Storing a generator inside

[gatorboy]

So...father in law borrowed my new generator and is done with it.
I want to store it in my basement (everything rusts terribly when stored in shed or garage).

Do I keep some gas in it? *I'd think no
Do I drain the gas and run it till dry?
Do I put in an additive to it first?
Other?

Thx

[Mazderati]

Run it dry and then crack the float bowl on the carb to get any remaining gas out if there is an accessible drain.

[BCMtnHound]

I would go online and check with the manufacturer of your particular genny.

For my Hondas, yes, I turn off the gas and run until they quit, then drain the carb, if I expect to store them for more than a couple months. I may drain the tank, but since I always use no ethanol premium fuel, I rarely worry about the fuel for a couple months storage. I've heard of people taking the spark plug out and putting a drop or two of engine oil in the cylinder, pulling the cord a couple times, then replacing the spark plug, but I've never done that.
If you have a model with electric start, remove the battery and put it on a tender.

[hawkgt]

I would go online and check with the manufacturer of your particular genny.

For my Hondas, yes, I turn off the gas and run until they quit, then drain the carb, if I expect to store them for more than a couple months. I may drain the tank, but since I always use no ethanol premium fuel, I rarely worry about the fuel for a couple months storage. I've heard of people taking the spark plug out and putting a drop or two of engine oil in the cylinder, pulling the cord a couple times, then replacing the spark plug, but I've never done that.
If you have a model with electric start, remove the battery and put it on a tender.

what the fuck dude? this is waaaaaaaaaay to fucking reasonable. padded room
has rules.

op - 50/50 mix water and gas. run it dry

[iceman]

op - 50/50 mix water and gas. run it dry

Water in the gas? Never heard of doing that on purpose, what does it do?

[XXX-er]

I always use premium in any small engine, I don't think you can get all the fuel out of every passage in a carberator so put I fuel conditioner in the the fuel if the engine is going to sit

[El Chupacabra]

Water in the gas? Never heard of doing that on purpose, what does it do?

Gives you a reason to buy Heet?

[BCMtnHound]

Water in the gas? Never heard of doing that on purpose, what does it do?

Solves the storage problem for that particular engine. Permanently.

[Dee Hubbs]

Fill it with an alkylate petrol, and not worry about smell or the fuel going bad. It will start up right away years from now.

[k2skier112]

I always use premium in any small engine, I don't think you can get all the fuel out of every passage in a carberator so put I fuel conditioner in the the fuel if the engine is going to sit

Octane is irrelevant in small engines, anything over 86 is fine. But most non-ethanol comes in premium, so go for it. A good fuel stabilizer is critical, NO Sta-bil or Seafoam. The only one I trust is Startron by Starbrite.

Mix a stabilizer with non-ethanol, or race gas then run it out. As someone mentioned, it impossible to get every drop out, so the quality fuel and stabilizer is essential.

[bodywhomper]

Water in the gas? Never heard of doing that on purpose, what does it do?

It keeps the small engine repair folks employeed.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using TGR Forums mobile app

[The Reverend Floater]

I always use premium in any small engine, I don't think you can get all the fuel out of every passage in a carberator so put I fuel conditioner in the the fuel if the engine is going to sit

This.

I stopped attempting to run everything dry and simply add Seafoam to the fuel (always non ethanol in small motors). All my seasonal equipment fires up instantly the next season and seals don't dry out.

[XXX-er]

the Sthil manual sez use premium 89 octane with Sthil oil and if i bought a 6 pack of Sthil oil they doubled the engine warrnaty so thats what I did. The last thing i want to do is hike a saw out to the cut block, have it not start and lose a day of cutting, or fuck with a snow blower at -20 so I run premium and the engines always starts/stays out of the shop cuz I need running equipment way more than I need to save a couple bucks on a 10 litre jug

Re: fuel conditioner, I had a neighbor who was a HD mechanic at a large bulk carrier outfit hauling chips but they also had a bunch of small engines ( pumps, gensets, chainsaws ) that were abused, people would take one off the rack, if it starts use it, if doesnt start put it back, find one that works and of course don't tell anyone you fucked something up except at some point every thing on the rack was fucked, so buddy got the job of keeping the small engine fleet running he decided the problem was that an engine might not run for a couple years so when it needed to run the fuel would be bad so neighbor buddy decreed that because no body was keeping track of the fuel or anything, all fuel must have stabilizer and once he did that all his troubles went away,

