Cover those containers with a UV stable sheet of plastic. I've had a few mates over here in Australia used them around the house and they can get brittle and shatter as soon as they're dropped or hit. Australia - we do sunlight very well.
As far as I am concerned you have the best small engine repair channel on the internet. The hard work and sincerity are palatable for sure. You should be so proud of yourself. Hope that your Mother's Day went beautifully. Continued success!
Bre, thx for reminding people to be more prepared. These are some crazy times we're living in! Folks really should stock up on more canned food, rice / beans in mylar bags, water, etc... Once you start thinking about the things you need for day to day life that you rely on a store for, it boggles the mind. Inch by inch lol.
Happy Mother's Day to you too! Awesome job you did on your deck. And yes I do love watching power washing and yard transformations especially when they are free for people in need. Love you, ❤❤❤❤ Mom
FYI to everyone: that solar flare/"Northern lights" reached us here on GA as well...hubby and I missed it because we were asleep, and there was a cloud cover in our area near ATL airport anyway... Relieved that Bre survived the tornadic outbreak last week... My hubby is from K.C.Mo as a child and grandparents lived in Sedalia, MO ...he knows about extreme weather patterns in the Heartland and has several amazing stories during flights to/from K.C. over the years from hid dad's home...we do get some tough weather nowadays here in the SOUTH- EAST, including a rare blizzard in March 1993...and over time we have had ice storms during transitions from Winter to sometimes late Spring in April!! ATLANTA is on the "toe end" of the Appalacian Mtns. and only about 60-70 miles to the Alabama line...N.W. GA is in between and now many of the North GA Mtns are experiencing flooding, tornadoes, heavy lighting strikes that can knock out power grids for days...we r the home headqtrs for GA POWER CO and all their sub-contractors of The Southern Company, and they have a co-op with Atlanta Gas Light for available home-app automatic generators ...our busiest world-wide ATL Airport has all the latest technology to keep it going during these storms... @lds/aes However, we have never forgot about the Biblical account of a cata- strophic storm on the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus woke up from a nap on a small boat with the disciples, and simply raised HIS hands and cried out, "PEACE, BE STILL!!!" Folks, Jesus is the Prince of Peace...only HE can prepare you for the upcoming storms in your lives... suggest you all find a local home group Bible study fellowship and learn just how HE paid the price once and for all to spend Eternity with Him!
Great advice Chickanic. Last year we bought a solar generator and have used it 3 times keeping the freezer, fridge AND COFFEE POT going. We actually are preppers but hope that day never comes. Lots of advantages to having cattle, chickens, gardens, canning equipment and food preservation. If that day ever happens the rural folks better thank the second amendment because they will need it.
I have been a mechanic since I held a wrench. I started on bicycles than lawnmowers than dirtbikes than two strokes, my favorite internal combustion engine by far! helpfull hint when preasure washing a deck use the fan nozzle with the grain of the wood, it will make it a lot easier to hide the lap marks🙂
Small generator was “ serviced “ and the “electrical plugs” didn’t work. After watching your videos I will clean gas tank out and check carburetor. Not a mechanic but can learn. Thanks Steve from Tyler Tx
I keep 5 10 gallon gas cans in my garage and as they age I use them in my car and refill the gas cans so the fuel stays fresh… and run your generator monthly….
I do the same thing and I keep track on a large calendar, even home AC filters change and watering trees plus all kinds of stuff It relaxes the mind a lot too know you can relax a little 😊
we supply our house by collecting rain water into a pair of 1500 liter totes as you call them (food grade , previously full of orange juice so great for rainwater collection 2 totes ensure the house will never run out of water and before you ask the collected water is filtered down to 1 micron then charcoal filtered and clarified 100 per cent pure and clean ) no more water bills ..
I have a natural gas whole house generator connected to my house...if the power goes out, it automatically goes on for between 15-30 seconds...once the power is stable for 10 minutes, it goes off..I'm retired and that was my present to myself and my wife.
Great video. Good information. Maybe for future video ideas you can include the propane kits for retrofitting existing generators and the option of dual fuel capable new ones to help avoid fuel varnished carbs. I saw another good option also for seldom used engines to drain the tank and bowl, then pour a quart of atf along with a fuel preservative with vci in it. Turn over the engine enough to pull the ATF into the main jet. It will act like a preservative for the carb so when it's needed later, you can drain the ATF and refill the tank and start easy.
I only run non-ethanol gas in my 2 inverters and I have a reminder to start them monthly for at least 10 minutes to make sure they stay running. Here in Wisconsin we rarely need them but I have used them 3 times in the last 10 years for minor power outages.
Ethanol free fuel is the key to keeping small engines running. Unfortunately, in some areas it can be hard to find. It's not here. Most large gas stations have it.
@@ITOLDUDA use a five gallon bucket fill it with four gallons of gas. clear bucket, if you can find it. put one gallon of water in the bucket. put a water tight lid on it. shake it hard, including back and forth. let it sit for a few days. the ethanol and water will go to the bottom. siphon off 3.6 gallons. that will be the pure fuel. ethanol is attracted to water. i use one gallon glass jugs. for my yard equipment. you can see the separation. water on the bottom, ethanol between the gas and water.
