Gun Dog Forum

Looking at a dual fuel hybrid. Any recommendations?

dog dr wrote:Looking at a dual fuel hybrid. Any recommendations?

I have a whole house generator but I hooked it to our natural gas and it works great if that is what you are asking about. Know nothing about the dual fuel.

Never heard of a dual fuel generator before today, had to look it up. Seem's there is quite a few of them. If I was going for one, I'd look at the Honda's, they have had a long run successfully with generator's period. In Alaska back in the early 80's we used Honda generator's on construction site's because non had electricity in! We used the big Honda's, took two of use to put it away in the truck the end of the day. Those things were amazing!

I have some thoughts on the subject.

One needs to cycle a generator every so often, like once every quarter or so. if you don't the windings can become de-magnetized(or something like that) and basically the generator won't generate electricity.

If you use gasoline, that means cleaning out the unit each time..or you will have old, stale gas, and with ethanol flavored gas, that means lacquer in the carburetor, unless you flush it out with non-ethanol gas. That is a PIA. I have one like that which is how I know.

If, on the other hand, you have the generator hooked up to either natural gas or propane, you can turn a valve, run the unit, draw a load on it to keep it functioning and when done, turn the valve and walk away. Done and done...easy peasey. Nothing to get gunked up. There are even ways to do it automatically.

The only problem with Nat'l gas or propane units is the temperature drop which flowing gas produces. In the winter especially, the flowing gas can produce enough cold to freeze everything up.

If a hook up to Natural gas is available, that would be my first choice. Your fuel supply is always there, except perhaps in an earthquake.

Second choice would be a two tank manifold, a gas expansion fixture and two propane tanks. I would want two 50# tanks. Obviously one fifty pounder is equivalent to two and a half 20 pounder grill size units and that should run a house for a long time, like a couple of days. Also, I can handle a full 50# tank and be safe, but a full 100# tank might be more than I want to fool with. With two tanks, when one empties, you can disconnect it, go get it filled and return without interrupting service to the home.

RayG

Generac 8000 just gave me 30 hours of service.main power cam back on at 5:00pm yesterday.
In all my small engine devices I Non-Ethanol gasoline for the very reason Ray mentioned. Slightly more expensive but darn well worth it.
Boat motor chainsaws leaf blower generator garden tiller you name it if it 2 or 4 cycle around here it runs on non-e.

I don't know how big a generator you are looking for. So this may not be helpful.

I have a Yamaha 2000i that I use on the back of my Van running propane to Charge my batteries. I move it to the back of my track chair and run it on gasoline to charge the chair batteries.

I installed a dual fuel kit called a Motor Snorkle from U.S Carburetion (http://www.motorsnorkel.com).

Third year in operation with no problems.......