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

[redhat]

Also, I thought of an even easier idea to oil changes.

When filling the little Honda's crank last night with oil from a gallon jug of Delo -- it was a bit cumbersome, even with the drain tube attached. So I found some 16oz condiment bottles with FL OZ marked on the side. That should make filing and dispensing accurate amounts easier!

 

[Bighorn2500]

That seems like a lot of oil for a small engine. I have a Briggs gen with the 342cc 11HP slash lube engine and that takes 28 oz. of oil.

Straight from the owner's manual, low oil level light comes on and will not start if you don't have the correct amount in it.

 

[TomYoung]

My generator has 200 hours on it and I'm thinking of replacing the generator 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)

If it is a Honda, I would clean it up, hit it with Rustoleum, change oil and run.... Not to start a war, but if it is a Chonda, a Predator or whatever, It's likely done.

 

[dlundblad]

Our work 2200 is used and abused I’m sure. I’ve offered to do oil changes on it, but nothing. Sees 32 hrs a week easily. We’ve had it for 2 months so far. I make sure the oil level is good and that’s it.

They’re tough.

 

[PWMDMD]

I just finished breaking in my new Predator 9500 inverter. I added a magnetic dip stick and changed the oil at 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 hours. I saw metal on the dipstick and in the used oil all the way until the 10-hour oil came out at the 15-hour change. I did not see much of anything at the last oil change at 20 hours. I'm running 0W-40 Mobil 1 FS.

The Manual says to change the oil every 100 hours or 6 months now. I'm going to be changing it every 50 hours or once per year. I'm also going to run it for an hour twice per month. On Youtube, many of these have gone +2000 hours (people using them 24/7 for off-grid power) before having issues.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

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.

Standard generator. Works great apart from needing a little toot of starting fluid to start. Was using it a month ago for a few hours when our power was out. It's just ugly.

If it is a Honda, I would clean it up, hit it with Rustoleum, change oil and run.... Not to start a war, but if it is a Chonda, a Predator or whatever, It's likely done.

It's a Powermate 6500w generator. Not anything nice and I didn't pay a lot of money for it, but it came pre-rusty and corroded. That's why it was cheap. Even cheaper than listed when it wouldn't start

 

[Rob_Roy]

Standard generator. Works great apart from needing a little toot of starting fluid to start. Was using it a month ago for a few hours when our power was out. It's just ugly.




It's a Powermate 6500w generator. Not anything nice and I didn't pay a lot of money for it, but it came pre-rusty and corroded. That's why it was cheap. Even cheaper than listed when it wouldn't start

My 1998 5000w generator is terrible to start if it has not run in a month or more. Just a sniff of starting fluid or carb cleaner will make it fire up on the first pull. I have not changed the oil in mine in almost a decade. I put Royal Purple in it after hurricane Irene and the oil is still purple.

 

[Astro_Guy]

I guess I may be fortunate that my power doesn't go out and then stay out for long periods. We were down for 43 hours after hurricane Sandy, which prompted me to buy a generator. Since then it's never been down for more than eight hours at a shot.

My newest generator is a Predator 3500 Inverter, purchased in June 2018. It was filled with M1 10w-30 HM and run for about five hours. That oil was dropped and replace with the same and run to 30 hours. These were all sake down runs, albeit connected to the transfer switch and powering all op the target loads. At 30 hours the oil was replaced with 5w-40 Rotella RT6,

Since that time the generator has gotten an occasional short start an run without load, a few three hour runs against the target loads, and one or two necessary runs of up to eight hours, W are anticipating some weather tomorrow, so maybe the hours will climb. In any event, I think I would go 50 hours in tis limited use case but 100+ hours in a continuous use scenario.

 

[mrsilv04]

I change the oil in mine, every November. Nothing fancy, just some SuperTech 10w-30 full synthetic.

Also siphon all of the gas out of it, and replace with fresh treated with Stabil. Run it a good 30 minutes with a load rated at half its capacity, shut off fuel, run carb dry, dump old treated gas into the nearest truck, done.

 

[tnt_motorsports]

FWIW I run Farm & Fleet 5w40 FS HDEO in my Wen. It has the magnetic dipstick in it. I usually go for 100 hours or so. It usually runs constantly for that amount of time powering my camper. It doesn’t get shut off until I’m done for the trip and ready to leave. The unit is over 500 hours. I use white hockey tape by the handle and write on it the hours of the last change.