You can probably go longer. I bought a blown-up generator 20 years ago. It was a 7500 with a B&S engine. It was used for house construction power. They let the oil get too low and it blew. The crankcase was ok so I bought it for $50. $75 in parts and some precision work by my fingers and a very chisel to get the aluminum off the steel crankshaft and I had it back in action. For me to do it wasn't so bad. If I were doing it as a job the hours I put into it would have run the cost way up. Getting the armature off the crankshaft was a lot of fun. When I had things lined up just right it popped off. Otherwise, it's on there. I have used that generator a whole lot over the years. What I always do is when I'm done with it let it run a little with no load to start cooling it down. Then turn the gas line off and let it suck all that gas out of the carb. Sometimes that engine has gone 4 or 5 years without being used. Turn the gas back on and she fires right up. No problem. In other years like last year, I used that generator a whole lot. It's stored in my garage towards the door so I can get it out if I need it. I've always used ethanol-free whenever I could get it. For a while, it was just about impossible to get ethanol-free. They called it "Substandard gasoline." That's because the standard has ethanol.
@@robertthomas5906 I am sure you are right but these are cheap Westinghouse inverters and one does not have a gas shutoff and the other it doesn’t seem to work😊 I do shut off the gas valves on my quality Honda Snow blowers and mowers ever year to get them ready for storage when their season is over with no issues also draining the carb bowls. I drain all my other equipment of gas when I will be storing it as well.
Are you running the generators on your deck under the awning? CO concerns through what looked like a door? I have a covered patio here in DFW facing north and recommendation is for it to be 10’> from door/windows so I can’t run mine there, though I wonder if a CO detector would pick up excess coming through windows? When I run mine monthly I have a box fan to pull some wattage and I have it blowing toward the generator to disburse fumes further. I have a plug on my garage wall to plug generator into so I can use my interlock on my panel inside the garage.
Please be careful pressure washing in flip flops. If you accidentally hit your foot with that high pressure water, it can cut your foot badly and send you to the ER. I've seen it happen to someone, they did not enjoy the experience. Happy moms day!
Great video, helpful info, thanks for sharing your knowledge Happy Mother’s Day One suggestion, in the future, Please don’t wear sandals when power washing, they offer no protection, I am far from a professional, but I was once an EMT And I saw what could happen
Happy mothers day! I have a predator 8750 generator that i love. i i run it once a month with a load on it for about 20 minutes. i add seafoam to the fuel to stabilize it. had the generator for quite a few years and it never missed a beat. it got us through hurricane Idaliah with fling colors.
I remember watching your video on the good & bad lawn mowers, where you went to a box store and videoed them, I would like to see something like that for a Generator, perhaps sharing with us the good & the bad so we can make an educated decision on purchasing one.
Florida here. We lost power for almost 9 days a few years ago.. Ran the portable gen about 15 hours a day. Alternated between appliances: ran water heater daytime when nothing else was used, shut it off at night for lights, TV and light cooking. It held enough for morning showers. Love you channel. Thanks.
Run your generators for 15-20 minutes every couple months. Put a load on them, get the engine oil stirred up and keep fuel moving through the carburetor.
I’m a senior living alone in a small rural prairie ranch house. My emergency power solution is a good size inverter that I can hook up to my car for my minimal emergency power needs. I have four modern cars that can each idle for about 3 days off a full tank. Basically I have a solid two weeks of available emergency power, and more if I can refuel. Rather than worrying about a gummed up generator carburetor or stale gas, my cars and trucks always have good recent fuel.
I liked your spare carburetor comment. I have a 5000 watt Honda with what they call 11 hp, GX340? I tried to look up a carb on line. There were so many on line I gave up and took all my numbers to the Honda dealer. He narrowed it down to 6 and made a swag on which one to get. I ordered a carb, gasket kit, mounting gaskets, and etc. All those parts are in a bag hanging on the generator. I also have GX340's on a snow blower and pressure washer. I looked at the ethanol stabilizer you listed. I only saw 4oz bottles and could not tell how much that treated.
1st Saturday of every month, at high noon, when they test the tornado sirens, I fire up the generator and run it under load for 1 hour. This lets me know that it's ready and able to go. (I test it with the sirens going off so the generator is used to the sound and doesn't get all upset during the real thing) 😁
I have a waste oil furnace that I use to burn all of my waste oil. Nice tips. I had a customer drop off a mower yesterday that was locked up because he didn’t shut the fuel off last fall and it filled the crankcase with gas and he ran it.
Happy Mothers Day dear, I stumbled in here by chance and it caused me to run out and check my generator. I always keep it in the back of my mind so i checked. yep there was water in there... and 6 gallons of gas. I'm up here in Wisconsin and live way out in the country farm lands and rely on it big time. We have snow usually very deep so i need the piece of mind. it's a 9500 watt so i can run my entire house if i need to. We also have big tornado's. not often, but when we do they are bad. I think i might owe you for this video!
Great video. I would like to toss in 2 notes. If you get a solar generator, get one like Oupes that has LiFePO4 battery chemistry. All of the things you see catching fire in the news use NMC or similar chemistry. And as someone who has used and repaired cedar raised beds for 20 years I recommend taking a look at the enameled metal ones. I am switching over and love them. Just look for a good manufacturer.
Brie, so sorry to see that you are suffering from the latest bug. That thing has swept through Southeast Texas with a vengeance. It hit our family two weeks ago. Thank you for all of the survival hints that will help us to keep going during the tough times.
I have a Champion 5500 running watt generator and once a month I run it for 20 minutes as the manual requires. Occasionally it gets run when there is a local power outage due to storms or other reasons. Stabilizer in the fuel For shutdown the manual says turn off the fuel and let run until it stops. Empty carburetor means no stale fuel or varnish buildup. It's 7 years old and still runs perfectly. Got me through 3 Hurricanes and several Tropical Storms. I'm in South Carolina.
