The wonderful world of portable generators as a practical solution for power tools

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Nicholas123

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I am currently removing old mild steel bolt heads from where the rubbing strake used to be using a LIDL multi-tool & it is a long laborious business.There are dozens & dozens of them so it occurred to be to buy an angle grinder.
Since my boat is afloat this would need to be a battery one & I don't know whether you have ever looked at the price of them but they are extortionate while mains ones are peanuts which lead me into the wonderful world of portable generators.I looked at some adds on ebay a few weeks ago as an option to deliver 240 volts & run a jet washer to help with the annual scrub & was amazed at how cheap a new one can be.So.........any good advice about them & if the ones you get on ebay for about 70 quid are a realistic option?

PS: Forgot I first encountered them in looking at the boat heating thread as a practical solution to that problem :encouragement:
 
I've had one for a few years. It's OK but not great. My mistake was buying one that was too small. It's rated at 950w but when I started using it and had to read the small print, it was only 650w continuous. It'll run a leccy drill and my grinder, but not together. Similarly my multi-tool. My hot air gun at low power only. My old workshop kettle - not at all, not even the wee plastic one I bought that was supposed to draw 600w. As for my Kartcher:- forget it. I'd advise going for at least a 1.5KW one, but I doubt it's be available for as little as £70.00.
 
As ever you get what you pay for and a £70 generator will have seriously limited capability. Perhaps better to hire the proper kit if it is a one off job.
 
Is the genny going to live on board? If not it could be a pain lugging a decent-sized one up to deck level.
Ordinary cheap pacific basin models look about £1 per 10 watts nominal, but better, quieter, lighter models cost more.
As mentioned already, the equipment you are considering will require a couple of kilowatts.
 
I've got a very cheap and basic pressure washer (£40 Halfrauds own brand) and it has run quite happily off a small genny before (900w I think it was). Both bits of kit small and easy to shift. OK it doesn't clean like a Karcher but it's better than doing it all with a brush!

On power tools, I have taken the plunge and developed an expensive Makita habit. Two batteries and then all the tools bought bare- the grinder was £70. It's fabby. Much safer than messing around with 240v too (I have to justify it to myself somehow).
 
OK gents thanks for the contributions/info,I've decided to keep plodding on with the multi-grinder.

The whole frigging generator/battery angle grinder business is just too complicated & expensive to justify my being dragged into that world.

I am very tempted to post a thread trying to get to the bottom of why a battery angle grinder is so expensive compared to other power tools.It all just looks like one big racket to me! :disgust:
 
My cordless grinder cost about the same as my drill and impact driver, and less than my sander and circular saw.
(Yes, I have problem)

If you do want to jump into the cordless world, have a look at Ryobi- they seem to get good reviews and look very good value.
 
Watch with Ryobi, they're not as good as they used to be and when I tried to purchase replacement batteries for my screwdriver and drill, I was advised to buy new ones as they were out of Guarantee. They are four years younger than my Lidl special which is still going strong. I know where my replacements are going to come from........
 
Another problem I have found using generators is that a lot of tools are using soft start technology (including my Lidl grinder). The more basic generators can not cope with the soft start and do not see the load, so do not increase their revs to provide the power to bring the tool up to speed, resulting in the grinder running slowly with no cutting power. An inverter generator copes fine, but a lot more expensive.
 
I'm on a visit to family in Chicago, and just looking at tool shop flyer, generators that are NOT top quality range from 700 running/ 900 peak @ $ 89 to 11,000 running 13,500 peak for $1500 with a 2200 running inverter generator @ $ 500
Why so much more in UK ?
 
I nearly bought one yesterday and I suspect I may regret not doing so but B&Q are currently selling a JCB branded 2 stroke inverter generator - 850w continuous if my memory serves - for a measly £90

In fact, if I had time tomorrow I'd go back and get one, by the time I have the, er, time, I suspect they'll all be gone

(And yes, it won't be brilliant quality and it isn't particularly powerful but at that price who cares?)
 
I've had a Clarke 1000 watt 4 stroke generator for 4 years and I did quite a big job requiring power for 6 weeks and it performed without fault. Like you I tried a Lidl multi tool and it shook me to bits; bought a Fein multi tool at vast expense but it was worth it. The generator powered the boat via a Sterling battery charger, the Fein and other electrics - about 800 watts - without difficulty. It produces a near proper sinusoidal waveform.
 
essexboy said:
I'm on a visit to family in Chicago, and just looking at tool shop flyer, generators that are NOT top quality range from 700 running/ 900 peak @ $ 89 to 11,000 running 13,500 peak for $1500 with a 2200 running inverter generator @ $ 500
Why so much more in UK ?
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Because we are British.
 
