Generators?

[Lazy-Ferret]

So, there are a few campers on here.. who uses a generator, and what do you think of yours? Does anyone else run theirs on LPG?


About 7 years ago, we got one of those cheap SIP £99 2 stroke jobbies, which was actually superb, but lacked the power to run the Aircon the ferrets need when camping in the summer. One problem is, the type of power they generate is not very good for running electric motors, so when using it to run my Electric drill, it only runs at about 2/3rds the proper speed. Great for charging batteries though, and running the hot water system and fridge.

We upgraded to the Kipor KGE3000TI sinewave suitcase generator, about 5 years ago, and loved it. It runs the Aircon no problem, and even with that running, will run for about 5 hours on 3.8litre of petrol. Being a proper sinewave, it runs the drill and other electric motors at full speed with no problems. It is relatively quite. and definably a lot quieter than the little 2 stroke, as it only runs at about a 1/3 the speed.

One problem is on very hot days, we need to make sure the Aircon stays running, so if we are going to be away from the van for more than 5 hours, we wanted to find a way to make it run for longer, also we sometimes stay away in the van for more than a week, at some of the steam fairs, and it can be fairly impractical getting on and off site to replenish the petrol supplies, so we end up taking about 40litres of fuel in metal jerry cans, which I am not really happy carrying around.

We came up with the great idea of converting the Kipor to run on LPG... The great thing with this is, it can run for a lot longer on a gas bottle, and usually at the steam fairs they have Calorgas on site, who will deliver straight to your van, making it easier and safer than having all that petrol lurking around. Not only that, but you can plug into the BBQ point, so use the caravan gas cylinders, which have an auto changeover valve.

So, last year, I discovered a company that sells conversion kits, specifically for Kipor, as they also sell and service the Kipor generators. They were exhibiting at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, and as their sales blurb promised the earth... Eco friendly, more economical, quieter running... blah blah... they seemed the perfect choice. After talking to the guy, and being told of 50% saving in fuel costs, and even more if I also purchased one of their other kits that enables you to refill your gas bottles at the Autogas pumps, coupled with a show discount of 20%, we purchased just the LPG DIY conversion kit for the Generator. Since it was near the end of the season, I decided that fitting it could be a winter project, which I would do when we were not in imminent need of the genny.

Well, I fitted it... On their website, the company asked for a Review of the product, and which I notice still has no reviews, despite being available for 2 or 3 years. I guess once they have read mine, they will still not have any reviews...

Overall, very disappointing...

The instructions are terrible.. Not only are they a very poor quality printing, with many words not readable, and the pictures unclear, but worse is...

No mention at all of how to fit the Garretson to the front cover of the generator, which while not rocket science, is very easy to end up in the wrong location, with screws fouling the air filter housing and installed with the bolts the wrong way round, as they need be sticking out from the generator with the nuts on the outside (which could also do with being nylock nuts to stop them shacking loose).

No mention that the holes in the Carburettor adaptor will need to be elongated for some generators, and the centre whole will need to be opened out to allow the choke butterfly to open, as it fowls the hole edges, and is very annoying to discover after you have put it all together and find you can not open the choke to put it on "Run".

No mention that once the pipe is fixed to the jet, it will now foul against the drain screw in the carb float chamber, and you will need to loosen this and turn it to one side in order to get everything to fit back together.

No mention that it is easier to remove the whole air filter assembly, than just the small bit they show, which did not want to come off on it's own on my generator anyway,. It only required the removal of 2 more screws, one of which is hidden inside the filter, the other is the filter cover screw.

Since fitting, when running on gas, the generator is a lot noisier, hunts, with the revs continually rising an falling about once a second, and when put under a 2Kw load, seemed to really struggle to maintain the revs, where as once back on petrol it ran a sweet as a nut.

Also no mention anywhere other than once you have purchased and opened the instructions that the generator will use 0.33Kg of gas per Kw per hour. Taking into account that the majority of Kipor users are campers, who only carry 6Kg, or at a push 13Kg bottles, there can not really be any saving over petrol, especially when you have taken into account the cost of the conversion kit. Running the generator on a 2Kw, load a 6KG bottle costing £20 will last 9 hours. Running on petrol at £1.50 a litre, it will only use 9 litres of petrol, at £13.50, the 13Kg will last for 19.5 hours, and costs £25, as opposed to £29 for the petrol, so a small saving, provided you have the weight allowance to carry 13Kg cylinders. Basically there is only a reasonable saving if you can use a 19Kg cylinder, which is impractical for most of us to carry round,which is £30, for only 29 hours running, as opposed to £43.50 for the petrol.

So I personally feel that this was total waste of money, and and am very disappointed with it, since the only thing I seem to gain, is the kudos of being able to say that my generator is greener than the petrol one in the next caravan, but noisier, and more annoying with the continual changing of the revs.

So, based on my experience.. don't bother with the LPG conversion, complete waste of money, and I have since been told that running on gas causes more ware to the engine as well. Luckily with this conversion, and a couple of mods I made, it is very simple to switch between the two, and run on either, but I may well remove the LPG conversion, as it really is not up to the task.

[micktheshed]

A friend of mine is considering this type of conversion to his Kipor (don't know the make). Will warn him of your experience. What a bummer!
Not much help to you Lazy-Ferret, but at least it's save someone else falling into the same trap, so thanks for that.

[cncfabs]

Originally Posted by Lazy-Ferret

So, there are a few campers on here.. who uses a generator, and what do you think of yours? Does anyone else run theirs on LPG?


About 7 years ago, we got one of those cheap SIP £99 2 stroke jobbies, which was actually superb, but lacked the power to run the Aircon the ferrets need when camping in the summer. One problem is, the type of power they generate is not very good for running electric motors, so when using it to run my Electric drill, it only runs at about 2/3rds the proper speed. Great for charging batteries though, and running the hot water system and fridge.

