Generator

I think the person you spoke to at Engle was being excessively over-cautious.

I have a GMC $98 generator on which I did a comprehensive electrical analysis for this forum about one year ago (check the archives) and, from memory it's voltage output and frequency stabilisation was very good. I recall there was a bit of a glitch in sine wave purity but not enough to be a real concern.

The only real problem you will have with any small generator is when you connect or disconnect any load which represents (say) 20% or more of the generators maximum load, under that circumstance the motor will briefly speed up or slow down until it can compensate for the changed load condition, that change in speed will cause the frequency to go out of lock (which won't worry most things) and it will cause the output voltage to change from 240V but probably not by a lot.

As the Engle _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx 50W? it is only 5% of the OPs 1KW generator and I suspect he'll hardly hear a change of engine note as it cuts in and out. Unless Engle are prepared to put in writing that their fridges are so delicate as not to be able to be driven from small generators I would have no hesitation in running one from my $98 GMC and given that the 240V to 12V power supply on the Engle is, almost certainly, of a switch mode type and they can be fed with almost anything!

Mike Harding

Not sure if a 2 stroke will have that problem - more of a diesel problem maybe; however this is the advice that I have received for my $99 gennie:

Valvoline Victor Oil 150 mm to 5 litres of Mobile LRP and it will last for 2500 hours + (not sure about the LRP these days - not available...)

However there is one proviso - you MUST drain the carby after use, and drain the tank and carby if putting away for any length of time.

I also pull the motor through a couple of strokes each month or so to keep the bore lubed.

This again has not answered your question directly, however in all the questions that I asked before purchase no mention of bore glaze due to underloading was mentioned.

/viz

viz - howdy :)

I just bought one of the $98 GMC 750 watt jobbies - raced it home and powered it all up. I'll have to say that I'm impressed. It definitely works as advertised and puts out about 3.1 amps at 14.4 volts - ideal for re-charging my camper's battery during the day. It runs my power tools without complaining either (500w drills, etc). Fantastic! Will be great on my farm.

How many hours have you (or anyone else here on the forum) had yours going for now?

I have to say that I like GMC and other Chinese companies offering mu sub-$100 USEFUL tools. Keep them coming!

Just remember that if you are going to run a fridge *directly* of it, put a battery in between, which in turn is being run off a battery charger (rather than the 12 volt socket). Cleaner power, but more importantly the start-up current of the fridge can well exceed the rated power of the generator and can damage both generator and fridge.

I have only run mine for a couple of ours at the moment - both on fridge and electrical tools. Bought it for a job.

/viz

Thanks viz -

That's exactly what I was going to do. Use it to run a charger which in turn charges the battery. From here we'd go with the PSW 500W inverter to run the camper (laptop, phone, lights, etc).

Ooops - follow up post from the next section should have come here... sorry :)

Just to add - I understand (and someone correct me if wrong) that the Engels type swing motor in an Engels-type-fridge can momentarily draw 30 amps on start up. I run a Quirks Autofridge which has a Engels-type-compressor and I have a 30 amp auto-resettable circuit breaker in between - never trips it. So it must be *very* momentary I guess.

Another comes to mind - the motor in my fridge must have some sort of soft-start circuit in it - a large-ish capacitor at least. Gives you a lovely tingle if you put your fingers over the plug contacts :) but if you do short it out somehow (with the suppplied plug it is a little too easy to do) you will trip the circuit breaker, even if the fridge is turned off. Gonna change that plug I think...

/viz

Apparantly those gennies are based on the Robin generator (American?) - the Chinese copied it. The Robins themselves had a great reputation - the four strokes regarded even better than the Hondas, though don't quote me on it! :)

The mixture I use is 33:1, rather than the 50:1 in the manual. This was recommended to me as the ratio to use. Bit smokier, but apparantly will contribute to longer life...

Remember *drain* that carby when you have finished (i.e. turn the fuel off and let the engine run the carby dry) . Apparantly a carb clean and part replacement cost way more than the original cost of the gennie! :)

/viz