I bought my boat with a Westerbeke 7.7WMD diesel generator. Not super high time at 3,400hrs on a diesel. However I put over 300hrs a year on my generator. It ran well, but first year I had a generator bearing go out, then second I had to rebuild the raw water pump, then the circulating pump seized and needed replacement. None of these were catastrophic failures, but rather irritating for something I use all the time. I thought about it and considering this is to be a 20+ year boat and I'd surely have to replace the generator at some point in my ownership decided might as well do it now and get full benefit of a new unit.
With this in mind I pulled the generator with the help of one of my friends before the boat went into inside storage.
Pulling the generator was pretty strait forward, 4 lag bolts held the frame to the platform, remove the return and supply fuel line, remove the raw water and exhaust hoses, disconnect the 120v output and 12v connections. The generator was situated mostly under the cockpit sole. To pull it out we used to hoist and chain fall to lift the generator slightly and slide it forward between the engines. From there we were able to lift the generator strait up into the salon. We set it down on the floor and repositioned the hoist so we could slide the generator out onto the deck where it could be picked with a forklift. It's not particularly light at almost 600lbs.
After removal I needed to decide on how much capacity I needed and after than which manufacturer to go with. For sizing, if I add up all the loads on the boat I came up with about 10,000 watts. However it's also hard on a generator to run it at loads less than about 20% for extended times. So at night when I'm only running 1 air conditioner and a battery charger I'd be down closer to 1,500 watts. So with this in mind there needs to be some balance. Most manufacturers make generators in the 6-7kw, 8-9kw, then 11-12kw range. I decided 6-7kw wasn't enough for high load times like dinner time when the range is running in addition to a couple 16k air conditioners. At 11-12kw I'd be too unloaded when running light loads at night. So 8-9kw was what I settled on as my Goldilocks.
Next was to pick the actual unit.
My first thought was a Northern Lights as they have a stellar reputation as being very robust. However what I found was due to the epa they currently don't have a 9kw available without an expected production date. They were also the most expensive and use an odd Japanese engine.
When I was at the Ft Lauderdale show I got to look at a lot of generators. Here was my take on them
Kohler 8kw, the unit appears to be fairly serviceable, they're a very common unit which helps for service network. It was actually priced very competitively. What I didn't like about it, proprietary parts, basically everything is proprietary even their Italian engine. They're also heavily dependent on electronics.
NextGen 9.5kw. These units are compact yet simple using mostly off the shelf parts, including a Kubota engine which are very well known for their durability and parts availability. It comes with a sound enclosure. Things I didn't particularly care for, they run the engine at 2,800rpm and belt drive it to the generator head, this leads to reduced service intervals and likely reduced engine life. It was also higher priced, highest after Northern Lights.
Fisher Panda. I really like the idea of this unit, it's an inverter generator style reving up as needed for power output. Unfortunately they seem to be terribly unreliable from my reading.
Mase. These are, they're definitely packaged tight. I was not a big fan of the water cooled alternator, seems like a point of failure as well as additional winterizing requirements. I was also concerned with the potential of parts availability.
VTE Paguro 8.5kw. This was a serious contender as it was compact and VERY quite. It has a very nice control panel with some cool features. It was also one of the least expensive. However it also has a water cooled alternator, and it uses an Italian Kohler Lumberdini engine. Some reading revealed they're not particularly popular in the US which concerned me with parts availability.
Phasor 8.5kw. This was the generator I settled on. It uses all off the shelf parts, no printed circuit boards. It's a simple unit with a Kubota 3 cyl diesel and an air cooled alternator. It's not the lightest, smallest or quietest generator available, but I decided I liked the simplicity and serviceability over being quite and compact. It's also reasonably priced at just about $11,000 with the optional stainless drip pan and the remote gauge panel.
Now I'm just waiting for delivery of the Phasor.
Kohler unit
NexGen
Fisher Panda
Mase generator
Pague
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She’s a beaut!! #hawt