Just picked up a new Generator

[Wheel366]

I just purchased a Duromax XP13000HXT 13,000-Watt/10,500-Watt Tri-Fuel generator and apparently, it doesn't come with oil (I would have thought it would, but this is my first generator). It says to use conventional for the first 8 hours and they recommend 10W-30. Are there any recommendations as to which one to run? I see there is Castrol GTX, Pennzoil, QS, etc... even a RP.

I live in Northern NJ. What would you run after the break-in? Should I stick with a 10W-30? Maybe a 5W-30 or even a 10W-40? There is no guarantee when this generator would be run. Could be any season. Temps get down to around 0 degrees, but sometimes it will get colder than that where I live but not often.

Here is their chart.

 

[dogememe]

My preference would be synthetic 5W-30 and change it early. Every time I do an oil change on a generator without oil filter it’s always NASTY.

 

[Pablo]

Synthetic 10W-30

 

[UncleDave]

On my fan and air cooled Gennie's I run Mobil 1 0w40.

All season
Tough as nails oil giving great moft even in the summer.
Best blend of price performance around - very hard to beat.
Can run in almost anything else you own with no fuss so you don't get abandoned small amounts lingering around.

I run the more exotic stuff (AMSOIL/ HPL/Redline) in sumps that are going to last longer not stuff I toss every 50 hours or season.

 

[Wheel366]

Any recommendations for the convention side for break-in? The manual states specifically to use convention for the break-in then I can use synthetic.

I was probably gonna get Amsoil small engine stuff but I just didn't know which one. Looking at the sheet, it seems that the 10W-40 had better HTHS and the NOACK was better than the 10W-30 but the 5W-30 had double the NOACK.

 

[Pablo]

Any recommendations for the convention side for break-in? The manual states specifically to use convention for the break-in then I can use synthetic.

I was probably gonna get Amsoil small engine stuff but I just didn't know which one. Looking at the sheet, it seems that the 10W-40 had better HTHS and the NOACK was better than the 10W-30 but the 5W-30 had double the NOACK.

View attachment 308099

10W-30

I can send you a link a bit later today

 

[CleanSump]

For the break in good old Castrol GTX conventional 10w-30 is available just about everywhere and not very expensive.

 

[Wheel366]

10W-30

I can send you a link a bit later today

Appreciate it man but I am already a preferred customer.

 

[Pablo]

Appreciate it man but I am already a preferred customer.

No problem. I agree break-in with conventional. Thanks!

 

[Astro_Guy]

I agree break-in with conventional. Thanks!

I think that's an old wive's tale these days. Name a performance oriented vehicle or any other for that matter that comes from the factory with conventional oil.

 

[Pablo]

I think that's an old wive's tale these days. Name a performance oriented vehicle or any other for that matter that comes from the factory with conventional oil.

Not my point

Of course vehicles break in fine with synthetic. But save a few dollars for initial run in and check out

 

[Astro_Guy]

Not my point

But save a few dollars for initial run in and check out

You might have wanted to say that up front. It's been going on thirty years since I've broken in a piece of OPE using conventional oil. It's also getting hard to find conventional oil in small containers but when you do it seems to cost nearly the same as mass market "synthetics." You can still save a few bucks when buying conventional oil in containers of one gallon or more, but why bother? Motor oil is still pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Pablo]

You might have wanted to say that up front. It's been going on thirty years since I've broken in a piece of OPE using conventional oil. It's also getting hard to find conventional oil in small containers but when you do it seems to cost nearly the same as mass market "synthetics." You can still save a few bucks when buying conventional oil in containers of one gallon or more, but why bother? Motor oil is still pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things.

You are correct I should have not been so brief. I blame phone responses.

I always just start with synthetic with my stuff. In fact my new larger pressure washer with Honda engine came with a pint bottle of Amsoil. Imagine that irony. Mainly because I don’t or can’t sell 1/2 quarts of small engine oil.

