Well I screwed up big time with small generator

It will only motor if it is already rotating when power is applied to it. If it is standing still and power comes onto it, it will just sit there and burn.

Birken Vogt said: It will only motor if it is already rotating when power is applied to it. If it is standing still and power comes onto it, it will just sit there and burn. Click to expand... I figured that is what happened, from the smoke that filled the garage. Think I was just lucky it did not cause a fire. Hope that's the worst screw-up I do for some time!

Just curious for guys with a lot of fridge / freezer does power go out more in cold weather or warm weather?

Old Doug said: Just curious for guys with a lot of fridge / freezer does power go out more in cold weather or warm weather? Click to expand... Probably more spring/fall frequency here. Usually a sudden dramatic weather event is the cause.

Its usually thunderstorms that take down branches that take down power lines. We rarely have ice storms here, and snow doesn't generally build up and stay on power lines like ice does. I've lost power maybe 6 times in the last 8 years that I've lived where I do. The longest stretch was 48 hours. The local power coop spent a lot of money in 2016 on vegetation removal and tree trimming, and they went back through 5 years later for upkeep. This has made a huge improvement in power delivery according to my neighbors that have been here for over 20 years.

Back in the day before we had mains power we used to have a Lister “Start o Matic” lighting plant. Twin cyl. air cooled Lister diesel with a 6kva generator. When any light switch was flicked on in the house, solenoids would decompress the motor, pull the fuel rack and introduce power to the windings of the generator from a 12v battery to spin the engine up.

We get several outages a year now, car accidents or storms causing trees to come down. Big winds in the late fall/early winter are common and are usually short outages, 4 or 5 hrs. We also get outages due to heavy wet snow bringing down trees or branches on the lines every few yrs. It is kind of a crap shoot, we were out for 7 hrs a few weeks ago while places 40 minutes away were out for a lot longer. My friend also 40 minutes away wasn’t out at all. Cam

When did you get mains power Q'lder? It would have been mid to late 70's for us, I have faint memories as a child watching TV and the generator running out of fuel, so we couldn't see the end of whatever we were watching. The house my parents are in now, was my grandparents, there are still some 32volt appliances sitting in the corner of a shed.

Junkyard said: When we built our house a couple years ago I had the pad poured, gas line run and transfer switch installed. I stuck to my budget and was a tad shy of the $ to install the generator. I’ll probably get it done this year. I wanted something the wife didn’t have to touch if we had a failure. She works from home so it would be nice if we had some bad weather. In 2 years we’ve had maybe 4 hours without power but days without internet lol. Click to expand... I have a Starlink mainly for backup Internet, as needed. If fiber goes down, pay for a month of Starlink, plug it in to the firewall, and away we go. A sure fire way the fiber will be back up in short order.

I have heard of people making those double ended cords, then trying to run the entire grid off their generator, or electrocuting some poor linesman. It is why they are really illegal and changeover switches were invented

Wouldn't it have to be a DC generator in order to act like a motor if power was back fed to it and/or wouldn't the engine turn over possibly in the wrong direction? Lincoln true DC generators can be used as a starting motor but Miller 3 phase AC alternators have stickers saying they can't be started by applying power to the welding terminals. Wondering if the in-rush current just fried the generator and starting it threw the bits out.

It can act like a motor but it has to be up to speed already. If it is stopped you are putting AC to it it doesn't know whether to go left or right. Also no voltage built up in the rotor.

IMO Hansen took one for the team and I appreciate him reporting back. I too will admit a screw up and if it saves somebody's ass down the road it is all good.

Just a guess, but I assume that our old generator had some system of additional, but separate, windings that made it act like a motor when 12v DC was fed to it. We didn’t get mains power until 1983. Prior to about 1970 we had a 32v lightning plant with a big single cyl. diesel and a huge bank of batteries. The batteries would last just long enough to watch the Cisco kid and half of F Troop on tv after we got home from school. Newer changeover switches fit on a din rail and are even less obtrusive.

Birken Vogt said: It can act like a motor but it has to be up to speed already. If it is stopped you are putting AC to it it doesn't know whether to go left or right. Also no voltage built up in the rotor. Click to expand... It would also turn the engine over. The fact the engine still ran I think the generator just got fried. Kudo's to Kshansen for bringing it up. I think everybody has done things with drastic consequences only to realize it too late. Sometimes a second too late. I recently burnt out the glow plug indicator on my Kubota powered skid steer by putting 12 volts directly too it. It glowed really brite for about 2 seconds then the coil fell right out. Forgot to realize it needs the resistance from the glow plugs to limit the current going through it. Thankfully it's not an expensive fix like a generator.

I had never heard of the start-o-matic. But found this comprehensive operating manual online.

Welder Dave said: It would also turn the engine over. The fact the engine still ran I think the generator just got fried. Kudo's to Kshansen for bringing it up. I think everybody has done things with drastic consequences only to realize it too late. Sometimes a second too late. Click to expand... Instead of Kudo's how about sending dollars? I'd even take those with pictures of the Queen! Other than the cost of which way we do go, stationary automatic generator or another portable, I guess I'm lucky to have had the now dead unit for 25 years at no cost to me! The cheap b*****d in me just hates thinking about sending that good running engine to the scrap yard. Then again finding someone who wants to buy it might be a problem. From what I've been told it is actually a Briggs engine but only has tags saying it's Generac. I understand it has a tapered end on the crank so reusing it for some other purpose might not be very easy.

I always thought B&S owned Generac. I could send money but with the USPS suspending service with Canada (because of a postal strike here), the value of the Cad. dollar and tariffs coming it would end up costing you money to receive it. Sorry about that. I think it was great you brought it up. Could prevent someone else from having the same fate with their generator.

Welder Dave said: I always thought B&S owned Generac. I could send money but with the USPS suspending service with Canada (because of a postal strike here), the value of the Cad. dollar and tariffs coming it would end up costing you money to receive it. Sorry about that. I think it was great you brought it up. Could prevent someone else from having the same fate with their generator. Click to expand... Where about are you in Canada, I know some people there who could help with the handling of the money

kshansen said: Where about are you in Canada, I know some people there who could help with the handling of the money Click to expand... Long ass ways from you hahaha