I bought my Kingcraft generator over a year ago for $199 on sale at Aldi’s. It’s not a huge one. It’s like 2200 watts or something. But for $199 I couldn’t pass it up. Living in Rochester, NY, we have had more than a couple power outages lasting up to a few days long. The last one lasted 3 days during an ice storm. The house was freezing, and we had no power. We used electric camping lanterns, and we he stuff outside with a propane stove. We have since put in a wood stove, so now we will have heat in the house. But part of the problem with no power was trying to keep our fish tanks up to temperature. We used hot water from water tank to do water changes. That lasted about a day. Then we were heating water on the propane stove. That sucked! So we can use the generator to keep the fishtanks going, run a few lights, and maybe even the TV and watch cable if it still works, or a DVD player.
Anyway, I bought the Kingcraft generator in case of another power outage. And in cloce to a year and a half, we have not had a power outage. So no need to use the generator. But with the generator sitting for a year, I pulled it out, started it up, and let it run for about five minutes to allow it to distribute oil, and keep everything loosened up. It would suck to pull it out when we actually needed it, only to find the engine frozen witht he pistons seized or something.
I am glad we have not needed it. But better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it.

Posted by Rob in Whatever on February 27th, 2007 | 31 Comments