Run day

Its Generator Run Day. It’s also Snowblower Run Day. Because those are two items that get used infrequently, I try to run them once a month so nothing gums up, goes bad, dried out, goes dead, or otherwise malfunctions.

Interestingly, it’s also Battery Inspection day in a another week. Same reason.

Yeah, it’s kind of a pain the butt to spend an hour checking batteries in a dozen devices and running a couple engines for no practical reason. BUT… what’s the alternative? The alternative is a power outage and me wandering around with dead flashlights, a generator that won’t start, radios that don’t work, and that sort of thing. And while I am the laziest person you will ever meet, I am in no hurry to self-demote myself to Sheeple by failing to inspect my gear periodically.

Not to tell you what to do, but…… those expensive bits of preparedness gear that you bought but never use? Take ’em out, wind ’em up, make sure they run. And do that every other month or so.

I spent about a grand on the EU2000 and its money well spent IF it works when I need it. Otherwise its just taking up space and wasting money. And I am too cheap to let a $1000 generator turn into a $200 you-fix-it garage sale special.

Its not just generators though….radios, flashlights, camp stoves, electric anything, etc, etc. At some point you realize that there are things that just cannot be put away and forgotten about…you have to exercise them, or at least inspect them, once in a while or you amy as well not have them at all because when you need them they ain’t gonna work.

So…take advantage of the nice June weather this weekend and go fire up the generator for a half hour.

9 thoughts on “Run day

  1. When you run the generator, do you put a load on it? When I run mine, I put a space heater on it for a load.

    • Yeah, I run my leafblower or something else that needs doing, so I can kill two birds with one stone.

  2. I’m not sure I know how long an EU2000i can go without gumming up the fuel system. I run mine every two weeks on average to be safe, although I suspect once a month might be enough. I use ethonol-free gas and put Stabil in the gas.
    I’ve only had one (FL) hurricane come through and make me have to use it, but I was glad I’d been doing the 2x a month generator running when it happened!

    I have a couple of friends who’s Honda generators had gummed up when needed due to not running them often enough.

  3. Fortunately here in Montana, we can buy real premium gas, no ethanol,
    Really helps out……

  4. Commander:
    I take it one stage further when it comes to not having to repair the generator.
    I try to buy the $200 mistakes others have made, then sell them to fill my stockpile!
    Some people see a lemon. I use it to make lemonade…

  5. Luckily I can also get non-ethanol Hi Test that the folks around here use in their incredibly expensive bass boats… Nothing but the BEST for those 3 outboard, $75K, tricked out boats (also for the custom painted 75K F250 that hauls it). Cost more than a lot of houses around here… Not my idea of proper allocation of resources though.

    Regards

  6. I keep a repeating event on my calendar solely for these tasks. Right now I’m dealing with a recalcitrant golf cart that doesn’t want to start with a battery that the tester says “replace”-all because I was too lazy to clean out/organize the garage so that it wouldn’t be a PITA to do, thereby leaving it undone for too long.

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