How many hours of use do you change your generator's engine oil?

redhat

redhat

Joined
Dec 7, 2012
Messages
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Pulled the little Honda EU2200i out of the shed yesterday. Probably hasn't been ran in about 14 months. Thankfully, I remembered I had ran it out of fuel last time.

Connecting the app to my phone up to the generator showed it has 197 hours on it. When I bought it new, I know I changed it after 3-4 hours. The fill in it from hour 4 to 197 was Delo 5W-40 synthetic.

Drained and filled it up with some new Delo 5W-40 synthetic. Push a few splashes of TruFuel 91 octane ethanol free in it and she dialed to life after a few pulls. Let it run about a half hour.

Going to fill my cans with ethanol-free this evening and hope I don't need to use the unit. What hour mark are you all changing your small generators at? The almost 200hr oil looked dark but good still.
 
My Chonda says 25 hours in the manual. I know everyone here says that's too early - but it takes 17 ounces and literally 1 minute to change, so I am going with that.

I would recommend starting it more than once per year. At least quarterly IMHO. And absolutely run it dry before storing.
 
SC Maintenance said:
My Chonda says 25 hours in the manual. I know everyone here says that's too early - but it takes 17 ounces and literally 1 minute to change, so I am going with that.

I would recommend starting it more than once per year. At least quarterly IMHO. And absolutely run it dry before storing.
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I run mine every 2 months, shutting off the fuel valve to let it die. I also use tcw-3 in the non ethanol fuel @640:1.
 
On another thread, my big 389cc chonda generac went for over a decade - but likely UNDER 25 hours.

Ran Valvoline 10W30 RACING Synthetic - ran GREAT! NO hot rattles or knocking.

Got 5W40 Valvoline European Car in there now. We weill see how that goes. Hasn't been run for over an hour yet.

Big storm coming. I forgot to re-wire the generator as I was back feeding it but that was toasting the 220V dryer circuit - may have to go without.
 
redhat said:
I also had this magentic dipstick that I added to the unit, figured it can't hurt. Also have this extended drain tube which helped considerbly in changing the oil.

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I run on similar. I think they work best when you install a magnetic dipstick before the first start.
IMG_20200621_194811200.jpg
 

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ARCOgraphite said:
On another thread, my big 389cc chonda generac went for over a decade - but likely UNDER 25 hours.

Ran Valvoline 10W30 RACING Synthetic - ran GREAT! NO hot rattles or knocking.

Got 5W40 Valvoline European Car in there now. We weill see how that goes. Hasn't been run for over an hour yet.

Big storm coming. I forgot to re-wire the generator as I was back feeding it but that was toasting the 220V dryer circuit - may have to go without.
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Hope we all fare well through this.

Tonight I am taking out the switch above my furnace and replacing it with a single recepticble outlet and putting a 15amp male plug on the romex going to the furnace. I know a x-fer swtich is probably better but this will be as safe as anything else and easy to tackle. Anything else we need electricity I can just plug into. Furnace is my #1 concern.
 
The Honda generators last a long time, some well over 2000 hours. They take an incredible amount of abuse, including ignoring oil changes. At the same time, they take a minuscule amount of oil. The real question here is "who is the person you want to be." If you want to be your best person, change your oil at 50 hours. If it matters to anyone, I use an old stash of Magnatec blend 5 W 30 in my EU 2000 generator and all my lawn/garden equipment. To be honest, I often lose track of oil changes. If you change the oil, the generator will outlast you. If you are wondering whether to change the oil, do it.
 
I also bought the magnetic dipstick for my WEN. On break in it looked like the above pic. Afterwards it hasn't really had much on it. I have been running it for like 20 -30 minutes every couple months. If I am lucky I will never actually need to use it - its here for emergency purposes only.
 
TomYoung said:
The Honda generators last a long time, some well over 2000 hours. They take an incredible amount of abuse, including ignoring oil changes. At the same time, they take a minuscule amount of oil. The real question here is "who is the person you want to be." If you want to be your best person, change your oil at 50 hours. If it matters to anyone, I use an old stash of Magnatec blend 5 W 30 in my EU 2000 generator and all my lawn/garden equipment. To be honest, I often lose track of oil changes. If you change the oil, the generator will outlast you. If you are wondering whether to change the oil, do it.
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I added an hour meter to mine, not long after I bought it.
1671724794779.jpg
 
My generator has 200 hours on it and I'm thinking of replacing the generator :p It was either flooded or in a very damp basement. Lots of corrosion. Works, though.

It does have a fresh batch of RT6 in it that has 5 hours on it. I've only put 15 hours on it since buying in 2019 (had 185 hours then)
 
redhat said:
Hope we all fare well through this.

... Furnace is my #1 concern.
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We have big a Woodstove. But the wife has been using the hearth as a filing space for objects and stacks of documents,

Hopefully she will clean it off, sometime thisafternooon. I went into her storage room to see if I can run the generator wire though the basement window. Couldn't get through the pile of stuff.
Probably better off anyway, as I don't like having the window partially open due to CO concerns. Could put plastic and duck tape it. The other basement window, I replaced with marine plywood panel and made a gasketed pass through.

Good luck to all of us!
 
My whole house 1000cc aircooled V-twin Generac just ran for 72 hrs straight due to a bad ice storm. Running Castrol 0-40, I did a drain and fill because we are currently having another snow ice event. Oil was down to tip of dipstick. Local small engine guy rents generators and he was going to change all his after running the same amount of time. It's cheap easy insurance.
 
SwampSurvivor said:
My generator has 200 hours on it and I'm thinking of replacing the generator :p It was either flooded or in a very damp basement. Lots of corrosion. Works, though.

It does have a fresh batch of RT6 in it that has 5 hours on it. I've only put 15 hours on it since buying in 2019 (had 185 hours then)
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Is it a regular generator or inverter generator?

If its a regular gennie it will likely last forever or almost.

If its the inverter type - I have no idea. Thats what I have and it seems less robust.
 
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