My parents have a large “whole house” type generator. It’s fairly unreliable as far as household appliances go, doesn’t always start automatically, and occasionally breaks down. They have a huge propane tank for it, that also runs the gas fireplace and stove.
We’ve been mulling over the possibility of getting a small generator, one robust enough to run the sump pump, refrigerator and communications. Might have been nice during our 5 day Sandy outage, then again, I’d have been in multi-hour gas lines more than a few times to get gas for it. Best bet, bring the old gas guzzler that you don’t use much, fill’er up, and siphon out the gas you need. One trip is 20 gallons instead of 5.
How old is it, and does it get regular maintenance? Regular runs (10m/week) are essential for reliable operation, as is at least a minimal tune-up once a year. If it’s forgotten except when the lights go out, well… join the thousands who only get one year from a portable generator, because once the power came back on, it was shoved in a corner of the garage.
After use, I siphon out as much fuel as possible, then run it dry. I change the oil and store it, making sure the choke is open (which, since it was just running, it is). This seems to have worked well for me for the 5 years I have been in the generator club, and as I mentioned I have needed it about once per year.
As I said, the key is to stock up on gas before the storm, and if I don’t use the gas I just put it in the cars.
Finally, if you’re not using it a lot, don’t bother with electric start. Batteries become a maintenance item themselves, and it is just one more thing to worry about and cost money. In my experience the pull cords are easy enough to operate.
nitro, their unit is on the old side, probably 15 years old and likely doesn’t get the maintenance schedule it needs. Proof that maintenance is important.
If it’s one of the two or three major brands (likely Generac, they were almost the only brand of residential site generator until recently) - a relatively modest investment in rebuilding and tune-up would bring it up to snuff.
OTOH, site generators have continually dropped in price. The last time I looked at them, they were around $1k/kW, up to $20k for a whole-house 15-20kW unit. You can now get a 5-7kW unit with a 6- to 8-breaker transfer panel for under $3k, and a whole-house unit with a 200A transfer box for $5-7k installed.
In my suburb of NYC, perhaps 5 to 10% of houses had generators. My impression is that most of them run on gasoline, which in hindsight seems to be a mistake since a prolonged power failure is likely to result in a gas shortage.
As other people have pointed out, you can get generators which are fired by natural gas, which seems like a much better idea.
A big problem with generators: A lot of friends and acquaintances will show up to do their laundry, charge their cell phones, watch TV, store food in your refrigerator, sleep on your couch, and/or have their children stay with you. It’s nice to help friends out, but I could easily see it becoming a pain in the (*&& after a while. Besides which, you will have to turn some people away and then deal with their hurt feelings.