of the 'babies' I work on... it's only a 1.5megawatt set... do alot of 2.0MW and 2.7MW work too.

Those cables hanging out the side of it are about the extent of work we do on them too... hooking up a resistive load bank to run it at full capacity for a few hours straight. Nothing like hearing a 12,000+ ft.lb torque, 78 liter diesel motor going from a basic idle to full load in under half a second... feels like it's going to suck the enclosure in on itself when we do that

From brecksville, ohio. Power was out yesterday... Waited it out. No generator, however would like one.

Can you get one that can run diesel and ng or is that option only gas/ng. I didnt mean to down play diesel eqipment at all if you need a true work horse its the only way to go. He didn't say if he wanted a whole house unit or just something to back up the tank in a outage. For someone wanting something less perm or isnt going to keep up on the reg maintenance( i mean sitting idle/unused maintenance) gas or ng would be a better chioce working on them im sure you know diesel is made to run not sit.

I have a 10kw Briggs and Stratton with transfer switch set up for natural gas. Works really well. Primarily used to keep my sump running to prevent basement flooding but also keeps the furnace running in the winter and of course my reef tanks happy.