Not all Generators are Equal - Be Warned!

You would have to wonder why people are not using a surge protection device (and an earth leakage switch for that matter) between the Genny and the device being powered??
Seems like cheap and easy insurance to me??

There is probably more to that story Stephen.

all fridges should be able to withstand a spike by design.

I wouldn't want to own a fridge that didn't have a simple spike protection circuit in it and let its $300 supply go down instead.

Maybe the gennie was faulty and ran for a few seconds before its speed control cut in , delivering 300 Vac or similar to the supply which failed by a thermal mechanism ?

Hi there. On this topic, I found thread 73822 very interesting, in discussing why a 'normal' surge protector may not be effective against the erratic voltage and frequency of a cheap generator.

Its been well known for years never run an Engel of older syle generators. Far safer to run them of 12V & use a charger for the battery of the older generators.

Stephen,
I agree with what you have said about the cheap gensets and uncontrolled voltage.

I have one of those 750w cheap 2 stroke gensets ($99) and, surprise surprise, the fairly thin instruction manual actually states in bold print "Do NOT use this machine to power any appliance with electronic componentry".

So I don't.

I use it to supply lighting only, when bush camping in isolated places, judiciously in inhabited areas and as a backup light source for the frequent power blackouts at home (via extension cord and a couple of lamps).

It is never used to backfeed into the house supply to power other appliances.

It is now 6 years old, still starts second pull and has never caused any problems with the stuff I plug into it

Probably because I read the instruction book first.

Disco.

Easy fixed, do as i do, run fridge on 12v ALWAYS and use honda gen to run 25 amp charger for batteries.
Only need to run gen a bit each day, not all the time.

Pesty

Thought I'd put my 2 cents worth in...

I'm an Auto Electrician by trade and I like to look at these type of problems. I did do a test a while back with a GMC 850 watt Generator. They cost anywhere from $99.00 to $199.00.

I started this generator and after warming it up and letting it settle down, I mesured the voltage with no load and it was sitting at 276 volts. I hooked up the Oscilscope and the waveform was all over the place. 50 HZ, yeah right.
So, I loaded the generator with a 150 watt Portaflood and the Voltage went to 246 and up to 256 then back to 225 and so forth. I grabbed the 500 watt Power drill and plugged it in. Turned it on and at start up of the drill, when the most curent is drawn, the voltage dropped to 190 volts and as the Generator revved up to maintain the voltage it went as high as 277 volts!

I then plugged a Computer Switchmode Power Supply that I had lying around, Joined the Green and Black wire together so the power supply would start. I then plugged the Power supply into the generator and it Promptly blew the Switching Transistors and Filtering Capacitors. The Switchmode power supply blew up because the frequency of the generators output was wrong. Most Phone Chargers are Switchmode as well.

Surge Protectors will not protect your equipment. Surge protectors are designed to clamp voltages in an Earth,Active Neutral Circuit. Most Earth Circuits are missing in a Generator, Caravan Setups

So Do NOT use these Cheap Gennies for anything but Light Bulbs and Boat Anchors. If you want to un generators for sensitive Elctronic equipment, Invertor Generators are the only ones to use.