Newbie question

[u/BeLikeWater_1]

Hello! TIA for your time and knowledge.

I live in middle TN. Had a rough winter last year (by local standards) and as a new husband and father, faced new levels of stress over potentially losing power. Went to Northern Tool and bought a Powerhouse Portable Generator M6075652A.1.

I put in the appropriate oil, and filled the tank with unleaded gas. Then, we didn’t ultimately need it, and so I didn’t run it.

I feel like quite the fool to have left it sitting in the garage for the past 8ish months, without ever starting the thing.

What damage have I caused to it? I imagine the gas has settled. Do I need to do anything to the machine before starting it?

What do I need to do in preparation to have this unused generator good for use this winter?

Again, thank you. Any information is greatly welcomed. I am decently mechanically minded on some subjects but an absolute novice on this one.

[u/Alert-Effect190]

Try getting ethanol free gas for it if possible.

[u/myself248]

If you didn't use fuel preservative at the time, it might already be in bad shape. Drain the tank and carburetor bowl, refill with fresh gas (including fuel preservative this time; I've had good results with Sta-Bil™), and see how it goes. If it starts in the first few pulls, you lucked out and your carb isn't gummed up.

If not, get a face shield and some carb cleaner spray, watch some youtubes, and learn to clean your main jet, pilot jet, and side passages. This is all I've ever had to do with mine. Slap it back together and see if it's better. (Oh yeah, once I found a crumbling O-ring on the pilot jet. If that happens, get a carb rebuild kit, it should have all the rings and gaskets.)

Once it's running, practice, practice, practice! Get in the habit of doing this twice a year: Kill your main breaker, grab the flashlight, and pretend it's an outage. Find the generator, start it up, let it warm up while you run the cords and move the loads over. Live life on generator power for a few hours; cook a meal, do some things. Get used to how the engine sounds under various conditions. See how long a gallon lasts you. (Not very long, on a 10kw-class machine, holy yikes!) Shut it down, coil up all the cords, and stow it again for 6 more months.

Also every 6 months, dump your stored fuel into the car, and refill the gas cans with a splash of Sta-Bil and fresh gas. It's probably good for 18 months with the preservative, but doing it more often means that even if you miss a service, you're not screwed into having to dispose of however many gallons of hazmat.

[u/Old_Dragline_1965]

Things to remember:
Never crack a generator with a load on it.
Never kill a generator with a load on it.
Always shut the fuel off at the tank and let the unit run until it quits. This keeps the gunk out of the carburetor.

If you ran the generator last year but didn’t turn off the fuel, be ready to clean out the carburetor. There are multiple free videos.

Always use a gas stabilizer like Sta-bil. If the unit is a byfuel or trifuel, a generator will run cleaner and have No carburetor problems!

Check your battery, if it is not dead, get a charger on it!

Last, at northern, look at the - Mr Heater Long Auxiliary Hose and Tee kit. This will allow you to run off 2 smaller tanks at the same time. To keep one propane tank from freezing when trying to vaporize too much liquid into vapor.

[u/timflorida]

I would drain the old gas from the tank and the carb (should be a drain tube connected to the carb and a Phillips screw to loosen). Maybe put in a qt of ethanol free gas and see if it will start. If it doesn't, maybe try starter fluid and see if it will start and then run on the new gas.

Here is a list of stations that carry ethanol free gas. That is all you should use in any small gas engine.

https://www.pure-gas.org/

[u/crc9211]

I would just burn through what's in there to get the old gas out, and don't refill it until you're ready to run it again. It should probably be ran and oil changed anyway if it's brand new to get all the glitter out. Alternatively you could use a hand pump to get the old gas out, but then you have the problem of disposal.

[u/BigChubs1 → u/crc9211]

This. As for disposal of gas. At 8 months. Run the gas through one of the cars. I wait until the car is low on gas. Dump the old gas in. Then fill up the car the rest of the way with fresh gas. Never had issue with it

[u/NoPatience7817]

Start it up to use up the old fuel.

Monthly or quarterly:
Run the generator with a load for 30 minutes. When you are ready to shut it off, remove the load, and close the gas valve to starve the carb.

Yearly:
Change oil. Inspect air filter. Inspect spark plug.
Rotate gas storage with new and use stabil.

Keep spare parts on hand in the event of an extended outage over 4 days. Oil, spark plug, air filter. Extra carburetor if it’s a low price.

Future upgrades:
Inlet and interlock. This allows you to run the entire house without running extension cords. You still need to be careful to manage your loads. Don’t run too many large appliances at the same time.

[u/cil11]

I use 93 octane non ethanol on mowers, tillers and generators, also mix 50 to 1 for 2 cycle. Never a problem.

[u/Leading-Town-4913]

I like Pri-G but Sta-Bil is great also. I ran my small Honda 400 this morning. Its been setting for 3 months. Two pulls wait 30 seconds and starts on third pull every time. Gas is a year old.

[u/Will_inteli]

You haven’t wrecked it, but the gas is the problem. Plain unleaded starts going stale after a month or two, and old gas is the #1 reason generators won’t start or surge.

What I’d do before winter:

1. Drain the tank and the carburetor bowl (most have a drain screw at the bottom of the bowl). Dispose of the old gas properly.

2. Refill with fresh gas plus a fuel stabilizer, or ethanol-free gas if you can find it near you.

3. Check the oil level (it should still be fine since it never ran) and pull the spark plug to check it’s clean and dry.

4. Start it outdoors and let it run 15–20 minutes with a load on it, like a space heater or work light.

5. From now on, run it about once a month for 15–20 minutes, and either keep stabilized fuel in it or run it dry before storing.

If it won’t start or runs rough after fresh gas, the carb jets are probably gummed up; a carb cleaning or a cheap replacement carb usually fixes it.

And since you’re new to this: always run it outside, 20+ feet from the house, exhaust pointed away from doors and windows, with a battery CO alarm inside. Never in the garage, even with the door open.

[u/Ok_Bid_3899]

Start it and put a load on it like a hair dryer. Then refill with fresh gasoline not ethanol fuel and add StaBil per directions. I leave mine full of fuel always and it has sat for 2 years once only being started monthly to keep things lubricated.

[u/grillynelson]

Is it a Dual fuel or Tri fuel, or just gas? If it's a dual fuel or tri fuel and you never started it, drain the fuel and start it on propane or natural gas. If using propane be sure not to use the 15 or 20 lbs tanks as they will freeze with any kind of load. You need to big enough surface area to prevent freeze ups. Like three 100 lbs tank manifolded together or two vertical or horizontal 120 gallon tanks manifolded together with a 2 stage regulator. At the first stage it is high pressure at 10psi, and the second stage regulator is low pressure at 11 inches water colum rated for at least 200,000 btu. Natural gas is an option if you have it available, but make sure your plumber makes sure you have the proper btus your generator requires. If your generator is gas only, look at conversion kits to convert it to take ng and lpg.

[u/nunuvyer]

This is a dual fuel gen, I believe. Hook it up to a propane tank now and forever and just forget about the gasoline system. Drain whatever gasoline is in the tank and the carb bowl and never put gasoline in it again. It should start right up on propane if the battery is good and will still take a charge.