my tv blew up(no lie)

[redlineranger]

well we have a major hurrican rolin in here tomorrow afternoon, and my dad and a friend of his wired the breaker box outside to a generator so he can run refrigerator, lights, and fans when the power goes out.... he did all that and it was workin good and all of a sudden the generator bogged down, and then got goin good again and my tv made a very loud, very nasty popping noise, and i walked into my room and find it filled with smoke, and the tv wus blowin smoke bad... also my xbox wus hooked up so i think it got fried to:ermm: .... and all of this isnt a lie either

[JRDrider22]

that sucks

[HondaEXrider22]

Wow that does suck.

[chucked]

Sounds like you bought a cheapo generator.

Ammm he did disconnect the City Power lead into the house befor turning on the Genset correct?

[redlineranger]

Originally posted by DierWolf
Ammm he did disconnect the City Power lead into the house befor turning on the Genset correct?

nope.... thats what the problem wus.. now the generator cost over a grand.. its made by coleman, its got a briggs and stratton motor on it... with 5000 running watts and maximum watts of 6250..... but dads friend that did it is a electrician and the way are house is wired, well he's never worked on a house the way are is set up he said..... but yea it sux a rather large one..... the tv wus a 37 inch tho and lasted 12 years:o ... i can look back and say it wus worth it at least:ermm:

Some electritian he was, Naturally your going to cause a huge frikken spike running both city power and generator.. ah well at least some of the neighbourhood got some free current. :)

im sure some of there stuff was fried as well.

[bulkdriverlp]

:o you cant hook up a generator the RIGHT way unless you have a main disconnect box on your house. to stop current from back-feeding into the generator, oh well live and learn, better go tv shoppin:blah:

[redlineranger]

Originally posted by bulkdriverlp
:o you cant hook up a generator the RIGHT way unless you have a main disconnect box on your house. to stop current from back-feeding into the generator, oh well live and learn, better go tv shoppin:blah:

ok well it wusnt me that did it and im ticked about it.... and yes it will be 2 weeks possibly 3 or even a month before i get a new one:mad:

[Punk'd]

was it a nice tv?

[TGW_400ex]

Originally posted by Punk'd
was it a nice tv?

He said it was 12 years old I bet it wasn't that nice.;)

[redlineranger]

Originally posted by TGW_400ex
He said it was 12 years old I bet it wasn't that nice.;)

no trust me it wus nice even tho it wus old...... it wus always kept clean and all that..... it wus a mitsubishi(sp?) 37 inch

[MOFO]

By any chance is this the TV?

[Woodsrider]

Unless you buy a generator with a built in inverter to protect solid state electronics from power spikes, you shouldnt hook up tv's, microwaves or anything with a printed circut board in it. Too bad the guy who sold you dad the generator didnt bother to tell him that.

Waht the hell are you talking about??? All Gensets come with inverters and line conditioners. What happened has nothing to do with the generator itself but how it was hooked up.

[Woodsrider]

Not according to Coleman. Ask Coleman if its safe to hook up your PC to one of there generators and they will tell you which ones are equiped with a power inverter to prevent power spikes. Most of the generators sold at Home depot and Lowes are not equiped with an internal inverter.
When I went to buy a generator this year, I had three different people at three different stores tell me the same thing. So I called Coleman's customer service line and they said the same thing. Honda will tell you the same thing too.

But dont take my word for it call coleman yourself and ask them here is there customer service number, 24/7. 1-800-445-1805
the only coleman with a AVR (auto voltage regulator)sold at Home depot is the 7000 watt unit with a Honda engine I beleive its a PM497000. None of the coleman 5000 watt generators have a voltage regulator. I know what Im talking about bud, you dont.
Do your home work before you buy a generator.;)

You PC is not safe to hook up to ANY Electrical current without a Surge Surpressor.

Lesson #1... Power inverter is what Changes the Dynamo Current to A/C 120 or 220 Volts!......

Lesson #2... A Line Conditioner and or Surge Supressor is what Blocks Spikes.

Without an INVERTER you cannot have the current you need out of the generator to utilize in the house (120v,220v) because the Generator Itself (the dynamo) creates DC! power not AC!.. the inverter Converts the DC to AC at the voltage required.

If the Genset DIPS (Stalls) AC current Drops, never does it SPIKE unless something else interacts with it, like when this guy put both City Current along with it, or generator was at full load and then you shut something off thats taking a lot of load causing the genset to REV all of a sudden, you will get a very small spike.

After specifying gensets for over 9 years for the Architectural firm i worked for i should think i would know a thing or 2 about electricity and generators.

This is why i knew instantly from the post that the guy ran both the generator and city current together to get this situation, because it cant happen any other way, PERIOD.

PS : AVR (auto voltage regulator)

IS NOT AN INVERTER!!!! ITS A LINE CONDITIONER/REGULATOR

In your own posts your jumping from talking about Inverters to Regulators... they are 2 diffent animals that do 2 totally different things....

A generator MUST have an INVERTER, unless your running every darn thing in your house at 12 or 24 or 36 volts DC! mabye your in a mobile home ;)

PS did my work for 6 years of schooling and 9+ years of actual practice.

But since you want me to do homework i have done for over and over and over again for many many years, here is the definition of an INVERTER :

inverter: 1. In electrical engineering, a device for converting direct current into alternating current.

PS. if you didnt know Direct Current = DC

[Woodsrider]

Originally posted by DierWolf
You PC is not safe to hook up to ANY Electrical current without a Surge Surpressor.

Lesson #1... Power inverter is what Changes the Dynamo Current to A/C 120 or 220 Volts!......