We upgraded to the Kipor KGE3000TI sinewave suitcase generator, about 5 years ago, and loved it. It runs the Aircon no problem, and even with that running, will run for about 5 hours on 3.8litre of petrol. Being a proper sinewave, it runs the drill and other electric motors at full speed with no problems. It is relatively quite. and definably a lot quieter than the little 2 stroke, as it only runs at about a 1/3 the speed.

One problem is on very hot days, we need to make sure the Aircon stays running, so if we are going to be away from the van for more than 5 hours, we wanted to find a way to make it run for longer, also we sometimes stay away in the van for more than a week, at some of the steam fairs, and it can be fairly impractical getting on and off site to replenish the petrol supplies, so we end up taking about 40litres of fuel in metal jerry cans, which I am not really happy carrying around.

We came up with the great idea of converting the Kipor to run on LPG... The great thing with this is, it can run for a lot longer on a gas bottle, and usually at the steam fairs they have Calorgas on site, who will deliver straight to your van, making it easier and safer than having all that petrol lurking around. Not only that, but you can plug into the BBQ point, so use the caravan gas cylinders, which have an auto changeover valve.

So, last year, I discovered a company that sells conversion kits, specifically for Kipor, as they also sell and service the Kipor generators. They were exhibiting at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, and as their sales blurb promised the earth... Eco friendly, more economical, quieter running... blah blah... they seemed the perfect choice. After talking to the guy, and being told of 50% saving in fuel costs, and even more if I also purchased one of their other kits that enables you to refill your gas bottles at the Autogas pumps, coupled with a show discount of 20%, we purchased just the LPG DIY conversion kit for the Generator. Since it was near the end of the season, I decided that fitting it could be a winter project, which I would do when we were not in imminent need of the genny.

Well, I fitted it... On their website, the company asked for a Review of the product, and which I notice still has no reviews, despite being available for 2 or 3 years. I guess once they have read mine, they will still not have any reviews...



So, based on my experience.. don't bother with the LPG conversion, complete waste of money, and I have since been told that running on gas causes more ware to the engine as well. Luckily with this conversion, and a couple of mods I made, it is very simple to switch between the two, and run on either, but I may well remove the LPG conversion, as it really is not up to the task.

Had honda generator once that ran on lpg ran well had no problems.I thought that the engine should have longer life on lpg as there is no carbon in the combustion to dirty the oil

[solarman216]

strange that I used to service some petrol foek lift trucks years ago some for inside use running LPG and the yard ones running petrol and without doubt the LPG were quieter, Rick

[Terranical]

Originally Posted by cncfabs

Had honda generator once that ran on lpg ran well had no problems.I thought that the engine should have longer life on lpg as there is no carbon in the combustion to dirty the oil

My daughter and her husband (in Spain) have two generators, one Honda 6.5kw and a smaller 3kw, make unknown. They use these every day as they have no mains supply where they live. They are both run on propane (it's a bit cheaper than butane) and have had no problems whatsoever.

[rustic]

I have a 1.5 kw 4 stroke generator, it is based on the Briggs and Stratton Engine.

It says "Quiet" on the air filter, well to be honest, the guy who decided on fitting this label, must have been deaf..

Actually, it is silent when it's not running though
Which in all fairness, is most of the time.


It is an industrial type unit, you can tell when it runs out of petrol though.

It is extremely reliable, easy to start, one centre handle, can supply 110 or 240 volts does what I want, BUT I wouldn't use it too close to other boats, as it might quickly become an anchor...


Incidentally, you won't be able to do a gas conversion on a 2 stroke, as you need to add oil to the fuel

4 strokes use nearly half the fuel of a 2 stroke anyway.

Regards,

Rustic

[Lazy-Ferret]

That's interesting, that's why I posted on here, as doing research on the web is all hearsay nowadays, you need real peoples comments...

I wonder why mine is so much noisier, even Suz commented on how it did not sound as nice or as quiet on Propane, as is did on Petrol.

I will take some video tomorrow, see what you guys think.

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by rustic

Incidentally, you won't be able to do a gas conversion on a 2 stroke, as you need to add oil to the fuel

4 strokes use nearly half the fuel of a 2 stroke anyway.

Regards,

Rustic

I knew that, I only mentioned the little 2 stroke, as to be honest, for the money it is a great little unit, for camping, light, tiny and reliable.

I take it 4 strokes use less fuel because they are only running at half or less of the speed of a 2 stroke, and also on top of that only firing every other rev as well.

[solarman216]

Originally Posted by rustic

Incidentally, you won't be able to do a gas conversion on a 2 stroke, as you need to add oil to the fuel


Regards,

Rustic

Ever come across the TS3 two stroke, no oil in the fuel here, it is a 3 cylinder 6 piston two stoke diesel, fantastic engine, Rick

[briggie]

ah 4 strokes ..... the otto cycle ...... induction , compression , expansion , exhaust ........ commonly refered to as suck squeeze bang blow

[rustic]

Originally Posted by briggie

..... commonly refered to as suck squeeze bang blow

Are we still on topic here?

[briggie]

Originally Posted by rustic

Are we still on topic here?

are we ever " on topic " ?

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by briggie

are we ever " on topic " ?

If it ever stayed on topic, I would have to check to see if I was on one of the other "Dull" forums..

[panelbeater]

i got a £69 jobbie to charge my caravan battery but no longer use it.
when out for many weeks with no hook up and no means of battery charging i the van,1981 sprite,it did the job but was costly on the 2 stroke.
now its at the back of the shed as i am all solar and do not need it.