4 ms·

Yeah, but generators are a PITA. Mine has at best a 50/50 chance of starting without having to go to the shop to clean the carb, etc. It would be quite nice to

Yeah, but generators are a PITA. Mine has at best a 50/50 chance of starting without having to go to the shop to clean the carb, etc. It would be quite nice to know I had quick, reliable power on tap that is regularly tested just in the normal course of my life.

sokoloff 6y ago
Propane (or natural gas) might be a better answer here if a propane conversion kit is available for your generator engine or if piped NG is on your property. Failing that, buying aviation gasoline (whether 92UL or 100LL) or using gasoline unpolluted with ethanol, a gasoline stabilizer, and exercising the generator for 2 minutes every half-year is probably time and money savings over cleaning the carb. Cleaning the carb is also an easy sub-15 minute task from tool drawer open to tool drawer shut the second time you've done it. Give yourself an hour the first time maybe. A bottle of spray carb cleaner will last you a decade in all likelihood. I go through this every other year or so with seasonal equipment (lawnmower and snowblower) and it's easier to clean the carb when needed than to chase down and keep avgas on hand.
- brianwawok 6y ago
  Switched all my outdoor tools (push mower, weed eater, leaf blower, chainsaw )To electric, and it has saved so much yearly messing with small engines. Huge win for me. Some of these tools I only use a few times a year, so ends up being near a 1:1 using the tool and doing maintenance. Riding mower is the only gas engine I have to mess with. Counting down the years until a more competitive battery riding mower is sold.
  - athenot 6y ago
    I did the same, with the EGO line of tools. It's so much more enjoyable to do landscaping tasks without the noise. I recently got the Ryobi riding mower, which is a glorified golf cart (lead-acid batteries) but works really well as a rough cut. When the blades are in action, it makes the sound of a box fan, and when the blades are off, it's totally quiet. For the tools that I haven't electrified (my Mantis tiller and Trucut reel mower), I stick with Honda engines. They are a marvel of reliability compared to the others. Only exception is my shredder which has a Kholer engine and does seem to be good too. All these start on first pull after a winter in storage.
    - vardump 6y ago
      Also have EGO mower and trimmer. Amazing, very powerful tools. The 5A battery (280 Wh) charges really fast, empty to full in maybe 40 minutes.
  - mattrp 6y ago
    Same here - I’ve been considering the Ryobi riding mower. Cub Cadet has an electric rider as well. It’s interesting, if you can mod your kids power wheels, these riding mowers are basically the same concept. All you’d need would be the electric motors —- which are plentiful — and a 48v 100ah battery. The later is around $2500 on Amazon... which even though you could retrofit/build your own, the retail pricing of the finished mower product isn’t so bad by comparison. I’m not sure of the extended warranty availability but given the battery is easily 80% of the value of the mower that would be my chief concern if it ends up only lasting a season or two.
  - DavidPeiffer 6y ago
    I purchased a Dewalt weed eater last year. Absolutely my favorite yard tool to use now. * The battery is the same as my drills, giving me added battery capacity for the whole Dewalt system. Vendor lock-in...but they're a solid system. My dad's Dewalt batteries from 2012 finally just hit an unacceptably low battery capacity. * I clean it after use but have had no other maintenance required. * It's better for the environment * It's silent when I'm moving across the yard. Having no idle sound is so nice. I actually value this very highly and am seriously considering buying all electric going forward. Last week I saw a guy mowing the yard with an electric mower. You could hardly hear it from 50 feet away.
