Timely thread. I've been looking into a home backup option for my modest sized ranch. No sump or well pump, but all appliances are electric so there's a fairly decent electrical demand at my house. Power outages are fairly infrequent, so I think a complete home backup system is un-necessary. If we have a good hurricane, which is once every 2-3 years, we might lose power for 4-5 days on the high end...a week or more is like once every ~10 years or so.
I thought about going the dual fuel route, but given how infrequently I will actually *need* a generator for home backup, gasoline fits my requirements just fine. I'm also planning on buying a 30-34' travel trailer in the next year or two, so I'll need a generator for that regardless. After a lot of research I *think* I'm gonna pull the plug on 2 Honda EU2000i gennies in the next few months. They will run everything in my house except for my dryer and hot water heater...not a huge deal because my mom's house has a full Generac backup and she lives ~3 minutes away so hot showers won't be a problem.
I like Honda for several reasons:
Aftermarket and spare parts market is huge. These have a cult following. But the biggest reason is they use a diaphragm fuel pump, so I will be able to add an external fuel tank for extended run times. Will probably add a 6-10 gallon marine tank and fuel cap setup for each. That should get me through 2-4 days before having to think about refueling. I'm gonna have an electrician wire in a transfer switch so I can safely wire into the house.
With that said, something like this is still in the back of my mind:
https://www.briggsandstratton.com/na...generator.html
Benefits with choosing the above generator vs. the twin Hondas is I could power my hot water heater and my dryer (not at the same time obviously) if necessary. Each draws about 4,500W so that's a pretty stout load and the Q6500 is rated at 5,000W continuous so that's almost a max load.
Is it worth a little bit of convenience to run those two home appliances while I'll be giving up portability, etc.? Also unsure if I can gravity feed fuel into it like I can with the Honda's. That's a big selling point because I don't want to have to top off the tank every 8-10 hours.
No real rush to decide. The Q6500 is obviously a better choice than the twin Hondas for pure home backup. The plan to buy a travel trailer sort of throws a wrench into that though. I'd much rather lug two of those Honda's around than the Briggs but if I end up buying a trailer with twin ACs I'll need something like the Q6500 anyways.