Lesson #2... A Line Conditioner and or Surge Supressor is what Blocks Spikes.

Without an INVERTER you cannot have the current you need out of the generator to utilize in the house (120v,220v) because the Generator Itself (the dynamo) creates DC! power not AC!.. the inverter Converts the DC to AC at the voltage required.

If the Genset DIPS (Stalls) AC current Drops, never does it SPIKE unless something else interacts with it, like when this guy put both City Current along with it, or generator was at full load and then you shut something off thats taking a lot of load causing the genset to REV all of a sudden, you will get a very small spike.

After specifying gensets for over 9 years for the Architectural firm i worked for i should think i would know a thing or 2 about electricity and generators.

This is why i knew instantly from the post that the guy ran both the generator and city current together to get this situation, because it cant happen any other way, PERIOD.

Well apearantly you know more than the people who work for Coleman. Dont you?
As for the "inverter" thats what the guy at Home depo called it. I didnt think it was the right terminolgy, which was why I called Coleman myself and ask the people who make them. I should have used the right term on here(my mistake). Which is a voltage regulator. and again the only one that they manufacture with a voltage regulator is the one I listed in my previous post. They (coleman)also told me that a "spike" and a "surge" were not the same thing ( I always thought they were)and that a surge suppressor would not protect your PC from a power spike caused by a spike in power from a generator not equiped with a voltage regulator (didnt ask why). But Like I said not all generators are equiped with voltage regulators, and not all are safe to hook up your pc or audio video equipment. Now I could be wrong, but if the manufacturers all told me the same thing then there must be some truth to it.

[Woodsrider]

If the Genset DIPS (Stalls) AC current Drops, never does it SPIKE unless something else interacts with it, like when this guy put both City Current along with it, or generator was at full load and then you shut something off thats taking a lot of load causing the genset to REV all of a sudden, you will get a very small spike.



..... the guy ran both the generator and city current together to get this situation, because it cant happen any other way, PERIOD.

So which is it? Can it ONLY surge when you hook up to both, or can you get a surge when the generator revs all of the sudden as well. Im confused, you said it can ony happen one way but you gave two ways of getting a power surge. which is it?

[Woodsrider]

Originally posted by DierWolf
Waht the hell are you talking about??? All Gensets come with inverters and line conditioners...


PS : AVR (auto voltage regulator)IS NOT AN INVERTER!!!! ITS A LINE CONDITIONER/REGULATOR

Not all gensets come with an AVR or "line conditioner". Nor do all come with inverters. Back-up Generators create sine wave alternating current, right? Colemans website specifies which ones do and which ones dont. Maybe you should let them know that they are wrong.


A generator MUST have an INVERTER, unless your running every darn thing in your house at 12 or 24 or 36 volts DC! mabye your in a mobile home

Since when do mobile homes run on dc power?


Batteries produce power in direct current** (DC) form, which can run at very low voltages but cannot be used to run most modern household appliances. Generators produce sine wave alternating current* (AC) power, which is used by most commonly available appliances today. Inverters take the DC power supplied by a storage battery bank and electronically convert it to AC power.

An inverter used for backup power in a grid connected home will use grid power to keep the batteries charged, and when grid power fails, it will switch to drawing power from the batteries and supplying it to the building electrical system. For an business or home office, a reliable power source is invaluable for preventing lost data on computer systems. Most modern inverters also include overvoltage and undervoltage protection, protecting sensitive equipment from dangerous power surges as well.

An "inverter equiped generator" works like this...
step 1 produce 3phase ac power
Step 2 convert ac power to dc
step 3 convert dc power back to clean ac power at 120v/60hz
Conventional Generators Produce a
Single Sine Wave per Rotation—
The engine rotates two large coils of wire inside a circumference of magnets. Each full engine rotation produces a single sine wave of AC (alternating current) power. The engine must maintain a constant speed of 3,600 rpm to produce standard 60 Hz (cycles per second). (60 cycles per second times 60 (seconds per minute) = 3,600 cycles per minute). No matter how much load (lights, TV, sump pump, etc.) is needed, the generator must run at its full speed of 3,600 rpm.The inverter module "converts" 3-phase high frequency AC power into DC power which is then "Inverted" to a very clean & stable 120 volt, 60 Hz AC power signal. All functions of both generator and engine are controlled by this single, sophisticated electronic module.
The “pure” sine wave of energy produced by an inverter generator has full width and amplitude, and no voltage surge. when veiwed on an oscillscope you can really see the the advantage and why it is a must for running things with a micro chip in it. Its clean dependable power.

I hope this gets my point across. Not all generators are created equal. They DON"T all have an inverter, and they DON"T all have an automatic voltage regulator.
And there is more than one definition of a "inverter". Just becuase you went to school and did a job for a while dont mean you know everything. I dont either, but I do know what a cheap generator will do to todays electronics.:)

[Robin Hood]

What yr Xbox is it? Theres a recall on certain ones, they cause electrical fires. :p

[redlineranger]

Originally posted by Robin Hood
What yr Xbox is it? Theres a recall on certain ones, they cause electrical fires. :p

its 05 Xbox..... anyways some of you are gettin worked up over the generators, no need for all that..... oh and to the guy who asked me if it wus that tv.... it had that color wood grain on it, but the way the screen is and the speakers are a lil different..... but it is much like that tv tho..... but i asked my dad and he said the electrician guy did flip the switch off(city power) that runs my whole room and the second the generator turned on it blew the tv up..... and he didnt ground the wires right on the plug that plugged into the generator.... honestly i dont know what the hell he's talkin about but that what he told me