Reader “just waiting” — who was without power for nearly two weeks after Hurricane Sandy and got back online only yesterday — posted this in comments. But with its combo of good advice and scary warnings, it deserves more exposure. Everything that follows is his.<\/i><\/p>\n
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We just got the internets back yesterday after Sandy. Street power came back on late last Saturday, we were out for almost 14 days. My ears are still ringing from the constant hum of the gen, silence truly is golden.<\/p>\n
We were as ready as we could be, so it wasn\u2019t really a big deal. Travel was limited to 1\/2 mile down the street in either direction for 3 days, there was no leaving. No phone, no cable, no bars. True isolation. C got to think about home instead of work for an entire week. It was great. No cars could come by, we were to be able to have the dog on the street with no leash.<\/p>\n
Lots of big old oaks fell from the neighboring parkland onto my property, so I\u2019ll end up with about 6 winters of heat once its cut and split. Still trying to find a downside to the storm, but can\u2019t yet.<\/p>\n
Learned a valuable lesson about generator maintainance 6 days into our adventure: Its not enough to check the engine, check the rotor and brushes too! I have a 12+ year old 5000W Coleman gen, loud but sipped gas and powered everything I needed. Stored it dry, fill with fuel, starts second pull, every time, no matter how long it sat. 6 days in, only getting partial voltage, take the end off the gen itself and crap, rotor and brushes are bad rusted and corroded. Wire ends rusted off of sensors. 2=1 and 1=none, and now I got none. Sub lesson: if you prefer battery tools, make sure you have some in 12v. Gerry rigged cordless drill to batt jumper box and cleaned everything up, bypassed some noncrucial sensors (in my estimation) and got it running again.<\/p>\n
Local hardware guy was getting 80 gens in Monday night, so got one of them, just to be sure. Once everything settles down, I\u2019m going with a streetgas gen w\/propane backup. One that\u2019ll run on methane.<\/p>\n