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Best Portable Generator 7500W Review
Looking to buy a 7500w + portable gas generator for my house as back up for power outages. I prefer Honda or other japanese makers, but going straight Honda seems to be too pricey. Admittedly this will get used very rarely.
It seems that idle control is a nice feature available on the more expensive units that lowers noise and increases run time.
I wanted to stay away from Briggs & Stratton, but I did read that one of their larger units has a Mitsubishi Vanguard engine.
There also seems to be alot of private label stuff which I think is mostly Chinese gear, are those units a headache?
Any advice? Experience with one unit over another.
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Best Portable Generator 7500W Review
Look into a used genset from a boat or RV. Most of them are powered by a Kholer engine and are bullet-proof.
Because of the intended use almost all of them are already set up for remote fuel, battery and start / run controls. This is really handy since if you have either natural gas or propane they have conversion kits available and it eliminates the whole issue of gas going bad. If you then keep the battery inside (warm & charged) you don't even have to go outside for to start it.
They usually go for a fraction of the new price, right now there's lots of them being removed from older RV's because the prices are so low that people are removing them and selling them separately.
Just my $0.02 worth.
BTW, if somebody says "penny for your thoughts" and you give them your "two cents", what happens to the other penny? 
Best of luck.
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Best Portable Generator 7500W Review
The Kohler engine in our generator has been bulletproof for ten years and 6-700 hours FWIW. It's not their bottom of the line engine but you don't hear much bad about Kohlers.
I don't know if Coleman is still in business or if they are still making generators but if so - stay far, far away.
Honestly, I'd go with a company that makes generators and has a dealer network. Onan, Kohler, Gillette are brands that come to mind. But those companies may not make small gensets.
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Best Portable Generator 7500W Review
Two thoughts (no pennies involved):
1. 7500 watts seems like a VERY large genset for a motor home. I have a 32 footer with a 4000 watt generator.
2. Why not just buy the whole used motorhome intact? It is really nice to have a spare bedroom (think visiting relatives), kitchen (a place to cook on hot summer days), general living quarters AND a generator with external outlets and a 55 gallon gas tank already plumbed in.
Think of what you would do in a true emergency. I live in wildfire country and really like having a separate, mobile living space.
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Best Portable Generator 7500W Review
DennisCTB,
I haven't heard from you in quite some time. I was hoping all was well on your end. Nice to see you here again.
My wife and I were talking about what we would do if the electricity ever went out when the temps were in the -30 degree range. I told her, "First we'd freeze our butts off, and then we'd be fixing water pipes for a month." None of that sounded like too much fun to her. It's so danged hard to please a woman!
I went through all of this before. Maybe my thoughts will help you a bit here.
Rather than worry about another engine, oil, bad gasoline, dead batteries, and all that fun stuff........I settled for a PTO driven generator.
My PTO generator was purchased at a farm auction about 4 years ago. It puts out 12.5kW. I paid $540.00 for it. I think the transfer switch cost me about that much.
Northern Tool sells one just about like mine for somewhere around $900.00
Joel
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Best Portable Generator 7500W Review
How much can you justify spending, that ultimately may dictate how "good" it's going to be. In my experience the "pick up a cheap used unit on the second hand market" doesn't exist as you have to be part of that market on a daily basis to find what you are looking for. It took me 8 years of sporadically going to auctions etc to get a decent used PHD and that's only because I was not really in the market for one and just happened to be there when one went for less than $200. Other than that most of my stuff is bought at fair market value (used and new) and never really seems cheap to me. I would expect to pay around $1000 for what you are spec'ing. Also since they are used so seldom why do you need the most durable engine on the market, seems to me like it would never get more than a couple hundred hours on it, it will rust ect long before the engine wears out.
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Best Portable Generator 7500W Review
The way around bad gas is to get one that will run on LP and buy a 100 gallon tank (or in our case a 1000 gallon tank).
An electronic battery maintainer is a good idea.
A PTO unit sounds like a good idea, but when you need to keep the house running while simultaneously plowing snow it doesn't work out so well.
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Best Portable Generator 7500W Review
AnnBrush,
That's one neat thing about the internet. You don't have to travel to auctions anymore. You can bid from the comfort of your own home.
If you haven't been to proxibid.com yet, please pay a visit. There's a search window on the home page. You can search for anything under the sun.....and proxibid will likely have it available.
See the link below.
Joel
Link:
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Best Portable Generator 7500W Review
Kwschumm,
The nice thing about the PTO generator is that I can leave it attached to the tractor while I pull out a stuck vehicle, or even while clearing out the driveway. All I have to do is unplug the power cord going to the outlet on the house.
The furnace normally runs once every 1/2 hour or so, but being without the furnace for even a couple of hours, there's no real emergency.
It's nice having the PTO generator when I want to weld something out in the back pasture. I strap the welder in the loader bucket and take it anywhere I need it.
You're right though....there is no perfect system. Every backup energy plan has its drawbacks.
Joel
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Best Portable Generator 7500W Review
I'll go along with the PTO units. I have a 45KW three phase that will power the whole house if we need or run a welder, etc. At full load it needs 90 HP. but I've never loaded it that heavy yet.
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