Hi Chivkanic BOILING FULE : I have a 6500watt petrol generator with the 5 gallon fuel tank that is mounted directly above the engine ( it covers the full top frame area ) as most of them do. After about 45 minutes of running I turned it off . To my surprise the petrol was boiling in the gas tank, from the heat of the engine. I have since fixed the problem by raising the fuel tank 3” and placing an aluminium heat shield under the entire tank. Just thought I would shear my experience and simple fix to an extreme hazard. Hope this helps you and others. Great content, Cheers from New Zealand.
Suggestions: Always keep the gas tanks full with a stabilizer of your choice. Run the generator (Under Load!!) an hour or so every other month. With regular maintenance (read the instruction book and do what it says...) and use every couple months, you should limit any generator problems.
Hi Bre. Happy mothers day! On your deck that you have pressure washed try using boiled linseed oil. Try a small patch first. It dries in a couple days and brings out the luster of the wood. You have to overcoat about twice a year. Have a good day and hope your cold disappears quickly.
Speaking of generators, it's a good idea to remind people to check/change the oil at the recommend intervals. I have heard of instances when the grid goes down for extended periods, people rush out to buy a new generator. Take it home, fill up with oil and fuel, then pull the rope. They don't shut it down, just top up the fuel and keep it running. Then they can't understand why after 5 or 6 days of continuous running, the engine blows up.
We had straight line winds here a few weeks ago. We had huge oaks littered all over the town. My 60 foot tall oak fell and thank God it missed the house. The trunk was 5.5 feet wide.
What a great video. Thanks for the information. I cant tell you how much your videos have helped me and my kids get chainsaws, generators, lawnmowers and weed whackers back up and running. A lot just to help friends and family. Some were free to us and my kids were able to fix and sell them. Happy Mother's Day!
I'm so Sorry. Happy Mother's Day. I hope you have a awesome Mother's Day? I totally agree with you. I'd rather be over prepared than under prepared. I don't think there's a worse feeling to have when the Electricity go out and your AC is not working in the middle of July or August! You really have to have a Really Big Generator Enough to hook to your junction box. To be able to run your AC Unit.
Historical note: The Carrington event in 1859 killed one telegraph operator and started fires in several telegraph offices. The telegraph wires acted as antennas, generating destructive electrical power from the passing charged subatomic particles. It was a perfect storm of strong coronal mass ejections which happened to be aimed directly at earth, coupled with a vulnerable strength and orientation of the earth's protective magnetic field. A similar event today would be catastrophic. Fascinating (and award winning) read: The Sun Kings: The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began, by Stuart Clark.
Our magnetic field is about 30% weaker than when I was a child. These flares and CMEs are not nearly as powerful as the Carrington event. It is how weak earth's magnetic field is.
I live in Arkansas as well, and the northern lights were truly amazing!! Love all your vids, you are very helpful. Keep up the great work. . . . thanks. P.S. I want a puggle so badly!!
If you are using the IBC totes to store rainwater it should be painted or enclosed to block the sun. Sunlight will cause algae to grow, which you do not want to happen. It is also a good idea to drain and flush the rain barrel totes once a year to clean out any sediment that accumulates.
I personally take my generator out once a month and run it for 20 minutes with a space heater connected to each leg at 10 minutes each. It charges the battery and it makes sure to just get it cycled. I also had to get a GenTent, because it really is 50/50 on whether it will be raining or not during a power outage. It's a good to occasionally refamiliarize with how that accessory connects to your generator, and I'd go ahead and run a speed drill for proper set up.
Happy Belated Mother's Day to You!!! Great tips and prepping advice!!! Continue to feel better!!! Thanks for all your time making educational videos for all!!! Stay safe!!!
We have to miss out on the Aurora Borealis tonight because we are being fogged out by the smoke from Canadian fires. I really should start up my generator. It has not been started, ever. Kind of figured if I start it, then I have to deal with prepping it for storage.
Yep, I live pretty close to Lonsdale and we hit the storm shelter until I was convinced it wasn't coming here. I did miss the Aurora which irritates me. I also keep 2 of my generators close and ready. One for me and one for my elderly mom. Seems like all our tornados in Arkansas track right up I-30. Glad the Tornado did t hurt you guys. I was thinking of Yall when the tornado was coming through.
We store rain water from our metal garage roof.Growing some food and chickens,and here in rural east Tex. a generator is a must ! I hate to admit that I let my small tiller sit too long,but I got started and running good yesterday.
Prioritize your back-up power use. Make a list like: basement sump pump, refrigerator, limited lights, well pump, entertainment, fans, . This helps you work through the tradeoffs between the size of the generator you can afford and what you really need.
Cudos to PSE which is our utility company here. Fast and reliable, even in this green belt with about sixteen customers. My friend has just offered to give me a 6,000 watt generator. He is way off grid, and he is constantly upgrading his 12 volt system.
In TN any business that sells oil has to have a tank for you to dispose of your used oil, they also have a tax for oil disposal built into the retail price you pay.
