Evening gentleman ( and ladies)

  Living out here in the country for the past 20 some years, I 've learned to drag out the genny every 3 day weekend.
Our only way in or out is a single two lane road that has poles that attracts drunk drivers.
If not that, it's the weather (like last weeks power outage / road closure)

    Before you buy one, figure out what you want to power.
We have been using a Coleman with a B & S engine for the past 6+ years on a regular basis and the only issue so far was to replace the rusted out governor spring.
   The wattage on my unit is 3000 running / 3750 max with a 4 gallon gas tank that runs up to 11 hours @ 50% load. 
Think I paid around $450 at Home depot back then
The control panel has 2-120V 5-20R duplex outlet, 1-120/240V L14-30R outlets and 1-12V battery charging outlet
My fridge needs 2400 watts, the freezer 210 so the 3000 watts is ample. That 12 v dc plug is useful to recharge deepcells while keeping the food cold.
With the 240, I can tap into the sewer pump panel and that comes in handy.

   I turn off the gas and run her dry so I don't gumout the bowl float before storing and when needed, she fires up easily.
Gas gets treated with Lucas and Stabilizer and after 3 months, I rotate it out.
Always keep another three (3)  5 gallon gas cans full and rotate them out regularily also.

    Another issue is noise. 
You can hear mine running for sure, but they don't need to be running constantly.
The small Hondas are pretty quiet but not enoughg juice.
If you chain 2 of them together you get more juice but burn twice the gas.

   Looks like I might hook up that propane attachment  on previous post (Thnx BassMonkey). 
I have the same make as that one but the 3000 watt model and always maintain 4) full 20 gal propane cylinders

Just keep in mind for those that use gasoline with ethanol. They make fuel stabilizers for regular and ethanol. Make sure you get the right one.

Roggy that !

Also another thing, if you get a big generator such as 3000+ watts you can power your refrigerator, etc. You can call an electrician to tap the generator into your house circuit and make sure it's a one way circuit so it does not feed back into the grid. An electrician can get shocked outside your house if they are working on the lines. Just shut off the things that are not essential or if you want to get even more picky you can get the electrician to just power the refrigerator with your generator when the power goes out. No need to unplug and plug in with an extension cord. Now if you want to go ever further you can make it auto start your generator when the power goes out in case you are not home. Do not get a double sided plug and plug it into your outlets.

"Do not get a double sided plug and plug it into your outlets."
      

Seriously, did someone actually even think of that ?

   Last time it was out for days (BI EarthQuake), I shut off all breakers,  threw the mains and disconnected the Neutral from my service box and tapped into one side with the genny.
(Always disconnect the Neutral as a GF could also back feed. Of course, Genny had her own earth Ground)
Turned every other breaker on (at least the ones I needed) which included fridge, freezer micro.
I have LP Stove and Hot water heater so we did'nt miss a beat for days !

Too close to the ocean to go permanent w/o housing the unit
Would not want genny running while not at home as it would "Run Away".

    Another issue is noise. 
You can hear mine running for sure, but they don't need to be running constantly.
The small Hondas are pretty quiet but not enoughg juice.
If you chain 2 of them together you get more juice but burn twice the gas.

   Looks like I might hook up that propane attachment  on previous post (Thnx BassMonkey). 
I have the same make as that one but the 3000 watt model and always maintain 4) full 20 gal propane cylinders

I still own a 5500 B&S powered genset and it is freaking loud but puts out very good power.  Use it for remote locations but it is a PITA to transport and I will be getting rid of that unit also.  My home is wired with a transfer and a separate dedicated generator, however I wanted the ease of portability with lightweight gensets that could be up scaled easily enough to produce various power demands as needed.  So the portable generators are for being just that, portable.  With 2 of the Honda 2000's run in parallel they will still pull more max load than a 3000 and even with 2 running at 50% load they will use less gas then a B&S unit and at a major fraction of the noise levels.  Depending on how many units you parallel you can pull 30A, 50A, have portability that is expandable, low noise and fuel efficiency.  Plus and minus to all set ups depending on the user needs.

Back feeding the home while technically not kosher is easily accomplished.  And yes many people use a dryer socket and back feed at that point.  Easy enough to wire a plug directly into the panel, kill the main from the street into the house and all fuses, start up the genset and bring online the fuses one at a time that are needed.  Of course wiring in an automatic transfer set up is more efficient but costs a bit more.