- How you doing? Are you thinking about buying a new portable generator? Westinghouse sent me this 5300 Watt model that has a pretty neat feature I think you're going to
like from the get go. This puppy runs on gas or propane. Ready? Let's go. (machine whirring) This came FedEx Ground, the packaging was good. This thing is not damaged and, well you know how the shipping companies drop things. First thing, I love the winch. I got a winch and now I don't blow out my back or my knees, but the wheels have ball bearings,
roller bearings in them. At this price point you're going to get a solid wheel which for most everyone is just fine. You're going to roll
this out of your garage into the driveway and fire it up. If you want to use this on a construction site with rocky soil and dirt and stuff, you might want to upgrade the tires to air inflated tires, but a regular people, you know, your average
person this is fine. So while this is in the air, let's talk about this that way I don't have to bend down, if you watch any of my videos. Anyway, front panel very similar to a lot of other ones I've seen
but a couple of things I like here is the power
outlets have covers on them and they're rubbery and they seal, which makes a big
difference as your generator ages. If you leave it outside
or even here in my garage, bugs like to put eggs inside little holes. If you have mud wasps
and things like that, they like to get in there
so you can cover this and it keeps the bugs out, and dust. I mean, this is electrical contact. You want it to be clean, so I like that. This is an L14-30R which is a standard for hooking up to transfer panels. I have a transfer panel in my basement, I'll show you. But that's a four prong L13, L14-30R. It's a good thing. If you want to hook this up to your camper it has the built-in camper one. A lot of generators I see don't have this and this is nice. We go out in the woods,
you need some power. Then we have two regular old 110 volt, and these are rated for 20 amp. Your household outlets
are usually 15 amps so, if you wanted to in an emergency run your refrigerator and a deep freezer and that, you would plug into here. Digital hours meter, that actually makes a big difference because then you can tell when you need to change the oil, things like that. If you ever want to sell
this again you can say, "Oh, this only has 30 hours on it." You know, really helpful. On, off. I kind of like a really big on off switch. You'd be surprised in some generators you can't find the on off switch. This is the part I really
like on this machine. Dual fuel, propane or gasoline. There are pros and cons to both of them, we'll talk about that when
we fire this puppy up. In the box comes a
regulator, gas regulator and hose length. This hooks up to your propane tank, and right here I like this has a nice plastic cover. We're going to connect this to here. Don't use Teflon tape. I see that. This is a compression fitting. Don't need Teflon tape on here, okay? Before you fire this
puppy up, put oil in this. Three quarters of a quart, 10W30. This oil filler is not the most easy, accessible place but
that's kind of typical for generators so kind of comes with the territory. It's really important to change the oil, I do mine twice a year. Run the engine every
month and check that oil every time you fire it up. I really like that this has a fuel shutoff for the gasoline for when
you want to store this, you shut it off, run the engine out, your carburetor will not get gummed up. Overhead valve engine, 274cc. This is typical of what
I see in generators. The spark plug is really easy to access right there, which is nice. The exhaust is covered with a nice grill. Sometimes I've seen where the muffler is exposed and you can easily walk by that and maybe burn yourself so I like that. This gives some space,
save you a trip to the emergency room. That would be good, wouldn't it? (machine whirring) Hey, real quick this
generator isn't available everywhere, it's only available in certain stores. Click the little down
arrow below my video. They'll be text there
with links where to buy and also some more information about the generator. Thanks. Nice and solid handle,
and you don't have to unclick it to move it. You just down or up and it stays up. Nice. We're going to fill this with oil. Put it under a piece of cardboard. I've had some oil spills so learn from me. Dipstick. I like that. So yeah, the oil fill's in kind of a tight place, not unusual for generators but look here. Westinghouse sends you
some oil and the funnel filler to fill it up. This is why you put cardboard in, because I poured too much oil in, see? So this is a generator
I've had for 15 years. It's much bigger than what I need to run my house but just look
at the size difference between the Westinghouse. It folds down the handles, this one the handle is rigid. This one is quite heavy to lift up. This one is much nicer. I just like the compact size here compared to the beast here. I'm trying to declutter
the garage, I actually have a video about it. I'll link below to that. But just the idea of
being able to tuck this underneath the workshop
table because this one won't fit under there. Doesn't work. So smaller, compact, fires up your house. Giant beast, it's one
more thing I've got to find a place for. This engine has two
different Watt ratings. One for gasoline, one for propane. Propane puts out a little bit less power than gasoline but let's talk about that. I have a two bedroom home, well it's right through that window there and I have a 6500 Watt generator I've been running and when I fire that puppy up I can run my whole house and the
meters on the transfer panel barely move. So this generator, I think that it will be fine for your average home. It's not going to run your central air conditioning. It's not going to run an electric clothes dryer, but it'll run a TV, it'll run your microwave, it'll
run your refrigerator, it'll run your well pump which is the important things. Oh, that sounded kind of cool. These props are heavy but let's talk about gasoline versus propane. I'm going to put the propane down because it's heavy. The generator I have now
is a gasoline generator. I think that's just fine,
there's a couple things that worry me. When you're pouring
you have to refill your generator after it's
been running and it runs out of gas. The engine is still hot
and you're pouring fuel on to a, well, near a hot device. You know, you have to
be careful about that. The other thing with gasoline is gasoline goes bad, gasoline does not
keep for years and years. You have to also put a stabilizer in here. I put this in for all my small engines, my chipper shredder, the rotary tiller, the lawn mower, gas
stabilizer saves your engines. But you have to remember to do that. You're like, "Oh, did I
put the stabilizer in?" Then after six months this
gas is best refreshed, so I'll pour this into the tank of my car, drive that off, go fill
this up again, put the stabilizer in, I'm ready
for another six months. This sits in the corner of your garage. These are 20 pounders, you
can also get 100 pounders. It fills up, it sits
there and it's good to go. Propane does put out
slightly less power but I don't think that's
a deal breaker at all. It also burns cleaner, but I like - It didn't make that good noise. I like the idea of both in one machine. I actually really like
that idea so, I'm going to try make that banging again. Let's see. There we go. Always run your generator outside, please. Don't run it in your garage, don't run it in your basement, don't run it in or near your house. You can kill your family,
and you can kill yourself. Please, okay? Outside, and then start it up. (engine roaring) All right, let's see if
we can power my house. Power cord in, lock to turn. (engine roaring) Transfer switch right
next to my breaker panel. If you want to do this right and safe, you will have a transfer
panel or what's called a generator interlock. I have videos about
that I'll link to below and at the end of the video. Let's have a faux power outage here, okay? I will turn these off. So now you have to run your house on your generator and with a transfer panel, or this one at least you
pop these switches up. Our basement lights come
on, let's see what else we can turn on. If you've seen my shop
before it's powered by a generator right now
which is a beautiful thing. I really don't want to share the contents of my fridge but it works. (water running) (machine whirring) This is nice, it has a
filter if I can get it out. There we go. But a gas filter right at
the get go where the fuel is going in, so if you're
getting debris going in there it doesn't get into your carb. Set to gasoline. Switch on. (engine roaring) So I don't know if you can notice but when it's gasoline, when it's running on gas rather than propane the engine is louder. At this price point, nice machine. I like the idea of the dual fuel. If you want more information about this in the notes below here is all sorts of purchase information
and more specs on this. You might have to hit that
little down arrow thing. Right here, depending on
how you're watching this should be some more of my
generator review videos. I'm going to be looking
at some other Westinghouse equipment that they are sending me. That should be right there. Right there. I'll see you in the next one.