My neighbor owns a fireworks company and their parent company does the big week long EAA event in Oshkosh, WI. They do a setup where they have containers set up down both sides of a runway filled with a mix of gas, diesel and maybe kerosene ? As a fighter jet flies at mach " Hold onto your shorts" speed doing a low pass, they light those babies sequentially so it looks like a bomb straifing run. Any way, that's how we dispose of our old fuel in WI! ( Video is online )
In colder states that old oil will help soak the wood a bit to really help the wood start burning is some fuel is in the oil but not too much. Some people or business in colder states will have oil burning heaters. One auto repair shop uses oil oil to heat it. Make sure that water tank outside is covered or painted dark to avoid algie growth. Very good video with preps idea with lot of logic in this day in age. They can't make treated wood like the old days. The old treated wood will still rot just like to new treated wood will do
Hey Bre! Great video as always. You should mention about the Tri-Fuel conversion kits to run gasoline generators on propane and natural gas. Side steps the whole stale gasoline issue all together. Some generators are already native dual fuel gas/propane like Firman/Champion and some Generacs.
I have a Generac 5500. Have had it for about 6 years. Works great for running the fridge, freezer and a few lights. As I mentioned on the members video, I'm in the process of getting proposals for whole a house standby generator including installation. Man is it high dollar. One is turn-key except for the LP tank. The other will need an LP tank and plumbing. We live in a hurricane/tornado prone area and dragging out the portable gen and setting it up is a PITA! Good video as usual. Better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war!
You'd be better off installing a battery solar setup. Switching to time of use rates with your power company so that way you can actually benefit from it. I don't know how often you use your current setup but it's probably not that often. There's lots of incentives and rebates to install solar and batteries Where's the generator You're just going to pay for it pay to maintain it and it might come in handy. Solar will pay for itself
What are you planning to use the water for? If for drinking or cooking you will need to treat the water as it will quickly become slimy. Usually it is best to store water in opaque containers as with translucent containers sunlight hitting the water will cause it to degrade faster.
I have a Harbor Freight inverter generator that if it sits for more than 3 or 4 weeks is very hard to start. So I bought a rubber stopper that fit the fuel filler, pushed a long hypodermic needle through it and pressurized the tank with a large syringe. Starts right up.
I have 3 generators. Two are inverters and the other one is a conventional. I start all three of them once a month and put them under load for about 45 minutes to an hour. One of the inverter generators I keep hooked to my transfer switch 24 hours a day. But I keep it under cover. I've been doing this for the last 18 years of owning generators and have never had a problem with any of them starting. I have a lot of friends and a couple of generators. But I also have a few that don't. When we lose power in my area it can be up to a weeks worth of outage. So I get a lot of calls during an outage seeing if they can borrow one of my generator. Which I have no problem with. My biggest threat to an outage is blizzards and ice storms and hurricanes. Happy Mother's Day to you.
Bought a 2kVA generator Dec 2022, because of power being out for 3 days. Since then only if power is out for most of a day will I run it, as otherwise we get used to the regular power cuts that come around. Water lucky this area rarely has it, but friends will do a week with no water at least 3 times a month, in the main suburbs. Biggest seller at the supermarkets is water, buy a bottle and pay to refill it. Last time ran to 2 neighbours as well, so they could keep food frozen, and also had a socket selection outside for people to charge phones and laptops. Plus do not forget to keep some good extension cords to hand, lets you do a lot more things with ease. I tend to make my own, because the ones on sale now are junk, I use industrial outlet boxes instead, which are a lot more robust.
I keep water in a large food grade tank and treat it with Auquamira water treatment and it will last 5 years in storage without going bad. Good content!
Hi Bre, We have been clouded out since the X class solar flare. I've only observed the aurora once here near Philly. That 1859 solar flare was called the Carrington Event and would cause world wide severe power outages if happened today as well as disrupt many electronic devices and satellites. Have a Great Mother's Day.
Happy Mother’s Day 💐
Cover those containers with a UV stable sheet of plastic. I've had a few mates over here in Australia used them around the house and they can get brittle and shatter as soon as they're dropped or hit. Australia - we do sunlight very well.
Agree with the UV comment. Another reason is to reduce the chance for algae growth inside. Take away the light and it won’t grow as fast
Thanks for the confirmation, but I didn't really need it
As far as I am concerned you have the best small engine repair channel on the internet. The hard work and sincerity are palatable for sure. You should be so proud of yourself. Hope that your Mother's Day went beautifully. Continued success!
palpable
Bre, thx for reminding people to be more prepared. These are some crazy times we're living in! Folks really should stock up on more canned food, rice / beans in mylar bags, water, etc... Once you start thinking about the things you need for day to day life that you rely on a store for, it boggles the mind. Inch by inch lol.
Hey Bre, I don't know if you need to heat your home/shop in the winter, but if you do, you might consider a waste oil heater. Free heat! 😂
Maybe those used air filters could be used to help process the used oil?
Happy Mother's Day to you too! Awesome job you did on your deck. And yes I do love watching power washing and yard transformations especially when they are free for people in need. Love you, ❤❤❤❤ Mom
Luck favors the prepared. Happy Mothers Day.
FYI to everyone:
that solar flare/"Northern lights" reached us here on GA as well...hubby and I missed it because we were asleep, and there was a cloud cover in our area near ATL airport anyway...
Relieved that Bre survived the tornadic outbreak last week...
My hubby is from K.C.Mo as a child and grandparents lived in Sedalia, MO
...he knows about extreme weather patterns in the Heartland and has several amazing stories during flights to/from K.C. over the years from hid dad's home...we do get some tough weather nowadays here in the SOUTH-
EAST, including a rare blizzard in
March 1993...and over time we have had ice storms during transitions from Winter to sometimes late Spring
in April!!