    - oh_sigh 6y ago
      I don't know about DeWalt, but for ryobi one+ systems, you can buy generic batteries online which are like 1/3rd the price of the Ryobi ones.
      - thesmok 6y ago
        Generic batteries are often much worse quality than brand ones, but you can get adapters on eBay that convert between almost any tool brand battery connectors. Just have to match voltage. That removes battery vendor lock-in.
        sokoloff 6y ago
        Partially. For a drill or screwdriver or other tool where the battery is integral to the tool's case, you don't really want some dangling field-fabricated adapter flopping around while you're trying to work.
  - Shivetya 6y ago
    Greenworx 60v user here, they certainly are getting better. I had all sorts of hell with an older Ryobi line and had written off battery outdoor tools for awhile but was gifted the Greenworx and have not looked back. Electric leaf blowers have so many uses! Though a push mower you need amperage if you are letting you lawn get tall and the 60v 4a battery I have is good for around 6-8 thousand square feet of lawn before I have to swap. As for riding, the deep cycle variants are getting competitive with gas powered but lithium is a ways off. fortunately with most deep cycle models batteries can be purchased in many places. I have kept an old push gas mower around for high grass and light brush clearing a common area that is not regularly maintained. they still have more oomph than electric mowers.
    - sokoloff 6y ago
      I had a couple of plug in leaf blowers that were handy, but have nowhere close to the power of my secondhand gas blower that I bought later. If I had it to do over, I’d have skipped the electric blowers entirely. The surprising win for plug-in electric is a small, cheap single-stage snow blower. For snows in the 1-4” range at under 25°F, it’s hard to beat the speed and convenience. I bought it just as a cleanup tool behind my “real” snowblower (a 2-stage can’t clear down to clean pavement), but I find I’ll often use it as the only blower I use for a light, fluffy snow.
      - fignews 6y ago
        There’s a limit to how much power you can get out of an outlet. Batteries less so.
- selykg 6y ago
  Switching away from ethanol fuels is a super easy way to get more life out of small engine equipment. It's more expensive ~50 cents more a gallon by me, but I use it in all my small gas engines (lawn tractor, leaf blower and weed eater) and literally after every winter they fire up about 3-4 pulls, or with the tractor, a slightly longer turn of the key. I also use fuel stabilizer and that seems to help as well.
- crazyjncsu 6y ago
  So I also have a 75kw whole-house generator that runs on propane, installed by the original owners. If you think don't think a portable deal is a PITA, try something 10x the size. My last encounter with it was discovering it was sucking down 1kw of power continuously (for at least 3 months, costing $200+) while trying to keep the coolant heated ... in the middle of the summer ... only to discover it had little-to-no coolant. I found a family of snakes living in it. I have no idea on the state of the battery, except for that it has one, so I suspect I'll be replacing that if I ever want to use it. This is all stuff I don't mind doing, but that cuts into my free time that I'd rather be spending with my family.
quickthrowman 6y ago
You could buy a pad mounted generator with a transfer switch and setup monitoring and maintenance contracts. You could even get a natural gas powered one if you have natural gas hookups, which means no messing around with diesel or gas. All of this will cost you significantly more than a portable gas generator, but with yearly maintenance and monitoring, most generators perform just fine. I work for an electrical contractor that is a General dealer, we do lots and lots of these.

