Hour life of a generator

[Bottom Line]

I have been looking at boats online. I found one on our lake that is a 2003....engines have about 350 hours, but the generator has about 1800 hours(not a typo)....it is a Kohler 7.3KW gas. How many hours can you get out of a generator before you start having problems? This just seemed like an excessive amount of hours. Just curious what everyone else thought.....

 

[Presentation]

I have been looking at boats online. I found one on our lake that is a 2003....engines have about 350 hours, but the generator has about 1800 hours(not a typo)....it is a Kohler 7.3KW gas. How many hours can you get out of a generator before you start having problems? This just seemed like an excessive amount of hours. Just curious what everyone else thought.....

Answer = many more hours then the boat engines if properly loaded and cared for.

5,000 before rebuild is not unreasonable vs 1,500 is about max for a gas marine engine.

Of course, get a survey. Make sure it includes a compression check. If you are very worried about the generator, also have the oil tested. Make sure the oil has some hours on it before you send it in.

 

[Groucho]

Wow...thats ALOT of time! They must have lived on that boat.

 

[Scupper Guppy]

Kohler has a 5 year/ 2,000 hr (whichever comes first) warranty on their marine gensets. With proper maintenance, expect it to run well for another several thousand hours after that. If it's had fresh water use only, you're in luck.

 

[Presentation]

Answer = many more hours then the boat engines if properly loaded and cared for.

5,000 before rebuild is not unreasonable vs 1,500 is about max for a gas marine engine.

Of course, get a survey. Make sure it includes a compression check. If you are very worried about the generator, also have the oil tested. Make sure the oil has some hours on it before you send it in.

I got red balled for this post. In the comment box was “wrong information”

I see no other post below mine that gives information that is in conflict with what I posted.

So, if someone out there has informaiont that is in conflect with the information I posted please post below. Jeff is in a situation where he is considering spending tens of thousands of dollars here.

By the way, the 1,500 typical marine engine life is something I have read at many locations. The 5,000 gas marine generator life is something I was told several times as I was doing my research before I added a gas marine generator. Keep in mind the Westerbeke generators run at a lower and constant RPM.

Will someone please let me know what I said that was wrong?

 

[Presentation]

Thank you Scott.

 

[Henry Boyd]

I advise my clients (Maersk Sea-Land, GESeaCo, Interpool) to consider 10,000 hours/ 10 years as an expected reasonable operating lifetime on diesel gensets used for powering refrigerated marine cargo containers. These are 15 KW 460v 3 phase machines. Both Carrier Transicold and Thermo-King offer 8 year warranties on the machines they build.

The typical mode of failure for these gensets is not engine related, but wiring harness failures that lead to short circuiting of the alternator

Given these are industrial grade machines, Doug's 5000 hour estimate seems reasonable for a consumer level machine.

Henry


I also agree with Scott

 

[skibum]

Who did it to you Doug? That was clearly a malicious "red balling".

Tell us who it was. We can "carpet bomb" them with red balls for you...:smt014

Michael

 

[Presentation]

Who did it to you Doug? That was clearly a malicious "red balling".

As far as I know, only Jim and Wes (site owner and moderator) can tell with the way the forum settings are at this time.

 

[KayKook]

What is "the comment box" Not familiar with that. Wherever it is, I must have a dozen in mine.

 

[Presentation]

What is "the comment box" Not familiar with that. Wherever it is, I must have a dozen in mine.

Only you will be able to see this, not the entire board.

On the above post click on the thing that looks like a scale in the top right corner of your post above this one. I gave you a comment and followed it by a “- Presentation”

“Bottom line” (Jeff) also got a “I approve” on this string for asking a excellent question. So did Scott and Henry and Michael. I left a comment on each. Then I ran out. The system only lets you give out so much over 24 hours and I had already gaven "I approve" on some other posts this morning.

You can see what people leave you on your own posts but you can’t see who did it at this time. Jim can adjust the settings. Jim can also change this back to the way it was at any time.

 

[KayKook]

Thanks Doug. I never clicked on that scale thing before. I did not see anything wrong with your post earlier either. It all made good sense to me. Carry on with your usual informative posts, I enjoy reading them.

 

[Presentation]

Thanks Doug. I never clicked on that scale thing before. I did not see anything wrong with your post earlier either. It all made good sense to me. Carry on with your usual informative posts, I enjoy reading them.

Thank you and please do the same.

 

[bluebelly]

I have been looking at boats online. I found one on our lake that is a 2003....engines have about 350 hours, but the generator has about 1800 hours(not a typo)....it is a Kohler 7.3KW gas. How many hours can you get out of a generator before you start having problems? This just seemed like an excessive amount of hours. Just curious what everyone else thought.....

In my experience you could see 3000 to 5000 hours without too many problems. What if this genny was not maintained properly? I would be skeptical that the owner of that genny changed the oil at least 18 times in its life. And how about the coolant level? Old glycol coolant is a big deal in a aluminum engine like the 7.4 has. Has it been changed at the recommended intervals? etc, etc. I would just offer to buy the boat for a dollar amount that is cut back about $6000 from where you should normally be offering, just in case you need to buy a new 7.4 genny.

Hope this helps

 

[Hampton]

So, where do we see the comments? They used to be at the bottom of that one page, but I don't know where they are now, or are they hidden to everyone?

 

[fwebster]

Well, I am of the opinion that those longevity questions are dangerous to answer because there are just too many variables that enter into the eventual result. In a perfect world, there isn't any reason well maintained generator can't last almost indefinitely. However, it almost never works that way on a boat.

I have a friend who owns a charter boat and has 16,500 hours on his Caterpillar main engines and 18,000 hours on a Northern Lights generator, but at the Sea Ray dealer where we keep our boat, we a lot of generators replaced at 1800-2500 hours. The cause varies, but almost always isn't service or run time related.......water hose leaked and sprayed the generator, junction box vibrated loose and shorted the generator while under load, just plain neglect, failure to service the unit, use of the wrong lube oil, etc.

So while it wasn't me who cast the red ball vote, I'd have to say the post that generated it is as accurate an answer as any SWAG could be, just due to the number of variables involved.