General practice

[Phasma]

Ran down to Saugatuck Mi from Grand Haven last weekend. Short little trip. We anchored in the harbor rather than getting a slip. Plenty of room and calm well protected water. We anchored in about 10’ of water. The harbor is a river fed harbor so plenty of weeds on a mucky bottom with minimal surface weeds where we anchored. I ran the generator for about 24 hours straight. I decided to leave it running when I dinghied into shore for dinner and drinks. When I returned I noticed very little cooling water coming from the exhaust port and a lot of steam. I immediately shut it off and checked the sea strainer. A couple of weeds were found. I cleared it and restarted. No water was moving and I shut it down again. I let it go until getting back to home marina. Pulling it apart I found weeds and mud had packed the hose from the seacock to the strainer. I blew it all out and all is working well. I was fortunate and avoided disaster this time as it would have most certainly overheated had it not been caught when it was. My question is do any of you leave your generator running when leaving the boat for a few hours?

 

[All's Well]

We often do leave the genny running. In your situation where you knew the weed issue I might not have unless I thought the intake water would have been a good enough clean flow to prevent what you experienced. That had to have been some pretty mucky water to clog the intake hose. You may want to take a peek at your impeller now to save yourself another shutdown if you were peeing steam.

 

[Todd320]

I do, but only because I know the generator will shutdown at the slightest hint of restricted water flow. I think maybe I would not if I knew it would just keep running and potentially overheat if clogged.

 

[sbw1]

We do run the genny unattended, but are very careful where we anchor.

 

[my3sons]

We do not. I guess I have just never seen the need. An hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening keeps everything running fine when staying on the hook for more than a day. I have no reason not to trust my genny, just a why take the risk thought process.
We were traveling with friends a few weeks ago who have a different brand boat and their salon windows don't open and have no opening portlights except in the heads. They ran their gen all night for a/c but shut it off when we went ashore.

 

[mratlndmrk]

Has anyone installed a thru hull screen for the generator intake? Just a quick image I googled but I'm sure there are better ones. Obviously you don't want a scoop style like for the engine intakes.

 

[Phasma]

Has anyone installed a thru hull screen for the generator intake? Just a quick image I googled but I'm sure there are better ones. Obviously you don't want a scoop style like for the engine intakes.

Trying to think of any downside to using This

 

[Todd320]

I have a Groco RSC-1000 on order. Installing it next Saturday. Too hard to get into the engine room, unclog then strainer, then remove the hose, clear it, reinstall, check flow, etc. this should help, it will still get clogged when some blob of junk comes by, but I’m hoping to prevent t clogged up hoses, hopefully after the gen turns off, the current takes the blob away and I can restart it successfully.