sokoloff 6y ago

Propane (or natural gas) might be a better answer here if a propane conversion kit is available for your generator engine or if piped NG is on your property. Failing that, buying aviation gasoline (whether 92UL or 100LL) or using gasoline unpolluted with ethanol, a gasoline stabilizer, and exercising the generator for 2 minutes every half-year is probably time and money savings over cleaning the carb. Cleaning the carb is also an easy sub-15 minute task from tool drawer open to tool drawer shut the second time you've done it. Give yourself an hour the first time maybe. A bottle of spray carb cleaner will last you a decade in all likelihood. I go through this every other year or so with seasonal equipment (lawnmower and snowblower) and it's easier to clean the carb when needed than to chase down and keep avgas on hand.

brianwawok 6y ago
Switched all my outdoor tools (push mower, weed eater, leaf blower, chainsaw )To electric, and it has saved so much yearly messing with small engines. Huge win for me. Some of these tools I only use a few times a year, so ends up being near a 1:1 using the tool and doing maintenance. Riding mower is the only gas engine I have to mess with. Counting down the years until a more competitive battery riding mower is sold.
- athenot 6y ago
  I did the same, with the EGO line of tools. It's so much more enjoyable to do landscaping tasks without the noise. I recently got the Ryobi riding mower, which is a glorified golf cart (lead-acid batteries) but works really well as a rough cut. When the blades are in action, it makes the sound of a box fan, and when the blades are off, it's totally quiet. For the tools that I haven't electrified (my Mantis tiller and Trucut reel mower), I stick with Honda engines. They are a marvel of reliability compared to the others. Only exception is my shredder which has a Kholer engine and does seem to be good too. All these start on first pull after a winter in storage.
  - vardump 6y ago
    Also have EGO mower and trimmer. Amazing, very powerful tools. The 5A battery (280 Wh) charges really fast, empty to full in maybe 40 minutes.
- mattrp 6y ago
  Same here - I’ve been considering the Ryobi riding mower. Cub Cadet has an electric rider as well. It’s interesting, if you can mod your kids power wheels, these riding mowers are basically the same concept. All you’d need would be the electric motors —- which are plentiful — and a 48v 100ah battery. The later is around $2500 on Amazon... which even though you could retrofit/build your own, the retail pricing of the finished mower product isn’t so bad by comparison. I’m not sure of the extended warranty availability but given the battery is easily 80% of the value of the mower that would be my chief concern if it ends up only lasting a season or two.
- DavidPeiffer 6y ago
  I purchased a Dewalt weed eater last year. Absolutely my favorite yard tool to use now. * The battery is the same as my drills, giving me added battery capacity for the whole Dewalt system. Vendor lock-in...but they're a solid system. My dad's Dewalt batteries from 2012 finally just hit an unacceptably low battery capacity. * I clean it after use but have had no other maintenance required. * It's better for the environment * It's silent when I'm moving across the yard. Having no idle sound is so nice. I actually value this very highly and am seriously considering buying all electric going forward. Last week I saw a guy mowing the yard with an electric mower. You could hardly hear it from 50 feet away.
  - oh_sigh 6y ago
    I don't know about DeWalt, but for ryobi one+ systems, you can buy generic batteries online which are like 1/3rd the price of the Ryobi ones.
    - thesmok 6y ago
      Generic batteries are often much worse quality than brand ones, but you can get adapters on eBay that convert between almost any tool brand battery connectors. Just have to match voltage. That removes battery vendor lock-in.
      - sokoloff 6y ago
        Partially. For a drill or screwdriver or other tool where the battery is integral to the tool's case, you don't really want some dangling field-fabricated adapter flopping around while you're trying to work.
- Shivetya 6y ago
  Greenworx 60v user here, they certainly are getting better. I had all sorts of hell with an older Ryobi line and had written off battery outdoor tools for awhile but was gifted the Greenworx and have not looked back. Electric leaf blowers have so many uses! Though a push mower you need amperage if you are letting you lawn get tall and the 60v 4a battery I have is good for around 6-8 thousand square feet of lawn before I have to swap. As for riding, the deep cycle variants are getting competitive with gas powered but lithium is a ways off. fortunately with most deep cycle models batteries can be purchased in many places. I have kept an old push gas mower around for high grass and light brush clearing a common area that is not regularly maintained. they still have more oomph than electric mowers.
  - sokoloff 6y ago
    I had a couple of plug in leaf blowers that were handy, but have nowhere close to the power of my secondhand gas blower that I bought later. If I had it to do over, I’d have skipped the electric blowers entirely. The surprising win for plug-in electric is a small, cheap single-stage snow blower. For snows in the 1-4” range at under 25°F, it’s hard to beat the speed and convenience. I bought it just as a cleanup tool behind my “real” snowblower (a 2-stage can’t clear down to clean pavement), but I find I’ll often use it as the only blower I use for a light, fluffy snow.
    - fignews 6y ago
      There’s a limit to how much power you can get out of an outlet. Batteries less so.
selykg 6y ago
Switching away from ethanol fuels is a super easy way to get more life out of small engine equipment. It's more expensive ~50 cents more a gallon by me, but I use it in all my small gas engines (lawn tractor, leaf blower and weed eater) and literally after every winter they fire up about 3-4 pulls, or with the tractor, a slightly longer turn of the key. I also use fuel stabilizer and that seems to help as well.
crazyjncsu 6y ago
So I also have a 75kw whole-house generator that runs on propane, installed by the original owners. If you think don't think a portable deal is a PITA, try something 10x the size. My last encounter with it was discovering it was sucking down 1kw of power continuously (for at least 3 months, costing $200+) while trying to keep the coolant heated ... in the middle of the summer ... only to discover it had little-to-no coolant. I found a family of snakes living in it. I have no idea on the state of the battery, except for that it has one, so I suspect I'll be replacing that if I ever want to use it. This is all stuff I don't mind doing, but that cuts into my free time that I'd rather be spending with my family.

quickthrowman 6y ago

You could buy a pad mounted generator with a transfer switch and setup monitoring and maintenance contracts. You could even get a natural gas powered one if you have natural gas hookups, which means no messing around with diesel or gas. All of this will cost you significantly more than a portable gas generator, but with yearly maintenance and monitoring, most generators perform just fine. I work for an electrical contractor that is a General dealer, we do lots and lots of these.