Hi out there fellow generator people, trysquie in South West Pennsylvania here. I have a Coleman Powermate 5000W 6250W peak generator with the Tecumseh 10 HP motor (after reading the site I wish it was a B&S motor). I have talked to a teck who works on these units and he told me that I should use straight 30 W oil. He said that when people use multi grade they blow up. I asked him what he thought about Castrol straight 30 weight. He said that is the good stuf. He also said the exhaust has female threads for npt pipe, if you remove the factory muffler you can get to the threads, and I could add my own muffler on this type of pipe. He also said to be sure to use a flexable conection on the pipe. I went on "McMaster Carr" site and found flexable stainless pipe (the lower cost unit is discontinued but if you order it they give you the higher cost higher quality unit at the lower cost). You will require some straight threaded pipe and some right angles. I found a small muffler with a heat shield at the local auto parts store (advance auto parts her in PA there part no. from the side of this muffler 18677 9 245 ) and used PC7 epoxt puty to temporally hold the corect mounting angles with respect to the muffler heat shield attaching to U shaped steel bent from 1 inch flat steel that I purched from home depo and bent into two big U shapes to mount to the bolts on the alternator (I had to put longer bolts on that side of the generator, and extend and move the ground wire to the other side of the generator). I used very long flexable hose clamps from NAPA, (two sets, each made of two of the longest they sell) to hold the muffler to the steel while the PC7 epoxy putty dried. After the epoxy cured I had a local auto shop weld the steel to the heat shield (make sure to ask them to be careful not to burn through the muffler when welding to the heat shield). I have a lathe so I was able to turn a piece of steel to make the cup shaped piece that I had welded to the end of the pipe and provide fit to the inside of the input pipe for the muffler. I now have a home made auto muffler adapted to this generator. It did reduce the noise considerably but the valve train, piston, and air intake still make quite a racket. Before it was louder than a gas lawn mower. Now it is not as loud as a gas lawn mower. The way I added this muffler it moves with the generator and motor but still has the flex pipe for extra give. I am now going to add a heat shield between the heat shield of the muffler and the generator for added protection of the generator. I e-mailed Amsoil about oil for these air cooled motors and they e-mailed me back and said that regular multi grade oil will break down and not provide protection in these motors. They said full synthetic multigrade can handle these motors and will not break down. They make a multi-grade 10 W30 SAE 30 specifically for small air cooled motors (and no, I am not an Amsoil dealer or in any way conected to them, or to McMaster Carr, NAPA or advance auto parts). You still have to change the oil every 25 hours of use. I have learned some things from your web site, and just wanted to pass on some of the things I have learned regarding generators. I use to be around boats and saw many ways that people can blow things up or make mistakes that cause big problems. I hope to learn enough from this site and others to keep my generator runing when required. Signed, trysqqire in S.W. PA

This setup sounds like you're just feeding the generator into the main panel and there is no transfer switch and separate box allowing your generator to power selective outlets. Not any different from a former neighbour of mine who just plugs his generator into a garage outlet and is convinced it's fine, though the lights are all dim and he's backfeeding the incoming power lines. Perfect for electrocuting linesmen and damaging your appliances. Was the install done by a licenced electrician? Depending on your jurisdiction, you may be able to get a free inspection from your local power supplier.

So, for the folks who are running their central AC on a small generator, there are some things to consider so you don’t damage your ac. Just because it’s working doesn’t mean it’s not harming your central ac. 1st you need to have a quick reading voltage meter your typical cheapie can’t read ms long voltage changes. What your looking for is when your ac starts what is the instantaneous voltage drop. If your seeing under 208V when starting your ac, your accelerating wear on your motor windings on the compressor. Your compressor takes a certain amount of wattage which varies depending on temperature. If your ac says 90lra at 208v you need 18,720 starting watts, to start the ac without a voltage drop. If your generator can’t supply the needed power, you’ll slow the engine down and bog the generator causing its output voltage to drop, and say it’s outputting only 185v starting the ac. That means your ac is now drawing 18720/185=101 amps, and for a longer period of time. at low voltage the ac will take longer to start, heating the motor winding on your ac significantly more, once the insulation degrade or the wiring melts in the ac your compressor is done, So it’s not that it can’t be done, but it will wear your compressor a lot more quickly. Also if your ac doesnt sound the same while running it’s because the motor is vibrating more due to a highly distorted ac wave form or high THD from the generator. This extra vibration will wear the compressor more quickly and if bad enough destroy the motor. So some things to keep in mind when running a central ac on a generator. something highly recommended for small generators is leave the ac running all the time to reduce starts which damage the motors and or install a soft start kit to reduce LRA. If the ac is noisy on generator power get a different generator with a low thd, make sure it’s grounded properly if needed and consider upgrading your ac run capacitor to a 440v. Real bottom line, a cheap generator can run a very expensive ac. But if it kills your ac you didn’t really save money by buying a cheap generator.

I am not an RV owner, however those folks are all into portable generators and I have been a Forum Member for years because of the intense knowledge they have for generators. I'd suggest doing some searching and reading at their site. (Be carefull, as their requirements may likley differ from yours - they have an almost obsession about quiet generators due to restrictions on noise from generators at some camp sites and at National Parks. rv.net Forum For Portable Generator Help Notice they largely conme down in two "camps" (pun intended) - The Pro Honda and Yamaha crowd versus the less expensive Chinese clones. The price difference can be massive, but... You seem a little confused with some of the terminology. "many more minutes of surge power" is an example. Surge power or starting current is not measured in minutes duration! Gasoline is a rotten fuel in these genertors unless you commit to doing some maintenance and following some precautions - not to mention storing gasoline around the house and being able to buy gasoline during an area-wide general power outage. Also, having left your generator idle for six months only to find it now gummed up an unable to run is not good. I went with a Costco Chinese Gas Powered Generator. I modified it to run on Propane with a kit I got online... cost maybe $200 and I feel much more comfortabl storing 20 Lb Propane Cylinders. Shortly after I got my gen I had a need to use it. I sent the following to the manufacturer. "To remind you, you helped me with my Costco ST-GP9500 changing the Oil Drain Plug, replacing Starting Diode, etc. (I'm the retired US Navy Submariner.) Well, had the need to run my generator due to an outage on Friday and Saturday. (During Rush Hour Friday afternoon, some guy took out a power pole causing a nearly 24 hour loss of electric to my neighborhood. Generator fired right up Saturday AM and provided about 5000 Watts for my neighbor and me. We both believe we would have lost $150+ in spoiled food. I did modify my generator to run on Tri-fuel and used only LPG yesterday. I also did go ahead and add an Over-Voltage protector." I use heavy duty extension cords... I offered my next door neighbor 1500 Watts of my power in exchange for his tolerance of any noise I create.