Generator (Enough Power?)

[ktorres1120]

Im looking for a portable generator to power a shop vac and my Makita high speed buffer. Will this one do?

"Brand new 120V portable generator 1200 watt- PowerStar Plus. I bought this for my trailer but it wasn't powerful enough to power my 1400 watt microwave - my mistake. Store won't take it back. My loss, your gain. Paid $140, never used it except to test on my microwave. Complete with box, receipt, manual, accessories and one year warranty."

It couldn't power his microwave but does a shop vac and buffer take as much energy to power?

[qwertydude]

If you've got a strong shop vac it probably won't do it. Those shop vacs use at least a continuous 1000w and a peak of about 1500 watts on startup and from the look of the generator, I saw it online, it is 1200 watts peak and probably a bit overrated at that. It will probably run your buffer though. As far as generators go it looks pretty cheapo to me. Plus I can't find any real specs on it. I'm pretty much coming up with an alibaba webpage which is bad news cause that means it is probably chinese junk bought third hand from somebody already disappointed in it.

If you're buying it to run a mobile detail truck you should get a heavier duty generator of at least 2000 watts continuous power, that's what I hear from the mobile detail guys over here in la. They've got the big ones in a steel frame like this.

Honda Power Equipment - EB3000

Trust me if you're gonna be mobile detailing you need the reliability and most of all quietness of these generators. I've heard those junk generators, they're as loud as a lawnmower on full blast, and weak as hell, plus they break if you so much look at them wrong and are definitely not rated for continuous duty.

[ktorres1120]

Awesome thanks for the info. After reading that, I found one that looks better than the first one.

6250 Watt Portable Tecumseh Generator

[qwertydude]

Nice generator, with that much generating power you can run pretty much anything you want, tecumseh engines are a little on the loud side but if you don't mind the noise you'll be able to really buff out finishes. If you're looking for a good price on commercial detailing stuff hotgarage flooring is in the San Diego area, they have big clay bars for only like 10 bucks. I bought them for all my friends and am happy with the quality.

eBay Store - hotgarageflooring: Automotive Detailing, Garage Flooring, Adhesives Tape

[Joel_MD]

For future reference, you can calculate the wattage needed to run something like a Makita rotary or Shop Vac by multiplying amps x volts. Use 120 volts, not 110. A Makita 9227 has a 10 amp rating, so that would be 1,200 watts. When sizing a generator you should give yourself at least 10% of "headroom," so you should have at least 1,320 watts available if you're going to run the Makita.

[qwertydude]

You need to look at continuous power to see if your generator can run it, but also generators only have limited peak power which is needed to start motor driven equipment, to be safe get a generator with double the peak power of the rated continuous wattage of the equipment it'll run. So a 1200 wat makita should have at least a 2400 watt peak generator.

[ktorres1120]

Cool thanks for the tips and also the info on hotgarage, I'll have to check them out. I found one more on Craigslist:

Brand new 3000W gasoline generator

Here are the specs I found online:

Starter USA Professional 3000 Watt Generator at RVToyOutlet.com

I see the 3,000 watts but not sure if that means peak power? And not sure what the continuous is on that.