 

[Mainia]

I just purchased a Duromax XP13000HXT 13,000-Watt/10,500-Watt Tri-Fuel generator and apparently, it doesn't come with oil (I would have thought it would, but this is my first generator). It says to use conventional for the first 8 hours and they recommend 10W-30. Are there any recommendations as to which one to run? I see there is Castrol GTX, Pennzoil, QS, etc... even a RP.

I live in Northern NJ. What would you run after the break-in? Should I stick with a 10W-30? Maybe a 5W-30 or even a 10W-40? There is no guarantee when this generator would be run. Could be any season. Temps get down to around 0 degrees, but sometimes it will get colder than that where I live but not often.

Here is their chart.

View attachment 308074

I also picked up a Westinghouse 11,000 Tri Fuel Inverter about 3 weeks ago. I broke it in with Royal Purple break-in oil (Amazon same day delivery for free) for 10 hours then put in the conventional oil the manufacture provided and ran it for another 6 hours, all break-in was done on propane. Being in Minnesota I chose Mobil 1 ESP 0w30 for it's --54F pour point. I still have to convert it over to floating neutral and kill the CO sensor since it will be ran inside a shed unless it is in summer high temps. I have a portable 3000/2550 Generac inverter that will be wired up for the whole house on a custom cheater box to get both phase A and phase B working with ONLY 120V items. ALL 240 V items with the Generac will be breakered OFF. Using the Gererac when power is out long term and if my gas supply is low. Propane will not be my friend in the winter with the big generator, even if I use a 3 tank threesome supply scenario.

https://westinghouse.com/products/igen11000tfc-inverter-generator-tri-fuel-with-co-sensor

 

[Wheel366]

I also picked up a Westinghouse 11,000 Tri Fuel Inverter about 3 weeks ago. I broke it in with Royal Purple break-in oil (Amazon same day delivery for free) for 10 hours then put in the conventional oil the manufacture provided and ran it for another 6 hours, all break-in was done on propane. Being in Minnesota I chose Mobil 1 ESP 0w30 for it's --54F pour point. I still have to convert it over to floating neutral and kill the CO sensor since it will be ran inside a shed unless it is in summer high temps. I have a portable 3000/2550 Generac inverter that will be wired up for the whole house on a custom cheater box to get both phase A and phase B working with ONLY 120V items. ALL 240 V items with the Generac will be breakered OFF. Using the Gererac when power is out long term and if my gas supply is low. Propane will not be my friend in the winter with the big generator, even if I use a 3 tank threesome supply scenario.

https://westinghouse.com/products/igen11000tfc-inverter-generator-tri-fuel-with-co-sensor

So, the manufacturer provided oil? I didn't see oil in the listed items, and I thought I saw somewhere in the manual that I had to get some.
I would love a Generac but not for this house. I want to get OUT of this place which is why I bought a portable. Eventually, I will have an electrician come in and put a manual transfer switch in and connect everything. I also want to put this on my deck cause I can't leave in front of the house. It would be stolen almost immediately in my town. I already have electric run out there for my old hot tub I removed. I am assuming I can use that wiring and have it converted or at least it makes it easier for wire to be run with the conduit already there. I also want to have some type of cover built into the deck so I can leave it outside running while it is raining/snowing.

 

[SC Maintenance]

The oil chart you have looks like the typical Chonda chart, that is based on a older Honda chart. My guess is they copied the generator and the chart.

When I bought mine, which is smaller, I did a lot of reading and the go cark racing guys that all seem to run the Predator engine / Honda clone all swear you break in 1 hour with conventional, then break in another hour with conventional, then run whatever synthetic you want after that. Mine had a small sump so I used some Valvoline SAE30 they had at Walmart but I am sure any xx-30 will work.

First hour drain was lots of sparkles and lots of silver - assembly lube I assume

Second hour came out pretty darn clean actually. A few sparkles but not many.

I have only actually used my generator to power stuff once - for maybe an hour. I do run it 20 minutes or so - with a load - every few months as a maintenance item. I changed oil again after a couple years just to see and the oil was perfectly clean.

I definitely recommend a magnetic dipstick if it didn't come with one.

