Don't hate me, I ordered a DurOmax,

[csheath]

Got wind of a sale on the dual fuel DurOmax, 10/8 KW gens for $499 on that auction site. I figured it was too good to pass up. They sold out of the cheap ones within an hour after I saw it mentioned on the tractor forum. The same unit is now advertised for $1499. After I assemble and load test this one will end up at my daughter's house. I'm hoping my camp stove hose will fit it so I can fire it up on a small propane bottle for testing. I would have ordered a couple for resale but they had a 1 unit limit at that price.

 

[stugpanzer]

I won't hate you if you don't hate me for owning a Harbor Freight Predator 8750!

 

[jbayer]

.

 

[Suprman]

i saw a harbor freight gen with a Honda clone motor. Guy that had it said Honda parts were interchangeable on the motor. Nice gen but loud due to 3600rpm run speed. If you just need a gen for occasional use the propane is nice, you can store it for a long time and not have to worry about the carb gumming up.

 

[frank8003]

If you got it to the house new at 500 bucks you did good. These were $1200 or more + shipping from Amazon. Where I live one must have a backup power source, I paid $900 new for this one. I have lots of propane. Six to ten gallons of gasoline a day is no fun and I refuse to store it up.

 

[kloppk]

I just repaired a Duromax 8K gas unit.
- AC power switch was melted and fused. AC breaker failed to trip
- Choke linkage had fallen apart
- Fuel gauge leaking gas

I'd suggest being careful not to push a Duromax near it's current limit.

 

[tobyS]

I won't hate you if you don't hate me for owning a Harbor Freight Predator 8750!

Good, because I put the name into google and went to the Harbor freight site and read the reviews with 3 stars and below to get a feel for what the people who did have problems experienced. Hate is such a strong word and you may completely change your mind in 6 months.

 

[jbayer]

.

 

[tobyS]

Funny thing, dogheads reply, and my reply to his reply have disappeared. Hmm.

It's all the bad words you guys keep using!

 

[stugpanzer]

Good, because I put the name into google and went to the Harbor freight site and read the reviews with 3 stars and below to get a feel for what the people who did have problems experienced. Hate is such a strong word and you may completely change your mind in 6 months.

LOL, true enough. Much of Harbor Freight stuff is made to only last 90 days since that's how long of a warranty they have on things. Their solution....sell an extended 'warranty' which is just a replacement plan! So coupled with a coupon and their extended warranty hopefully it will last. But then once I test out my new (to me) MEP-803A, the HF genny will probably be sold!

 

[frank8003]

WE would just want an MEP something or other but scared of all those wires and don't know how electricity works. We just want to keep the food, use some lights, assure the pool doesn't get ruined and wait out the outages. I just figured propane would be better, wife can turn the key to run it. Don't want Her hauling gasoline and refueling.
We would gladly blow away 900 bucks to run a generator until it faults. We were out of power here for 19 daze once with no water for 3 days. We don't need what we don't need. It is an expense of living here.

 

[doghead]

Funny thing, dogheads reply, and my reply to his reply have disappeared. Hmm.

After reading your reply to my postings, I realized my input was not wanted, so I deleted it.

 

[paine]

That’s cheap, just don’t put an oscilloscope on it... it may scare you!

 

[frank8003]

That’s cheap, just don’t put an oscilloscope on it... it may scare you!

Oh That!
I have another generator I bought after Andrew. It's output is a real nice 60Hz sinusoidal waveform output, a special machine for computers and such. The homes have dedicated circuits for things needing "the good wave", But my son needed a generator, Oh well.
Between the two of us on different grids We will just have to power up what we must and move generators around. But at least I do propane here, moving gasoline around I didn't like so much.

 

[tobyS]

After reading your reply to my postings, I realized my input was not wanted, so I deleted it.

Wasn't me. I was just making a smart a-- comment.

 

[eatont9999]

Dunno, man. If I was out of power for 19 days, I would be glad to have an MEP. Diesel is easier to store than gas and more efficient than propane. Just my opinion.

 

[frank8003]

Dunno, man. If I was out of power for 19 days, I would be glad to have an MEP. Diesel is easier to store than gas and more efficient than propane. Just my opinion.

Andrew for us was 19 daze without power too, as family moved in on me and I was forced onto seven twelves and then overtime. Yes I would like to have a diesel military generator too.
It is like my truck, I can't get anybody to fix it for me and I have little time to fix it up.
I can not have a questionable generator for here.
Wife says "whats wrong? just take it out of the box and plug it in."
So OK, how much is a MEP with somebody to come here and keep it running, as against the installation of the NG company installing an automatic whole house NG fired generator?
Ooops, I have no NG on this street.

 

[csheath]

For me this purchase was a too cheap to pass up opportunity to resell and make a buck. (I know nobody here would condone that) I actually tried to order two of these but they only allowed 1 per customer.

My daughter, who has no generator, heard about the order and said she wants to reimburse me for it when it arrives. For her I will assemble it and load test with propane to see if it is worth keeping. If it craps out at her house she and her family can always come to my house and enjoy the comfort of having a MEP.

I found a manual for the former 16HP version of this and saw this has a brush type head. Not sure how that influences the cleanliness of the power. I have no intention of worrying over how clean it is if the voltage and hertz run steady. Other than the Briggs and Stratton units I imagine 90% of the generators sold in the big box stores are of Chinese origin but I haven't researched that to be fact.

 

[Chainbreaker]

Dunno, man. If I was out of power for 19 days, I would be glad to have an MEP. Diesel is easier to store than gas and more efficient than propane. Just my opinion.

^ What he said.

I don't disagree (nor would I ever hate, consider a traitor maybe...lol ) with OP's rationale for HIS choice of fuel/generator given the circumstances he cited (daughter's house). However, for others reading and considering a first time primary genset purchase...1 gallon of propane (LPG) has 73% the energy of 1 gallon of gasoline. 1 Gallon of Diesel (LS) has 113% the energy of 1 gallon of gasoline. That's a 40% difference between propane and diesel. Pretty substantial in itself! Informative Source.

I have a 1,000 gallon propane tank (800 gallons effective) on my property and plumbed into house with a propane hookup right next to generator inlet box. Yet I still went with all diesel gensets x3 due to the running economy, reliability and HD longevity of diesel powered gensets. Might I consider adding a propane fueled generator to my compound's fleet of generators? Yes, potentially as a secondary level backup power source using propane fuel I already have onsite just in case diesel should ever become difficult to obtain during a long term power outage.

 

[f800]

I ran my whole house propane generator 11 days straight and burned 400 gallons in October. I thought is was pretty efficient, considering its a large house with multiple AC central units. Storing 800 gallons (in a 1000 gallon tank) is very convenient. I got a refill the day the power came on, not knowing when I'd return to the grid. In the continental US, it's quite reasonable to expect delivery 10 after major natural disaster. Maybe not as efficient as gas, but lasts much longer, convenient to deliver and store, and I paid about 80% the price of gasoline per gallon ($1.99) at the time. You can negotiate a better deal when you buy a larger volume. And I couldn't hear my generator over the sound of my neighbors' generators.