ATLANTA is on the "toe end" of the Appalacian Mtns. and only about 60-70 miles to the Alabama line...N.W. GA is in between and now many of the North GA Mtns are experiencing flooding, tornadoes, heavy
lighting strikes that can knock out power
grids for days...we r the home headqtrs for GA POWER CO
and all their sub-contractors of
The Southern
Company,
and they have a co-op with Atlanta Gas Light for available home-app automatic generators
...our busiest world-wide ATL Airport has all the latest technology to keep it going during these storms...
@lds/aes
However, we have never forgot about the Biblical account of a cata-
strophic
storm on the
Sea of Galilee, and Jesus woke up from a nap on a small boat with the disciples, and simply
raised HIS hands and cried out,
"PEACE, BE STILL!!!"
Folks, Jesus is the
Prince of
Peace...only HE can prepare you for the upcoming
storms in your lives...
suggest you all find a local home group Bible study fellowship and learn just how HE paid the price once and for all to spend Eternity with Him!
Great advice Chickanic. Last year we bought a solar generator and have used it 3 times keeping the freezer, fridge AND COFFEE POT going. We actually are preppers but hope that day never comes. Lots of advantages to having cattle, chickens, gardens, canning equipment and food preservation. If that day ever happens the rural folks better thank the second amendment because they will need it.
I have been a mechanic since I held a wrench. I started on bicycles than lawnmowers than dirtbikes than two strokes, my favorite internal combustion engine by far! helpfull hint when preasure washing a deck use the fan nozzle with the grain of the wood, it will make it a lot easier to hide the lap marks🙂
Small generator was “ serviced “ and the “electrical plugs” didn’t work. After watching your videos I will clean gas tank out and check carburetor. Not a mechanic but can learn. Thanks Steve from Tyler Tx
you are consistantly the most interesting person on you tube,
I keep 5 10 gallon gas cans in my garage and as they age I use them in my car and refill the gas cans so the fuel stays fresh… and run your generator monthly….
I do the same thing and I keep track on a large calendar, even home AC filters change and watering trees plus all kinds of stuff
It relaxes the mind a lot too know you can relax a little 😊
we supply our house by collecting rain water into a pair of 1500 liter totes as you call them (food grade , previously full of orange juice so great for rainwater collection 2 totes ensure the house will never run out of water and before you ask the collected water is filtered down to 1 micron then charcoal filtered and clarified 100 per cent pure and clean ) no more water bills ..
I have a natural gas whole house generator connected to my house...if the power goes out, it automatically goes on for between 15-30 seconds...once the power is stable for 10 minutes, it goes off..I'm retired and that was my present to myself and my wife.
Prayers for quick recovery and happy Mother’s Day
Great video. Good information. Maybe for future video ideas you can include the propane kits for retrofitting existing generators and the option of dual fuel capable new ones to help avoid fuel varnished carbs.
I saw another good option also for seldom used engines to drain the tank and bowl, then pour a quart of atf along with a fuel preservative with vci in it. Turn over the engine enough to pull the ATF into the main jet. It will act like a preservative for the carb so when it's needed later, you can drain the ATF and refill the tank and start easy.
I only run non-ethanol gas in my 2 inverters and I have a reminder to start them monthly for at least 10 minutes to make sure they stay running. Here in Wisconsin we rarely need them but I have used them 3 times in the last 10 years for minor power outages.
Ethanol free fuel is the key to keeping small engines running. Unfortunately, in some areas it can be hard to find. It's not here. Most large gas stations have it.
@@ITOLDUDA use a five gallon bucket
fill it with four gallons of gas. clear bucket, if you can find it.
put one gallon of water in the bucket.
put a water tight lid on it.
shake it hard, including back and forth.
let it sit for a few days.
the ethanol and water will go to the bottom.
siphon off 3.6 gallons.
that will be the pure fuel.
ethanol is attracted to water.
i use one gallon glass jugs.
for my yard equipment.
you can see the separation.
water on the bottom, ethanol between the gas and water.
You can probably go longer. I bought a blown-up generator 20 years ago. It was a 7500 with a B&S engine. It was used for house construction power. They let the oil get too low and it blew. The crankcase was ok so I bought it for $50. $75 in parts and some precision work by my fingers and a very chisel to get the aluminum off the steel crankshaft and I had it back in action. For me to do it wasn't so bad. If I were doing it as a job the hours I put into it would have run the cost way up. Getting the armature off the crankshaft was a lot of fun. When I had things lined up just right it popped off. Otherwise, it's on there.
I have used that generator a whole lot over the years. What I always do is when I'm done with it let it run a little with no load to start cooling it down. Then turn the gas line off and let it suck all that gas out of the carb. Sometimes that engine has gone 4 or 5 years without being used. Turn the gas back on and she fires right up. No problem. In other years like last year, I used that generator a whole lot. It's stored in my garage towards the door so I can get it out if I need it.
I've always used ethanol-free whenever I could get it. For a while, it was just about impossible to get ethanol-free. They called it "Substandard gasoline." That's because the standard has ethanol.
@@robertthomas5906 I am sure you are right but these are cheap Westinghouse inverters and one does not have a gas shutoff and the other it doesn’t seem to work😊 I do shut off the gas valves on my quality Honda Snow blowers and mowers ever year to get them ready for storage when their season is over with no issues also draining the carb bowls. I drain all my other equipment of gas when I will be storing it as well.
Are you running the generators on your deck under the awning? CO concerns through what looked like a door? I have a covered patio here in DFW facing north and recommendation is for it to be 10’> from door/windows so I can’t run mine there, though I wonder if a CO detector would pick up excess coming through windows? When I run mine monthly I have a box fan to pull some wattage and I have it blowing toward the generator to disburse fumes further. I have a plug on my garage wall to plug generator into so I can use my interlock on my panel inside the garage.