 

[Mainia]

So, the manufacturer provided oil? I didn't see oil in the listed items, and I thought I saw somewhere in the manual that I had to get some.
I would love a Generac but not for this house. I want to get OUT of this place which is why I bought a portable. Eventually, I will have an electrician come in and put a manual transfer switch in and connect everything. I also want to put this on my deck cause I can't leave in front of the house. It would be stolen almost immediately in my town. I already have electric run out there for my old hot tub I removed. I am assuming I can use that wiring and have it converted or at least it makes it easier for wire to be run with the conduit already there. I also want to have some type of cover built into the deck so I can leave it outside running while it is raining/snowing.

I have bought 2 Westinghouses and one Generac in the last 2 years and all had oil with them, for sure the Westinghouse and I am 95% sure the Generac did. My daughters house in St Paul I cabled the Gererac to an old 2 inch cloths line pipe setup, when I was ran a full new outdoor meter to a new electrical panel inside her house. Pulled out the old knob and tube and rewired the whole house. She has a 1884 farm house that I redid all utilities from the ground up. It took 1 year 3 months working after wok and weekends to get her in there. She was making payments but not there, but she got free Dad labor and ALL utilities were pulled and redone ALL were permitted. At my house, 1st ring suburb of Minneapolis, I am going to run a cable setup around the 4x4 floor joists in my shed since this one was more expensive then the 20 year old contractor grade open frame 20 year old Generac I just sold when I bought the Westy.

Your hot tube should be 50amp/6 gauge, so you would be setup for a large 240 volt generater or a small one, you would be limited to one phase of your panel if you did a main lock out trasfer plate setup. There are ways to get the whole panel 120V as long as the main panel has the lock out plate. Then you can use a custom cheater box to connect phase A and phase B. Most electrians will not do this because of liability. You do have the option to do the old style way of buying the say "6 curicits" of your choice that the generator will run, but that is very limiting.

 

[Wireman1987]

I just purchased a Duromax XP13000HXT 13,000-Watt/10,500-Watt Tri-Fuel generator and apparently, it doesn't come with oil (I would have thought it would, but this is my first generator). It says to use conventional for the first 8 hours and they recommend 10W-30. Are there any recommendations as to which one to run? I see there is Castrol GTX, Pennzoil, QS, etc... even a RP.

I live in Northern NJ. What would you run after the break-in? Should I stick with a 10W-30? Maybe a 5W-30 or even a 10W-40? There is no guarantee when this generator would be run. Could be any season. Temps get down to around 0 degrees, but sometimes it will get colder than that where I live but not often.

Here is their chart.

View attachment 308074

follow the owners manual for break-in you could use any 10W30 conventional available from Walmart or the auto parts store. When I lived back in NY I kept 5W30 full synthetic year round in my portable generator. Sits just as idle as it did up north now i just use conventional 10W30, I’ll run it a few hours a year for exercise with a load of around 1500-2000 watts then change the oil. If you plan on using gas not lp or ng make sure to keep treated 87-89 fuel and turn the fuel valve off and let the engine run till it stalls that’ll make sure no fuel stays in the carb during storage.

 

[SOUNDMAN5000]

If it was my generator and I wanted to overthink it and go over the top like I have done, I may would order 3 quarts of whatever brand of 10W-30 mineral break-in oil, JEGS brand on Amazon is $8.99 a quart and 3 quarts would be enough to change it twice during the first 8 hours. Break-in oil can be hard to find in the store so may require ordering.

If I wanted to not over think I would order Walmart Super Tech Lawn Mower oil at $3.75 a quart or Briggs and Stratton Lawn Mower oil all Mineral based and run it 8 hours or forever. Personally I run Mineral Straight 30 weight lawn mower oil in all my small engines and I always do a early 1 or 2 break-in oil changes ( all my lawn mowers are over 25 years old ).

The owners manual says use Mineral the first 8 hours, thats exactly what I would do even if it din't say that but it does. I use mineral when I break any engine in. My Harley, may lawn mower to my truck.

 

[Lubener]

I would use any name branded conventional 10w-30 during that eight hour breakin period. After that then go with your favorite synthetic. I wouldn't use synthetic right off the bat. You want a proper breakin of the rings with some "controlled" friction using the conventional.