I don't condition all fuel cuz I can keep track of it but at end of season I don't run out the engine tanks instead i thro in a double shot of stabalizer run it for 5 minutes so the carb has conditioned fuel in it

Any old fuel or premix in the jerry can goes in an empty truck tank followed by a fillup

[Todd Zander]

i wouldnt run it dry unless you know how to diagnose and properly fix a stuck closed needle valve

[gravitylover]

^^this.

The nearest place to get non ethanol gas is 45 miles from me so I don't use it in my small engines. I do try to run the generator for 15 minutes every few months and watch in the tank until there's nothing visible but it's still running smoothly then shut it down.

[apex dave]

Also use fogging oil.
https://www.goldeagle.com/tips-tools...-fogging-oils/

[GoldMember]

On my small engines, I start them once a month in off seasons and let them run for 2-3 minutes just to cycle the gas. If storing a generator indoors, that may be more difficult.

[bodywhomper]

if i were the OP, i'd check the manual for the genie about long term storage. i'd be a little concerned about fumes, even if you drain the tank.

if you live in rural California, you often don't get the chance to store a generator for very long. This is the 3rd day this month that i'm running my honda em7000is. our utility is hardening the distribution circuit that our home is tied to (a good thing!) and has needed to cut our power three days so far this month. We have 2 more days scheduled in the next 2 weeks w/ no power.

we've had our generator for 5 years. i bought it used, with a few handful of hours of use and a tank and carb full of old ethanol-ed gas. the engine limped along pretty well-enough with the bad carb for our first year. i replaced the carb the second year (the carb jets had electrolisized (sp?) to the original carb body) and started running av fuel at that point, which is leaded and has no ethanol. there's an airport in our town. AV fuel and racing fuel (also leaded) are the only non-ethanol fuel that i'm aware of available in my area, and av fuel is significantly cheaper. our small engine shops in town tell people to not trust fuel with ethanol that has been stabilized for no longer than 1 month, especially during the wet season. i've run my genie for over 200hrs with AV fuel over 4 years. i usually try to keep it fully fueled before shutting down, but that doesn't always happen. last fall, i did a large maintenance, including cleaning the exhaust screen and inspecting the spark plug, neither showed extra carbon build-up, which is supposedly a problem with running av fuel in small engines and one of my chainsaws spark plug has been fouled by av fuel. the genie always starts up and runs w/o a problem.

with the utility system hardening, there's a strong chance that my area may experience less (or no) outages during the winter. next fall, i may look into fogging the engine. that seems like a good idea.

[BobMc]

On my small engines, I start them once a month in off seasons and let them run for 2-3 minutes just to cycle the gas. If storing a generator indoors, that may be more difficult.

About 10 years ago the power went out in the neighborhood around my shop. I lost one of my favorite customers when he started his generator he had stored in his garage, they found him and his wife dead in the house.

[iceman]

Well that's not fun. I think I came fairly close to dying once because of a book on tape. "Plum Island" by Nelson DeMille actually. I was listening to it on a long drive and I got home at a good part, opened the garage with the remote, pulled in and closed it with the remote and kept listening and was so caught up didn't think to cut the car off. A while later I started to fall asleep but the book ended and I shook myself and stumbled out of the garage.

[GoldMember]

About 10 years ago the power went out in the neighborhood around my shop. I lost one of my favorite customers when he started his generator he had stored in his garage, they found him and his wife dead in the house.

Yeah, I always just open the garage door and wheel them outside to start and run. That's why when storing inside, starting and running is a bit more complcated.

[Todd Zander]

i woudnt worry about fogging the combustion chamber for generators either . 9/10 get trashed due to the cost of repairs on the genset side outweighing the cost of a new one.

[XXX-er]

I wonder if the fuel might have less ethanol up here, in any case i'm pretty happy running premium from the pump.

The colder it gets the more you gotta pay attention to the time of year & having fresh fuel for the season especialy on diesel engines