Please be careful pressure washing in flip flops. If you accidentally hit your foot with that high pressure water, it can cut your foot badly and send you to the ER. I've seen it happen to someone, they did not enjoy the experience. Happy moms day!
Been there, done that!
Was thinking the same thing
Great video, helpful info, thanks for sharing your knowledge
Happy Mother’s Day
One suggestion, in the future, Please don’t wear sandals when power washing, they offer no protection, I am far from a professional, but I was once an EMT And I saw what could happen
I was nervous watching that. Yes it’s very dangerous
I wear my rubber boots and shorts and I just have an electric unit. Once in sandals I ripped my foot when the spray hit it. Ouch
You're the *BEST,* Bre!! Going to check my genny TODAY!!! ❤❤
And get 100% better soon!!
Great video Bre. Loved your garden with the wire hoops. Great seeing Echo too. Just lounging on the deck. Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there.
Happy mothers day! I have a predator 8750 generator that i love. i i run it once a month with a load on it for about 20 minutes. i add seafoam to the fuel to stabilize it. had the generator for quite a few years and it never missed a beat. it got us through hurricane Idaliah with fling colors.
I remember watching your video on the good & bad lawn mowers, where you went to a box store and videoed them, I would like to see something like that for a Generator, perhaps sharing with us the good & the bad so we can make an educated decision on purchasing one.
Project farm would have a video on that i would check it out
Florida here. We lost power for almost 9 days a few years ago.. Ran the portable gen about 15 hours a day. Alternated between appliances: ran water heater daytime when nothing else was used, shut it off at night for lights, TV and light cooking. It held enough for morning showers.
Love you channel. Thanks.
How much petrol did you use
Run your generators for 15-20 minutes every couple months. Put a load on them, get the engine oil stirred up and keep fuel moving through the carburetor.
Glad you folks are ok down there. Happy Mothers Day Bree
I’m a senior living alone in a small rural prairie ranch house. My emergency power solution is a good size inverter that I can hook up to my car for my minimal emergency power needs. I have four modern cars that can each idle for about 3 days off a full tank. Basically I have a solid two weeks of available emergency power, and more if I can refuel. Rather than worrying about a gummed up generator carburetor or stale gas, my cars and trucks always have good recent fuel.
We also saw the northern lights here in south Alabama. We took several pictures. It was beautiful.
I liked your spare carburetor comment. I have a 5000 watt Honda with what they call 11 hp, GX340? I tried to look up a carb on line. There were so many on line I gave up and took all my numbers to the Honda dealer. He narrowed it down to 6 and made a swag on which one to get. I ordered a carb, gasket kit, mounting gaskets, and etc. All those parts are in a bag hanging on the generator. I also have GX340's on a snow blower and pressure washer.
I looked at the ethanol stabilizer you listed. I only saw 4oz bottles and could not tell how much that treated.
Started watching you when we lived in California. Now we are living halfway between Springfield Missouri and Branson. Thank you so much for
Do so much enjoy your shows. Informative and fun to watch.
1st Saturday of every month, at high noon, when they test the tornado sirens, I fire up the generator and run it under load for 1 hour.
This lets me know that it's ready and able to go. (I test it with the sirens going off so the generator is used to the sound and doesn't get all upset during the real thing) 😁
Smart
Love the prepper mentality
I have a waste oil furnace that I use to burn all of my waste oil. Nice tips. I had a customer drop off a mower yesterday that was locked up because he didn’t shut the fuel off last fall and it filled the crankcase with gas and he ran it.
Happy Mother’s Day. You might want to try a nasal rinse I haven’t had problems since I started a nasal wash
Happy Mothers Day dear, I stumbled in here by chance and it caused me to run out and check my generator. I always keep it in the back of my mind so i checked. yep there was water in there... and 6 gallons of gas. I'm up here in Wisconsin and live way out in the country farm lands and rely on it big time. We have snow usually very deep so i need the piece of mind. it's a 9500 watt so i can run my entire house if i need to. We also have big tornado's. not often, but when we do they are bad. I think i might owe you for this video!
Great video. I would like to toss in 2 notes. If you get a solar generator, get one like Oupes that has LiFePO4 battery chemistry. All of the things you see catching fire in the news use NMC or similar chemistry. And as someone who has used and repaired cedar raised beds for 20 years I recommend taking a look at the enameled metal ones. I am switching over and love them. Just look for a good manufacturer.
When you did the Pressure washing on the deck and had the music playing. I thought you were Salsa Dancing 😂
Brie, so sorry to see that you are suffering from the latest bug. That thing has swept through Southeast Texas with a vengeance. It hit our family two weeks ago. Thank you for all of the survival hints that will help us to keep going during the tough times.
I have a Champion 5500 running watt generator and once a month I run it for 20 minutes as the manual requires.
Occasionally it gets run when there is a local power outage due to storms or other reasons. Stabilizer in the fuel
For shutdown the manual says turn off the fuel and let run until it stops. Empty carburetor means no stale fuel or varnish buildup.
It's 7 years old and still runs perfectly. Got me through 3 Hurricanes and several Tropical Storms. I'm in South Carolina.
