[g.brookes]

Hi all, im getting lots of conflicting info of what size generator I need. Looking at buying a triple motor 3000w vacuum.
Some people are telling me you just need to be able to handle the start up wattage. I.e the startup is 3300watts so 3.4kva generator is fine, whilst others are telling me I need 5kva generator because generators only tick along at 75 per cent capacity.

I need to know if a 3.4 generator will be ok. The reason is because I can pick one of those up and have space in the van for it.
Whereas a 5kva generator is very heavy and I don't have space in the van.
I'm not interested in using the customers power cos then I need to book everything in and organise power source etc and not worth the faff.
Any advice?

[Plankton]

This is the problem they don't tell anyone about in their sales pitches, they expect you to hand over 2k for the vac and poles and let you believe everything else is all rosey.
I'm sure someone will come along to explain the difference in startup power required for a vacuum versus the operating power but if I remember correctly it can be double the power to start a vacuum.
The supplier of my geny said to stagger the start up of the motors to avoid to much of a spike but.

Just checked my geny it's a 6.5 KVA at 71kg compared to the 3.4 KVA which is only 38kg
With that weight it's no wonder that I don't use it

[g.brookes]

Yeah I can't seem to get a clear answer. The company told me 3300 watts for startup.
Don't fancy lifting 70 odd kg out of the van and don't think the payload could hack it on too of everything else.
This will decide for me if I go down the gutter vac route or not

[Spruce]

Hi all, im getting lots of conflicting info of what size generator I need. Looking at buying a triple motor 3000w vacuum.
Some people are telling me you just need to be able to handle the start up wattage. I.e the startup is 3300watts so 3.4kva generator is fine, whilst others are telling me I need 5kva generator because generators only tick along at 75 per cent capacity.

I need to know if a 3.4 generator will be ok. The reason is because I can pick one of those up and have space in the van for it.
Whereas a 5kva generator is very heavy and I don't have space in the van.
I'm not interested in using the customers power cos then I need to book everything in and organise power source etc and not worth the faff.
Any advice?

The general rule of thumb is that an electric motor on a vacuum cleaner will draw  3 to 4 times the amperage on startup.

I have a 1500 watt gutter vac and the manufacturers tech devision advises that on a test its current drawn spiked at 5000 watts on one start up but the same motor usually drew 4500 watts.

Another retailer who sells similar sized vacuum cleaner advises that the make he sells can be run on a 2kva generator. I don't have a generator but should that time come I will take my vacuum down to a hire shop and hire the size generator that will comfortably run the vac.  I will then know what I need.

Many years ago our company sold triple motor Frank Industrial vacuum cleaners. We advised that our customer would need a 6.5kva generator to run this efficiently and the customer was only to start one motor at a time. We were in Johannesburg which is 6000 feet above sea level so we had a tollerance of 20% due to heat and altitude.

.

[Smudger]

as far as I'm aware you have to be able to cope with the surge on start up

we use a 6.5Kva Genny - 10 years on - no problems

HTH

Darran

[Plankton]

You could use a lower power vac, from my experience your quicker nipping up the ladder and pulling out the turf.

[Richard iSparkle]

we have 6.5 kva too for our grippa vac

it works well enough.

if you get a trolley kit for it and ramps its no big difficulty getting it in and out of the van, though we always use customers power if possible and I never look forward to using the genny just because of the  size of it

[Smudger]

we have 6.5 kva too for our grippa vac

it works well enough.

if you get a trolley kit for it and ramps its no big difficulty getting it in and out of the van, though we always use customers power if possible and I never look forward to using the genny just because of the  size of it

You want to see our 8kva sis Genny - 100 kg   Ooooooooohhhh my back 🤣