When shutting it off it has an auto off that drains the carb bowl. I store it with fuel and stabilizer and never have a problem firing it up. I use E0 for storage and most of the running.

Just my $0.02

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I always top oil my chonda 389cc powered Generac 5500 generator pretty aggressively and also treat with Marine Stabil. It's hard to drain the gas and I am sure not using it in the Snowblower or mower. So I have no where to put it. Often goes three years without running at length. Starts second or third pull. I run it for 10 -15 mins maybe once or twice a year no load.
25 years ago we had a dirt driveway and I would dig a small hole and pour the gas in there and light it at dusk. Burns for over an hour.
Keeps the Fedex guy away.

 

[loneryder]

Also I am nuts and detailed the generator with Lysol’s wipes last night. I changed the oil and cleaned it at the kitchen table. My wife is an angel. View attachment 131964

No paper under it? Your wife is an angel.

 

[iahawk]

Griots 3n1 Sio2 would work well on that!

haha...that's exactly what I use on my generator and snow blowers..and of course I have hour meters on all of them, doesn't everyone?

 

[Lubener]

Every 50 hours.

 

[ripcord]

My generator fleet consists of an ancient 6000w Generac open frame unit with a Briggs 10hp and a tiny Ryobi 900 watt propane inverter I bought to charge my camper batteries. Since I got the Ryobi, I haven't even fired the Generac unit up once when the power has gone out.

The oil in the propane inverter still looks new after 50+ hours of run time. I'm pretty sure I put some leftover 5w-40 Mobil Diesel Truck oil in it, but I don't think it matters all that much of it's not left in too long and it's kept full.

 

[repairman54]

My Generac stationary when it pops up the reminder. My portable BS 5600w when oil starts to darken or after right after a long event.
Full synth. in all mine. BS motors are not sensitive, they just need to have enough oil in them. Look how contractors run them forever just topping off the original dino oil.

 

[tmorris1]

My son bought 2 of those from a guy on for like $900. One had about 300 hours and the other around 100. They came with a parallel kit to hook them together too. We use them for boondock camping when dirt biking and for the ice fishing house in the winter. We just change each season with M1 or Valvoline 10W30 synthetic. One was surging in ECO mode when it idled down, so we cleaned the carb and found crap in the idle jet and it runs perfect again on E0 premium fuel. HIs blink back the number of hours when it is started.

They are tough. They have some for the place he works and he said they are thrown in the back of vans and roll around. They get oil changes whenever someone has time or thinks about it and they just keep running.

 

[ragtoplvr]

if it is going to be a long outage I willchange it every other day. I run mine to trim hedges rather than long exension cord, gives it some running. Then every couple of years.

Rod

 

[bridgman]

We have big a Woodstove. But the wife has been using the hearth as a filing space for objects and stacks of documents,

When my house was being built I added a masonry heater in the middle of the living/dining area so I could heat the house efficiently using any kind of dry wood (the house is in the middle of a pine forest so pine is easier to source than hardwood). That's the good news.

The so-so news is that rather than cladding with brick the heater is mostly covered with Arriscraft fake stone, which turns out to be a good insulator and a lousy conductor of heat to the room.

The bad news is that it uses an outside air feed with electric damper and that damper requires constant 24VAC to keep intake air flowing unless I wade out through a few feet of snow and use a coat hanger to keep the damper open without power. If I leave it propped open all winter then the local rodents make their way into the basement and try to set new world records for breeding.

I had pretty much decided to purchase and install a propane-powered "wood stove" aka "freestanding fireplace" in the basement when our federal government decided that standing pilot lights were evil and so we were either forced to use electronic ignition powered by alkaline batteries or forced to re-light the standing pilot every 7 days if not used during that period.

 

[Cujet]

Hurricane 24/7 use, I have always used the 50 hour/2 day OCI. I will admit that after a few oil changes, the oil was coming out sparkling clean after 50 hours. However, I had plenty of oil, and did not need the risk of failure.

M1, 15W-50 in the larger generators, M1, 10W-30 in the smaller Honda's.