Hi Chivkanic BOILING FULE : I have a 6500watt petrol generator with the 5 gallon fuel tank that is mounted directly above the engine ( it covers the full top frame area ) as most of them do. After about 45 minutes of running I turned it off . To my surprise the petrol was boiling in the gas tank, from the heat of the engine. I have since fixed the problem by raising the fuel tank 3” and placing an aluminium heat shield under the entire tank. Just thought I would shear my experience and simple fix to an extreme hazard. Hope this helps you and others. Great content, Cheers from New Zealand.
Suggestions: Always keep the gas tanks full with a stabilizer of your choice. Run the generator (Under Load!!) an hour or so every other month. With regular maintenance (read the instruction book and do what it says...) and use every couple months, you should limit any generator problems.
Hi Bre. Happy mothers day! On your deck that you have pressure washed try using boiled linseed oil. Try a small patch first. It dries in a couple days and brings out the luster of the wood. You have to overcoat about twice a year. Have a good day and hope your cold disappears quickly.
Speaking of generators, it's a good idea to remind people to check/change the oil at the recommend intervals. I have heard of instances when the grid goes down for extended periods, people rush out to buy a new generator. Take it home, fill up with oil and fuel, then pull the rope. They don't shut it down, just top up the fuel and keep it running. Then they can't understand why after 5 or 6 days of continuous running, the engine blows up.
Lol. The water was so moist. 😅 Loved it! Sorry couldn't resist. Thank you for all of that amazing content.
We had straight line winds here a few weeks ago. We had huge oaks littered all over the town. My 60 foot tall oak fell and thank God it missed the house. The trunk was 5.5 feet wide.
Have a great day dear.
Always...Always...Test and use to make sure it is there when you need it! Peace
What a great video. Thanks for the information. I cant tell you how much your videos have helped me and my kids get chainsaws, generators, lawnmowers and weed whackers back up and running. A lot just to help friends and family. Some were free to us and my kids were able to fix and sell them. Happy Mother's Day!
I'm so Sorry. Happy Mother's Day. I hope you have a awesome Mother's Day?
I totally agree with you. I'd rather be over prepared than under prepared.
I don't think there's a worse feeling to have when the Electricity go out and your AC is not working in the middle of July or August! You really have to have a Really Big Generator Enough to hook to your junction box. To be able to run your AC Unit.
Hopefully you feel great soon. Thank you for sharing your video.
That's some pretty fancy foot work on the deck 😂😂😂❤
Historical note: The Carrington event in 1859 killed one telegraph operator and started fires in several telegraph offices. The telegraph wires acted as antennas, generating destructive electrical power from the passing charged subatomic particles. It was a perfect storm of strong coronal mass ejections which happened to be aimed directly at earth, coupled with a vulnerable strength and orientation of the earth's protective magnetic field. A similar event today would be catastrophic. Fascinating (and award winning) read: The Sun Kings: The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began, by Stuart Clark.
Our magnetic field is about 30% weaker than when I was a child. These flares and CMEs are not nearly as powerful as the Carrington event. It is how weak earth's magnetic field is.
@@brianhillis3701 think that not even 1% of people nowadays even know about it and you got a recipe for disaster.
As always, Thank You for the amazing information. I hope you feel better real soon!
I live in Arkansas as well, and the northern lights were truly amazing!! Love all your vids, you are very helpful. Keep up the great work. . . . thanks. P.S. I want a puggle so badly!!
Happy Mother's day and thank you for the video
You're so awesome & so real! ❤❤❤❤❤
Please keep doing what you're doing and thank you so much for all the information and tips you provide!👍👍
Love hearing the Generac fire off every Sunday morning
If you are using the IBC totes to store rainwater it should be painted or enclosed to block the sun. Sunlight will cause algae to grow, which you do not want to happen. It is also a good idea to drain and flush the rain barrel totes once a year to clean out any sediment that accumulates.
I personally take my generator out once a month and run it for 20 minutes with a space heater connected to each leg at 10 minutes each. It charges the battery and it makes sure to just get it cycled. I also had to get a GenTent, because it really is 50/50 on whether it will be raining or not during a power outage. It's a good to occasionally refamiliarize with how that accessory connects to your generator, and I'd go ahead and run a speed drill for proper set up.
HAPPY Mother’s Day💐
We had one in Western Australia, south of Perth🥲
We have Solar Flared in Tasmania and Victoria, too cloudy in Sydney🥲
Cute Chicks🐥
I just want to say happy mothers day. Love the videos
Happy Belated Mother's Day to You!!! Great tips and prepping advice!!! Continue to feel better!!! Thanks for all your time making educational videos for all!!! Stay safe!!!
Great video Bre! And I loved the comment about Ron’s BBq! The old saying goes “If your looking ya ani’t cooking”😂
We have to miss out on the Aurora Borealis tonight because we are being fogged out by the smoke from Canadian fires. I really should start up my generator. It has not been started, ever. Kind of figured if I start it, then I have to deal with prepping it for storage.
Yep, I live pretty close to Lonsdale and we hit the storm shelter until I was convinced it wasn't coming here. I did miss the Aurora which irritates me.
I also keep 2 of my generators close and ready. One for me and one for my elderly mom. Seems like all our tornados in Arkansas track right up I-30. Glad the Tornado did t hurt you guys. I was thinking of Yall when the tornado was coming through.
We store rain water from our metal garage roof.Growing some food and chickens,and here in rural east Tex. a generator is a must ! I hate to admit that I let my small tiller sit too long,but I got started and running good yesterday.
Prioritize your back-up power use. Make a list like: basement sump pump, refrigerator, limited lights, well pump, entertainment, fans, . This helps you work through the tradeoffs between the size of the generator you can afford and what you really need.
