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Steve,

In Bedford the snow was about 12 inches plus, very heavy and did mucho damage. This storm I used 2 Yamaha snowblowers,. A YS624T for the yard pathways, and a YS828W for the driveway.

The generator was also a Yamaha, model EF6600DE. It purred for 5 straight days/nights (except 15 minutes for an oil change on Tuesday) while running a fridge, 2 - 1HP sumps, the furnace, 2 - 50 inch TV's, 3 computers, and all the lights/outlets you need including the all important garage circuit. Just had to feed it gas, 12-15 gallons each day. I have electric hot water that is 4500 watts alone so I have a dedicated transfer switch with a 30A plug recepticle (Reliant brand?) where I plug in the cord from the generator and I have 80 gallons of hot water 50 minutes later. I move the cord back to the other transfer switch to power the house again. Not ideal but it works. The cord I use is a score from the brewery in Merrimack. A throw away item, someone grabbed it to re-purpose and I ended up with 34 feet of it. Its imperviously to all sorts of chemicals, is designed to be submerged in liquid, and remains pliant down to a super cold temparature. I spent 50 bucks on the male and female plugs but a 25 foot cord is about 80 - 100 dollars. I run Mobil 1 in all of these and they start real easy when it is cold out.

I fixed a guys generator on Sunday, the jets were clogged. This was a brand new machine never run! Lots of neighbors pissing and moaning that there snowblwers would not start when they needed them. Always pays to check your equipment and maintain your stuff.

Just got power back today at 4PM after being out since saturday at 730PM. Hate it when that happens. The snow was uber heavy and 12 inches did a lot of damage. My snowblowers were up to it though. Lots of neighbors pissing and moaning because theirs would not start when they needed them.

The real hero was my generator which ran straight through for 5 days and nights. Never hiccupped once. I admit I turned it off for about 10-15 minutes to change the oil on tuesday but that was it. Very happy with it. One of my neighbors showed up in my driveway to fix his generator. One of the jets was clogged with what looked like rubber from the weird gasket on the underside of the carb. This was a brand new machine! Always pays to keep yor stuff running and check it periodically.

I have a Yamaha EF6600DE and have been very pleased with its performance. The thing is quiet and runs anything I want it too including computers which I had heard needed "clean" power like an inverter type unit has. I have two sumps to run and sometimes they both kick on at the same time but the Yanaha does not flinch. I also have electric hot water that takes 4,000 watts. I have a seperate plug for the hot water and  then move the cord back to the 10 breaker transfer switch when the water is done. While not big enough to run the whole house all at once it handles the basics and then some. I do not run the stove or microwave but I can live without those for a few days or even longer as long as I have heat, my basement is not flooding, my fridge contents are not spoiling, and my grill is working!.

Steve Cebu – Trust me I no longer work on cars.  Home power equipment is about my limit. I make do with your average Joe’s tool array; turning wrenches and resurrecting good used stuff is somehow therapeutic for me!  Some of the projects I see on these sites are way beyond what I would attempt and I marvel at the skills out there.

Steve Cebu - I do all the work because I enjoy it and its a stress release of sorts. Always been a bit of a tinkerer and garage rat. As a kid I had mini bikes, go karts, a million bicycles and was always messing sround with them. If something broke around our house like our tractor or lawn mower my dad would make us fix it rather than go to a shop. If we needed a trailer or something he would take us to a junk yard to get steel and whatever else we needed to build one rather than buy it. His way of making us think and learn how to use tools. My first several cars were in constant need of repair so learned a lot with them as well.

I was looking for a used machine about 2 years ago because, A) hated my John Deere and B), could not afford new, and stumbled on to this brand. I bought all my machines right here in NH and one in MA. They surface now and again and usually are in need of being totally gone through as they are 15+ years old. However when you are done they are super dependable and outperform most anything else.

They have begun to sell them again in Canada and start at around $2500+ so putting a used one back in good order seems worth it.  I did not set out to be a guy with this many (like an old lady with too many cats) but when I got my first one I was amazed at how much better they were than the machines I had used before. So I got one for my brother and then I got a bigger model, then I got a wheeled version (vs track) and then a parts machine and thats how it went.