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

Jay, I was in a really cranky mood by late afternoon yesterday because our high temperature once again over-achieved. Our forecast was for 98 and we hit 106. This constant over-achieving on the part of our high temps is driving me up a wall. However, rainfall finally arrived accompanied by much lightning, wind, thunder, etc. and we had several little showers run through one after another. We ended up with a tiny bit less than 0.7"....maybe 0.65 or 0.68". It was wonderful to have rainfall again, and the temperature plunged from 106 to 79 before dark. I know that the less than 7/10s of an inch is only a drop in the bucket compared to what we need, but eventually all those drops in the bucket will add up. Today is supposed to be cooler--only the low to mid 90s, and then 98 again tomorrow (wonder if I should expect 106 again?) before another cool-down arrives. This morning has remained cloudy and cool, so the house is quiet, quiet, quiet because the AC hasn't been running. The clouds are burning off now, so I guess the AC will kick on in a little while. Were it not for the near-epidemic levels of West Nile Virus around me, I'd have spent the cool, cloudy morning outside working in the garden. Since the mosquitoes that transmit it are most active in the early morning and early evening hours, I guess I'll go outside at midafternoon and work when the mosquitoes are less likely to be out. I haven't seen many mosquitoes, but I sure don't want to be bitten by one carrying WNV. The news stories of the horrible West Nile Virus aftereffects occurring even to some young people in their teens through their 30s make me wary of taking a chance on being bitten by one of those skeeters. Normally the older you are, the harder the WNV hits you. In recent tests of mosquitoes trapped in the Dallas area, 50% of the mosquitoes tested were carriers of WNV and I don't like those odds. If we hadn't had rain, the prospect of having mosquitoes around wouldn't bother me as much. But then, if we hadn't had rain, I wouldn't feel like I should be out doing anything in the garden. The rains, skimpy though they may be, are reviving some plants, but others are just too far gone and I might as well yank them and clear those areas for fall planting. Dawn

I have one. Don't even consider buying one that has only an exhaust vent hose and not a separate intake vent hose, because these will create an air vacuum in the room it's in and consequently suck air from leaks around doors and windows, other rooms of the house, and such to replace the air it's constantly exhausting. You'll feel cold air blowing from the portable A/C, and yet it will usually feel too hot in the rest of the room when you're not right in front of it. The dual-hose portable A/Cs avoid this problem by cooling *outdoor* air and thus bringing new, fresh air into the room to replace the air it exhausts. Also note that cheaper ones require emptying a bucket of water every few days (every day during the hottest and most humid times) unless you have a nearby drain. Better units have an internal pump to allow you to drain water upwards (i.e. to a sink or out the window), or better yet, have a self-evaporating feature that exhausts evaporated water out the window with the air. I use mine only because it's difficult to mount a window A/C in a side-hinged window that swings open. Although a panel to hold the vent hose in your window is usually included, these almost never fit any real window you'd use a portable A/C with; I've had to fabricate my own panel every place I've ever used a portable A/C. Mine (an old one I think was manufacturered by Fedders and private-labelled as Home Depot's house brand) also tends to leak or freeze over. I'm not sure why this sometimes happens. It gives you an option to self-evaporate, but the coils freeze over even more often if I use it, so I stick with draining into a bucket.

dadoes I think thats what I'll do, maybe just incase for now on REALLY cold nights I'll just use space heaters [I have 5 all different types that work fine], plus heat pumps REALLY don't work all that well in environments below like 20F-30F anyways, but I'll tell you anything above that it works great. I also have Central Natural Gas Heating however gas is a bit pricey not that bad but I mean in the winter it may cost nearly $100 for gas, so I figure setting the Central Heat for like 65 or something so it don't get to cold and then using the heat pump or space heater to keep it comfy [I know if I use more than 1 space heater at a time it'll run the bill up more than gas for the whole house so I only run 1 at a time]. And this heat pump if its say 45 Degrees will work real well and quick. So I think I'll just take your suggestion and run it with 2 hoses I doubt it will fail.