I would add either a waste oil heater or a multi fuel heater to the shop and maybe your house as well.
Cudos to PSE which is our utility company here. Fast and reliable, even in this green belt with about sixteen customers. My friend has just offered to give me a 6,000 watt generator. He is way off grid, and he is constantly upgrading his 12 volt system.
In TN any business that sells oil has to have a tank for you to dispose of your used oil, they also have a tax for oil disposal built into the retail price you pay.
Happy mother's day Young lady... I start my generator regardless wants a month . But I use it quite often because i'm off Grid...
Liked the patriotic attire ! I'm a veteran and it does the heart good to see it ! 🇺🇸👍
I understand how that can happen, never thought about it. THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATION
My neighbor owns a fireworks company and their parent company does the big week long EAA event in Oshkosh, WI. They do a setup where they have containers set up down both sides of a runway filled with a mix of gas, diesel and maybe kerosene ? As a fighter jet flies at mach " Hold onto your shorts" speed doing a low pass, they light those babies sequentially so it looks like a bomb straifing run. Any way, that's how we dispose of our old fuel in WI! ( Video is online )
Awesome Mother's Day gift. Got to luv them thinkers. Thanks for the content.
Thank you again znd again! You are like a loving Mom to us all.
Happy Mother's Day, hope you feel better.
In colder states that old oil will help soak the wood a bit to really help the wood start burning is some fuel is in the oil but not too much. Some people or business in colder states will have oil burning heaters. One auto repair shop uses oil oil to heat it. Make sure that water tank outside is covered or painted dark to avoid algie growth. Very good video with preps idea with lot of logic in this day in age. They can't make treated wood like the old days. The old treated wood will still rot just like to new treated wood will do
I'm right there with you. An ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure.
Hey Bre! Great video as always. You should mention about the Tri-Fuel conversion kits to run gasoline generators on propane and natural gas. Side steps the whole stale gasoline issue all together. Some generators are already native dual fuel gas/propane like Firman/Champion and some Generacs.
I have a Generac 5500. Have had it for about 6 years. Works great for running the fridge, freezer and a few lights. As I mentioned on the members video, I'm in the process of getting proposals for whole a house standby generator including installation. Man is it high dollar. One is turn-key except for the LP tank. The other will need an LP tank and plumbing. We live in a hurricane/tornado prone area and dragging out the portable gen and setting it up is a PITA! Good video as usual. Better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war!
You'd be better off installing a battery solar setup. Switching to time of use rates with your power company so that way you can actually benefit from it. I don't know how often you use your current setup but it's probably not that often. There's lots of incentives and rebates to install solar and batteries Where's the generator You're just going to pay for it pay to maintain it and it might come in handy. Solar will pay for itself
What are you planning to use the water for? If for drinking or cooking you will need to treat the water as it will quickly become slimy. Usually it is best to store water in opaque containers as with translucent containers sunlight hitting the water will cause it to degrade faster.
I have a Harbor Freight inverter generator that if it sits for more than 3 or 4 weeks is very hard to start. So I bought a rubber stopper that fit the fuel filler, pushed a long hypodermic needle through it and pressurized the tank with a large syringe. Starts right up.
Great video! Happy Mothers day!
I have 3 generators. Two are inverters and the other one is a conventional. I start all three of them once a month and put them under load for about 45 minutes to an hour. One of the inverter generators I keep hooked to my transfer switch 24 hours a day. But I keep it under cover. I've been doing this for the last 18 years of owning generators and have never had a problem with any of them starting. I have a lot of friends and a couple of generators. But I also have a few that don't. When we lose power in my area it can be up to a weeks worth of outage. So I get a lot of calls during an outage seeing if they can borrow one of my generator. Which I have no problem with. My biggest threat to an outage is blizzards and ice storms and hurricanes. Happy Mother's Day to you.
Bought a 2kVA generator Dec 2022, because of power being out for 3 days. Since then only if power is out for most of a day will I run it, as otherwise we get used to the regular power cuts that come around. Water lucky this area rarely has it, but friends will do a week with no water at least 3 times a month, in the main suburbs. Biggest seller at the supermarkets is water, buy a bottle and pay to refill it.
Last time ran to 2 neighbours as well, so they could keep food frozen, and also had a socket selection outside for people to charge phones and laptops. Plus do not forget to keep some good extension cords to hand, lets you do a lot more things with ease. I tend to make my own, because the ones on sale now are junk, I use industrial outlet boxes instead, which are a lot more robust.
Hi Bre before you stain that deck you should check out putting boil linseed on it , will have to restain every 2 years to keep it pretty lol
Happy Mothers Day. Be sure to cycle the water n the tote about every month.
Happy mother’s day young lady.
Always enjoy watching
I keep water in a large food grade tank and treat it with Auquamira water treatment and it will last 5 years in storage without going bad. Good content!
Last month in Houston Tx we didn’t have power for 2 weeks
Happy Mother’s Day Bri!
Perfect musical accompaniment to pressure washing. Thank you.
Thanks Bre'! ❤👍
Bre Happy Mother’s Day hope you have a great day. And btw your castor oil trick is truly truly working. Thanks and enjoy your day!
Thanks for your help
great info...wish more people would prep for disaster and not wait till last min.
Hi Bre,
We have been clouded out since the X class solar flare. I've only observed the aurora once here near Philly. That 1859 solar flare was called the Carrington Event and would cause world wide severe power outages if happened today as well as disrupt many electronic devices and satellites. Have a Great Mother's Day.