Propane vs gas for 10kw generator

A whole house generator should be a diesel with a fuel tank burried in your yard. Second best is NG piped to your house or propane if you have it already installed for heating, etc.
 
My place came with a 500 gallon propane tank, I bought a dual fuel generator to take advantage of whatever was on hand. That tank was a bit oversized for just the BBQ.

We live in a remote location that you'd expect would lose power often and for long periods of time. So far it's rare, and the longest might have been ten minutes.
 
My place came with a 500 gallon propane tank, I bought a dual fuel generator to take advantage of whatever was on hand. That tank was a bit oversized for just the BBQ.

We live in a remote location that you'd expect would lose power often and for long periods of time. So far it's rare, and the longest might have been ten minutes.

It funny that way.... whenever Im best prepared - I get tested the least.
 
No what burns the valves is lack of lash maintenance.
In my observation it's the leading cause of premature genset engine end "hard" failures.
Almost no one does it.
Bad fuel killing carbs is the #1 no start condition.
So if one adjusts valves this solves issue of running either NG or propane?
 
Oh thank you for clarification. I read somewhere that NG or propane causes engine to run hotter hence burning the valves as gasoline acts as a lubricant. Thank you again.
I worked on forklift for 23 years in total most had propane as fuel. Propane fueled engines run a long time and have no more or less valve problems than a gasoline fueled engine. With modern engines 30,000 + hours of operation on a properly maintained engine is easy. The propane fuel system needed repairs. Our company sent us to natural gas training and it is similar to propane . .... Came back to add this the forklifts ran on liquid propane taken from the bottom of the tank then the tank pressure was reduced to operating pressures by the coolant heated vaporizer . if the coolant ran low the vaporizer would freeze up and there was a great chance of the vaporizer being damaged. The air cooled engines that were used on the small air cooled sweepers [ lawn mower engines ] took vapor from the top of the tank. The tank pressure was almost 300 psi[ it has been a long time]
 
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Sure...but forklifts have modified engines from factory....because they are planed to run purely on CNG/LPG....

Valves and valve seats are hardened and of different alloy then their gas driven counterparts....

But here we have regular OPE converted to CNG/LPG...
 
Have the Westinghouse WGen9500 - bought it this hurricane season. This is my first on propane and having natural gas … never really messed with propane. With the Arctic blast starting the cool down tonight … decided to crank it.
Found I had forgot to close gas cylinder and motor cranked but did not fire. Changed cylinders and ran great …

Where did it likely leak ? Connector or regulator ?
 
never understood the need for such big gensets. WHEN the emergency sets in allocate one room to keep cool/warm and run a much smaller generator (inverter) just to keep that one room livable. Having to fit the bill to run a 10KW genset for any length of time gets very costly. I am a veteran of disasters living in hurricane alley. I've gone 2 weeks without power and lived comfortably with a 3KW generator. Mine runs on NG.
 
never understood the need for such big gensets. WHEN the emergency sets in allocate one room to keep cool/warm and run a much smaller generator (inverter) just to keep that one room livable. Having to fit the bill to run a 10KW genset for any length of time gets very costly. I am a veteran of disasters living in hurricane alley. I've gone 2 weeks without power and lived comfortably with a 3KW generator. Mine runs on NG.
I bought mine to make my welder portable, to take around the property, or to odd jobs. Sure, I could have bought a genset/welder combo, but I already had the welder, so that saved me about $2k, plus it certainly doesn't hurt to have a standalone generator. My welder can draw up to around 6500w, but I've borrowed units from work a couple times that I've used with this generator that will max it out. It's working out fantastic for what I bought it for. Only issue I've had is high loads will freeze up a 20# propane tank pretty quickly in cold weather.

I took others' advice and bought a small 2500W inverter to use for power outages, just to run the fridge/freezer and other essentials for long durations.
 
I bought mine to make my welder portable, to take around the property, or to odd jobs. Sure, I could have bought a genset/welder combo, but I already had the welder, so that saved me about $2k, plus it certainly doesn't hurt to have a standalone generator. My welder can draw up to around 6500w, but I've borrowed units from work a couple times that I've used with this generator that will max it out. It's working out fantastic for what I bought it for. Only issue I've had is high loads will freeze up a 20# propane tank pretty quickly in cold weather.

I took others' advice and bought a small 2500W inverter to use for power outages, just to run the fridge/freezer and other essentials for long durations.
92saturnsl2 - sorry man, that's what I get for not reading your entire post!!! My mess up!! I now see the use for such a big unit! That'll teach me!!!;);)
 
With propane you have propane problems as with gasoline you have gasoline problems.
Person I know, where he lives, lots of people have those big Generac units tied into their big underground propane tanks...

Last winter we had a decent "Snowmageden" event; down lines; no power for a few days...

A bunch of his neighbors were horrified to learn the hard way; they went thru their big tanks (~$900 worth of propane) in only 3-4 days!
 
No matter what power solution you choose, I'd say fuel rotation/ turnover is key. Especially gasoline powered systems.

Nothing worse than a gunk-gummed valve on stale fuel trying to turn over on a water poisoned carb.

Ain't gonna happn'.
 
Person I know, where he lives, lots of people have those big Generac units tied into their big underground propane tanks...

Last winter we had a decent "Snowmageden" event; down lines; no power for a few days...

A bunch of his neighbors were horrified to learn the hard way; they went thru their big tanks (~$900 worth of propane) in only 3-4 days!
I have a similar setup. If we had an event like this, I wouldn’t be letting it run constantly. 3-5 gallons an hr depending on the load so let’s say 4 gallons. That’s 96 gallons a day.
 
Have the Westinghouse WGen9500 - bought it this hurricane season. This is my first on propane and having natural gas … never really messed with propane. With the Arctic blast starting the cool down tonight … decided to crank it.
Found I had forgot to close gas cylinder and motor cranked but did not fire. Changed cylinders and ran great …

Where did it likely leak ? Connector or regulator ?
I have a Westinghouse 9500 but it's not a dual-fuel version. Did I read somewhere that below a certain temperature the generator still needs to be started with gas and then switched over to propane while running?
 
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Gas leaks wherever it can. It could be from the tank to regulator. The regulator itself. The low pressure hose from regulator to engine.

Soapy water spritz all connections and hardware between bottle to generator. Fix leaks as evidenced where you see bubbles.

Shut off the fuel at the gas bottle main valve when you arent using it.

Edit: I was speaking for us brothers and sisters that have portable units that can run off BBQ sized, 35~100lbs portable, refillable canisters. ^.^
 
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Anyone had issues with the 'smell' chemical gumming up the engine? Just bought a Westinghouse 9500 and was considering running it in propane exclusively, but if this is an issue, I may switch it to ethanol-free with a healthy dose of TruFuel thrown in.
 
Your 10K genset will turn into an 8K and you'll freeze a 20Lb bottle over if running the gen at full load. 100Lb propane tanks are pretty inexpensive though.
 
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