D
Daniel who wants to know
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Well I finally got one of those Chicom 2 stroke gens that NJ raves about,
although I knew about the gen before I knew who NJ was.
I picked it up from Menards on Black Friday for $79, and no I didn't stand
in line before the store opened however my sister and girlfriend did. I
waited in the car asleep till about an hour after opening and only went in
the store to use the restroom but when I found the others waiting in a
checkout line I decided to stay then started looking at the ad to pass the
time and saw the gen (and a 30 LED trouble light) and decided that $79 @
Menards was better than $89.99 at Harbor Freight, which was where I was
going to buy it. When I picked up mine off the stack there were only about
3 gone so far which surprised me as I figured they would sell like hot
cakes.
When we got to HF later I discovered that theirs doesn't have the 12V output
feature which sweetened the deal even more for me, although the HF model has
the larger intake box that goes all the way across the front and mine has
the smaller version.
I picked up a BPR6ES spark plug as recommended online which was good as the
stock plug had a chunk of something resembling a cardboard match stick or a
piece of gasket material wedged between the porcelain nose and the metal
shell.
The first hour of running/testing/break-in I had a 300 watt steam vaporizer
hooked up as a load and the engine transitioned back and forth between 2
stroking and 4 stroking every 30 seconds or so, I now know that it will run
my natural gas condensing furnace (with the blower on high for heating)
easily which is what I bought it for. Per a KAW the furnace draws 675 watts
on grid power (100 of which is just for the inducer and gas valve before the
blower comes on) but with a somewhat poor power factor so it is roughly 8
amps. On the gen it was 625 watts @ 106 volts and about 55Hz stock and I
could directly vary the frequency and hence power draw by adjusting the
governor screw. I plan on hopefully correcting the power factor of the
furnace some to get the amps down.
At least now I know that I don't have to worry about being cold when storms
knock out the power.
although I knew about the gen before I knew who NJ was.
I picked it up from Menards on Black Friday for $79, and no I didn't stand
in line before the store opened however my sister and girlfriend did. I
waited in the car asleep till about an hour after opening and only went in
the store to use the restroom but when I found the others waiting in a
checkout line I decided to stay then started looking at the ad to pass the
time and saw the gen (and a 30 LED trouble light) and decided that $79 @
Menards was better than $89.99 at Harbor Freight, which was where I was
going to buy it. When I picked up mine off the stack there were only about
3 gone so far which surprised me as I figured they would sell like hot
cakes.
When we got to HF later I discovered that theirs doesn't have the 12V output
feature which sweetened the deal even more for me, although the HF model has
the larger intake box that goes all the way across the front and mine has
the smaller version.
I picked up a BPR6ES spark plug as recommended online which was good as the
stock plug had a chunk of something resembling a cardboard match stick or a
piece of gasket material wedged between the porcelain nose and the metal
shell.
The first hour of running/testing/break-in I had a 300 watt steam vaporizer
hooked up as a load and the engine transitioned back and forth between 2
stroking and 4 stroking every 30 seconds or so, I now know that it will run
my natural gas condensing furnace (with the blower on high for heating)
easily which is what I bought it for. Per a KAW the furnace draws 675 watts
on grid power (100 of which is just for the inducer and gas valve before the
blower comes on) but with a somewhat poor power factor so it is roughly 8
amps. On the gen it was 625 watts @ 106 volts and about 55Hz stock and I
could directly vary the frequency and hence power draw by adjusting the
governor screw. I plan on hopefully correcting the power factor of the
furnace some to get the amps down.
At least now I know that I don't have to worry about being cold when storms
knock out the power.
