Briggs & Stratton 20kw Fortress No Hour Warranty

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Ravenvalor

Ravenvalor

Senior Member
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Piedmont region of NC
Hello,

I have a customer who is interested in installing a Briggs & Stratton 20kw Fortress Model #040609.

20kW1 Fortress Standby Generator

A perfect fit for any home, the 20kW<sub>1</sub> Fortress standby generator powers all of a home's electrical needs easily and automatically. Keep your family safe, comfortable and free from the stress that comes with power outages.
www.briggsandstratton.com www.briggsandstratton.com

It has a 10 - year engine warranty and a 5 - year emission and components. However it lists no hour warranty. Does anyone on this forum know why they are not giving an hour warranty and what would be your best guess on number of hours one should expect from this generator? I think Harbor Freight has one with 500 - hours and my Lister has about 200,000 - hours. One more question please, since it is air cooled would you recommend only running it 18 - hours per day?

Thanks,
 
Ravenvalor said:
Hello,

I have a customer who is interested in installing a Briggs & Stratton 20kw Fortress Model #040609.

20kW1 Fortress Standby Generator

A perfect fit for any home, the 20kW<sub>1</sub> Fortress standby generator powers all of a home's electrical needs easily and automatically. Keep your family safe, comfortable and free from the stress that comes with power outages.
www.briggsandstratton.com www.briggsandstratton.com

It has a 10 - year engine warranty and a 5 - year emission and components. However it lists no hour warranty. Does anyone on this forum know why they are not giving an hour warranty and what would be your best guess on number of hours one should expect from this generator? I think Harbor Freight has one with 500 - hours and my Lister has about 200,000 - hours. One more question please, since it is air cooled would you recommend only running it 18 - hours per day?

Thanks,
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I think these are questions best asked of the manufacturer.

Anything called "standby" suggests to me it is not intended to run 24/7 for years on end. I suspect it does not make that much difference how long you run it when you need it though. Most power outages don't last all that long.

ETA: The warranty manual says there is no limit on the number of hours.

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I guarantee you if you run any of the resi grade gensets anywhere near 18 hours a day it won't last long. And does your customer have any concept of expensive this electricity will be to produce?
 
texie said:
I guarantee you if you run any of the resi grade gensets anywhere near 18 hours a day it won't last long. And does your customer have any concept of expensive this electricity will be to produce?
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If it is offgrid, he will be on propane. Propane will give you something less than 10 kw-hr/gallon of propane. Depending on where you are, it may cost as much as $4/gallon for propane. That would tend to suggest the lower bound for his cost to produce electricity from this unit is about 40 cents/kw-hr.
 
Terminator5047 said:
has he heard of solar and batteries?
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He is probably running a larger load than solar can economically provide. You can buy a lot of propane for what solar would cost without the subsidies. Solar is not maintenance free and lasts forever like it is touted. By the time it has paid for itself, you have to replace it. Not economical either way unless utility is not easily available.
 
hillbilly1 said:
He is probably running a larger load than solar can economically provide. You can buy a lot of propane for what solar would cost without the subsidies. Solar is not maintenance free and lasts forever like it is touted. By the time it has paid for itself, you have to replace it. Not economical either way unless utility is not easily available.
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Solar is subsidized though… also that generator running 24/7 is gonna need oil spark plugs belts ect. Even if you only get 30 years out of the panels I would bet he would need probably 30 generators to last that long
 
Terminator5047 said:
Solar is subsidized though… also that generator running 24/7 is gonna need oil spark plugs belts ect. Even if you only get 30 years out of the panels I would bet he would need probably 30 generators to last that long
Click to expand...
Terminator5047 said:
Solar is subsidized though… also that generator running 24/7 is gonna need oil spark plugs belts ect. Even if you only get 30 years out of the panels I would bet he would need probably 30 generators to last that long
Click to expand...
Also propane is cheap right bow but what about 5-10 years from now? Whereas the prices of the sun is never going to change
 
texie said:
I guarantee you if you run any of the resi grade gensets anywhere near 18 hours a day it won't last long. And does your customer have any concept of expensive this electricity will be to produce?
Click to expand...
He does not but the posts written on this thread have given me an idea as to how much it would cost him.

