3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
professor95 wrote: EDIT ADDED 45/5/2013- When this thread started in March of 2005, I never expected to see it survive this long or amass the quantity of information that has been shared here. In...
Forum Discussion
this thread is how I came to this great resource, also why I looked into the output of my Nikota genset. I have a few answers for the group conserning the genset for those people that have them.
1. they can be wired to put all power thru one 115v line, the leads are at the back of the head, just split it there.
2. the 10A breaker listing in the manual is wrong, mine has 13A breakers.
3. the head is what is rated at the wattage on all of the gensets I have looked at, not the motor.
4. the amature on the generator has a power coil that is feed thru diodes to produce the power for the field( true brushless genset)however the manual was not clear on this.
5. bought it to run a 3hp 3phs softstart motor, no problems here.
6. expanded plans to require more 115 power, rewired with a DPDT switch to control from 115 to 240 this works fine. 220 should however have linked breakers they aren't, so took the breakers out and will use a box with house breakers. one will be 15A 220 breaker when use as a 220 unit. the other breakers will be 1 15A breaker for use when 220 is inabled and a 30A breaker for when the unit is switched to 115.
7. I am sure that the manufacturer of this unit said 10A to keep the unqualified from over loading the genset for long time limits, therefore making the genset last longer(just call it derated for reliablity)this stays with what the professor said about usage. The motor is reliable and looks like a honda, this is one of the points that brought me to by the unit, I just figured that Maybe I could use honda parts if needed, the carb said designed in J A Pan, don't know for sure but it was my gamble. Motors can be replaced later if needed. because the head is rated at 3500W. using it to power 30A load is no problem for me, if the engine will not supply, at least the head will not burn up.
Although the company is no longer in business, the motors are still being made. I believe that for the extra rating this is a good buy. with a little investment of time it is easy to convert to 115v only, making it a great supply of 30A TT service. no brushes on the head has good points(no service needed) and bad points( a control circuit can keep a steady 115v regulated if you can control the field).
In the posts I have seen there is comment about Gfci cords, although I am not that familiar with these products I will state that gfci is not a breaker in most cases. therefore if it is rated at 20A that does not mean 20A protection as in breaker. only that the device will handle 20A, please check into this. also if you do not have a good ground the gfci will not do what it is intended to do, that is protect you from a fault, or at least not as well as it should, I can't see driving a ground rod in at every stop so don't look for to much protection from one in this application. Dogbones are OK for the lowest rating in the system. one end of the dogbone is rated at 115v 15 or 20A this is all you should expect out of it(if the outlet on your genset is rated at 20A don't try to get more as this is what it is rated for. if there is not a 30A recept. on the pannel then the generator is really not rated for 30A at 115V it is rated at the weakest value here per NEC. I would guess that because Nokita was rated and followed some very good design standards, they got a bad rapp. It was designed with safety in mind that is why I bought one over the other models. Kind of like buying an IBM PC back when they derated for quality, while everyone else sold for speed. My only other option would have been to go to a 4000 or more genset so I would not have to worry about over extending the head.
Catalina30
C30 E/sailboat, 73Silverstreak TT, Dakota sport
1. they can be wired to put all power thru one 115v line, the leads are at the back of the head, just split it there.
2. the 10A breaker listing in the manual is wrong, mine has 13A breakers.
3. the head is what is rated at the wattage on all of the gensets I have looked at, not the motor.
4. the amature on the generator has a power coil that is feed thru diodes to produce the power for the field( true brushless genset)however the manual was not clear on this.
5. bought it to run a 3hp 3phs softstart motor, no problems here.
6. expanded plans to require more 115 power, rewired with a DPDT switch to control from 115 to 240 this works fine. 220 should however have linked breakers they aren't, so took the breakers out and will use a box with house breakers. one will be 15A 220 breaker when use as a 220 unit. the other breakers will be 1 15A breaker for use when 220 is inabled and a 30A breaker for when the unit is switched to 115.
7. I am sure that the manufacturer of this unit said 10A to keep the unqualified from over loading the genset for long time limits, therefore making the genset last longer(just call it derated for reliablity)this stays with what the professor said about usage. The motor is reliable and looks like a honda, this is one of the points that brought me to by the unit, I just figured that Maybe I could use honda parts if needed, the carb said designed in J A Pan, don't know for sure but it was my gamble. Motors can be replaced later if needed. because the head is rated at 3500W. using it to power 30A load is no problem for me, if the engine will not supply, at least the head will not burn up.
Although the company is no longer in business, the motors are still being made. I believe that for the extra rating this is a good buy. with a little investment of time it is easy to convert to 115v only, making it a great supply of 30A TT service. no brushes on the head has good points(no service needed) and bad points( a control circuit can keep a steady 115v regulated if you can control the field).
In the posts I have seen there is comment about Gfci cords, although I am not that familiar with these products I will state that gfci is not a breaker in most cases. therefore if it is rated at 20A that does not mean 20A protection as in breaker. only that the device will handle 20A, please check into this. also if you do not have a good ground the gfci will not do what it is intended to do, that is protect you from a fault, or at least not as well as it should, I can't see driving a ground rod in at every stop so don't look for to much protection from one in this application. Dogbones are OK for the lowest rating in the system. one end of the dogbone is rated at 115v 15 or 20A this is all you should expect out of it(if the outlet on your genset is rated at 20A don't try to get more as this is what it is rated for. if there is not a 30A recept. on the pannel then the generator is really not rated for 30A at 115V it is rated at the weakest value here per NEC. I would guess that because Nokita was rated and followed some very good design standards, they got a bad rapp. It was designed with safety in mind that is why I bought one over the other models. Kind of like buying an IBM PC back when they derated for quality, while everyone else sold for speed. My only other option would have been to go to a 4000 or more genset so I would not have to worry about over extending the head.
Catalina30
C30 E/sailboat, 73Silverstreak TT, Dakota sport