I too have a cordless Makita grinder
Fabulous piece of kit. I have cut large steel tubes with it, heavy stainless shackles and all sorts of things.

I would disagree that it is overpriced, as the bare body is about £75. The expensive bit of most modern cordless tools is the battery, so you need to choose your first cordless tool (usually an 18v drill) carefully to make sure that you can get the other tools you might want in the future. It does tie you to a single brand, and I would heartily recommend Makita.
 
The other thing with generators is the noise (unless you pay big £££ for one of those lovely Honda "suitcase" ones). I have a Machine Mart (Clarke) cheap one that is quite large, because I live out in the sticks. a few years ago we were without power for three days and the cost of the food we had to chuck out would almost have covered the cost of a cheap genny!

Anyway, I saw this 2.8kW one and in the tech spec, the noise output was listed at 69dB(A). "Wow!" I thought, "That's quiet"! I fired it up and got quite a shock...

"If that's 69dB, I'll eat it!" I thought. Then I noticed the box it came in - which said 96 dB. (It sounded more like 96, I can tell you)! Initially, I thought they might have suffered a touch of dyslexia when typing the numbers into their website, but most of their generators seemed similarly quiet. I looked in the instruction leaflet and sure enough, in the EC Declaration of Conformity in the back, it also said 96 dB.

so I phoned Machine Mart and the glib $%^&^& on the other end said "Oh, we quote the noise output at 7.5 metres away sir"! I did ask what the point of having an EU standard for noise was if they were going to make up their own (the EU standard, I subsequently found, quotes it at 1 metre under peak load), but as you might imagine, I was never going to get anywhere. I did wonder about a wee call to Trading Standards, but a bit more online research seems to suggest that quite a few online generator suppliers seem to quote noise at 7.5m. Lesson learned!

As a generator though, it seems to work fine. It "hunts" a bit when you suddenly apply a load, with the revs fluctuating for a while, but usually eventually settles down. It was a fraction of the price of a quiet Honda one, but is very obviously of much cheaper construction.

The other thing with gennies, is that if you're trying to power an inductive load (like an electric motor), the startup demands are several times MORE than the rating of the appliance. So, for example, if my compressor is rated at 2kW, it could transiently draw up to 8kW for a fraction of a second on startup. Most generator suppliers now tell you to choose one at least 4 times the output of the largest thing you want to power.
 
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Bru said:
I nearly bought one yesterday and I suspect I may regret not doing so but B&Q are currently selling a JCB branded 2 stroke inverter generator - 850w continuous if my memory serves - for a measly £90

In fact, if I had time tomorrow I'd go back and get one, by the time I have the, er, time, I suspect they'll all be gone

(And yes, it won't be brilliant quality and it isn't particularly powerful but at that price who cares?)
Click to expand...

This looks like a very attractive proposition.Not least because I find I already own a Rolson 550W angle grinder I forgot my neighbour gave me some time ago.It looks like it would be a match made in heaven,the trouble is (& there always is one) that having completed this job which is probably about 10 hours work it would then lie rusting in one of the lockers aboard.Now if it could be used for scrubbing the bottom throughout the season there really would be a wonderful bit of kit but is that possible?
 
ParaHandy said:
I've had a Clarke 1000 watt 4 stroke generator for 4 years and I did quite a big job requiring power for 6 weeks and it performed without fault. Like you I tried a Lidl multi tool and it shook me to bits; bought a Fein multi tool at vast expense but it was worth it. The generator powered the boat via a Sterling battery charger, the Fein and other electrics - about 800 watts - without difficulty. It produces a near proper sinusoidal waveform.
Click to expand...

It's a multi-grinder not a multi tool.Being shaken to bits is not one of it's downsides :D
 
guyd said:
how big is your battery bank? run an inverter instead.... then use cheap mains grinder.


or a hacksaw..............
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Just the question I wanted to ask.I have heard vaguely about something called inverters & wondered if they are the solution.I only have a 75 amp/hour gm battery aboard at the moment but it would'nt really be a big deal to lug it home on my bike for recharging.Are these inverters a viable proposition?
Tried a hacksaw,a dead loss.

PS:Reading the replies all good info gents,thanks :encouragement:
 
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75a/h battery, don't want to discharge it much beyond 50% (it'll severely shorten the life of the battery if you do) so being generous maybe 40a/h usable capacity

A 1kw inverter will at full continuous load draw approaching 90A from the 12v supply

So you'll get 25 minutes or so

Obviously, if the load is reduced, the endurance will go up so a 500W power tool you could run for 45 to 50 minutes

The generator, for this purpose, would I think be a better bet
 
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