The reason I asked about 24/18 - hours is if for some reason he loses power for a week or so.

He is tied into the grid.

Do not know why he wants such a large generator. It's only about a 1500sq ft house.

Thanks for the great help.
 
Ravenvalor said:
He does not but the posts written on this thread have given me an idea as to how much it would cost him.

The reason I asked about 24/18 - hours is if for some reason he loses power for a week or so.

He is tied into the grid.

Do not know why he wants such a large generator. It's only about a 1500sq ft house.

Thanks for the great help.
Click to expand...
OK, strictly for standby. That's what they are sold for. That said, for me I would something with better quality. Customers need to realize why theses resi grade 3600 RPM rattle traps cost so little. A quality 20 KW, 1800 RPM, water cooled machine will be more like $11K. Probably 3X the price of a rattle trap. Kohler, Cummins, Gillett.
 
Ravenvalor said:
He does not but the posts written on this thread have given me an idea as to how much it would cost him.

The reason I asked about 24/18 - hours is if for some reason he loses power for a week or so.

He is tied into the grid.

Do not know why he wants such a large generator. It's only about a 1500sq ft house.

Thanks for the great help.
Click to expand...
But what does he have for load, or at least load that he wants to run while in standby?
 
Terminator5047 said:
Solar is subsidized though… also that generator running 24/7 is gonna need oil spark plugs belts ect. Even if you only get 30 years out of the panels I would bet he would need probably 30 generators to last that long
Click to expand...
Propane and natural gas generators run much longer between maintenance than gas or diesel. Spark plugs last virtually forever, air cooled, no belts. Engine lasts much longer between rebuilds because the lubricant is not washed off the cylinder walls. 30 years out of a solar panel would be the exception. Most I’ve seen are 15-20 years tops. They lose efficiency with age too. Severe weather (hail storms) can also wreak havoc with them.
 
texie said:
OK, strictly for standby. That's what they are sold for. That said, for me I would something with better quality. Customers need to realize why theses resi grade 3600 RPM rattle traps cost so little. A quality 20 KW, 1800 RPM, water cooled machine will be more like $11K. Probably 3X the price of a rattle trap. Kohler, Cummins, Gillett.
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As a standby generator it probably runs less than 100 hours a year. likely outlasts most of us.
 
GoldDigger said:
Out West, for the next few years PG&E is likely to call 72 hour or longer Public Safety Power Shutdowns three or four times each year, based on last year's experience.
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That is not sustainable. Even if they did it for a few years it would not amount to a lot of runtime over the next few decades.
 
petersonra said:
That is not sustainable. Even if they did it for a few years it would not amount to a lot of runtime over the next few decades.
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At the moment my expectation is at least five years for PG&E to upgrade their transmisssion paths and equipment to the point where the shutdowns will no longer be necessary. The wooded areas that the transmission lines go through are simply too high a fire risk that is increasing each year. And there has been 20 or more years of deferred maintenance.
 
texie said:
OK, strictly for standby. That's what they are sold for. That said, for me I would something with better quality. Customers need to realize why theses resi grade 3600 RPM rattle traps cost so little. A quality 20 KW, 1800 RPM, water cooled machine will be more like $11K. Probably 3X the price of a rattle trap. Kohler, Cummins, Gillett.
Click to expand...
I agree with you on that one. That is why I won't sell a generator unless it is 1800RPM, liquid cooled. I have the customer buy their own air cooled.
 
kwired said:
But what does he have for load, or at least load that he wants to run while in standby?
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The largest load is a central air conditioning system.
My hunch is someone is probably trying to sell him a 20kw in order to make sure that it will start the AC condensor up.
Another hunch is if the generator is big enough then no load managing relays are necessary.
Pardon my ignorance. I mostly install the interlock kits
 
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