# Power Craft 1000W GP1KW Question



## winnie32v (May 27, 2017)

Just got an old Power Craft 1000W GK1KW generator that had been sitting for years in a garage.
Pulled the carb, cleaned it well and got the unit running.
Runs smooth, idles ok, seems to be OK.

So, I have a voltage question.

At idle, NO Load, my Multimeter shows ~167v AC and ~22v DC.
When I adjust the idle screw, the rpm's go down and the volts decrease accordingly.
I have it adjusted to ~145v at idle, now.
When I plug in a small vacuum, the unit quickly slows down and recovers to ~118v.
Add an additional 3 - 100w light bulbs and the volts go down to ~114v. DC side maybe 15v.
DC side seems to show same volt reduction as the AC side.

Seems to me that the capacitor should be giving me ~120v, or 12v regardless of idle speed.

Does this sound like the unit is functioning properly?
If I plug in my new electronic frig, or laptop, what effect could it have on the internal circuits?

I know this is an old out-of-date Chinese model but It would be nice to use as a backup.

So, anyone with one of the old units OR the knowledge of how these work....Please advise.
Thank you for your time to reply.


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## thehandyman1957 (Feb 11, 2017)

145volts is still too high and you should not get that kind of fluctuation. It will hurt better electronics. It sounds like the voltage regulator isn't working right. I assume when you say "idle" you mean 3600rpms? The capacitor does not regulate voltage, only helps with hard starts by supplying extra boost. 

Just curious, how many amps is your "small vacuum"? Most gen sets when they say 1000 watts are saying peak, not constant. 
So you may have 800 continuous watts. That's not a whole lot for a vacuum. 

Are you able to get the limiting screw to drop the voltage down to around 125volts?
And if so, when plugging in something like your 3 light bulbs, does it pull it down below 110 or does it stay put?


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## winnie32v (May 27, 2017)

thehandyman1957 said:


> 145volts is still too high and you should not get that kind of fluctuation. It will hurt better electronics. It sounds like the voltage regulator isn't working right. I assume when you say "idle" you mean 3600rpms? Don't have a way to check the RPM's. The capacitor does not regulate voltage, only helps with hard starts by supplying extra boost.
> 
> Just curious, how many amps is your "small vacuum"? Just found the amps on the vacuum housing...3.4 amps. Most gen sets when they say 1000 watts are saying peak, not constant.
> So you may have 800 continuous watts. That's not a whole lot for a vacuum.
> ...


 When the idle speed is adjusted to read 145v at no load, the vacuum takes it down to 120v. Adding 3 - 100w bulbs reduces the volts to 114-116v.
When the vacuum is turned on, the voltmeter drops way down, rpm 'slows a little' and in about 2 seconds, the generator recovers to 120v. 
Sounds like it is responding to the demand ok.[/COLOR]

Hope this helps ..........
Thanks.


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## winnie32v (May 27, 2017)

thehandyman1957 said:


> 145volts is still too high and you should not get that kind of fluctuation. It will hurt better electronics. It sounds like the voltage regulator isn't working right. I assume when you say "idle" you mean 3600rpms? The capacitor does not regulate voltage, only helps with hard starts by supplying extra boost.
> 
> Just curious, how many amps is your "small vacuum"? Most gen sets when they say 1000 watts are saying peak, not constant.
> So you may have 800 continuous watts. That's not a whole lot for a vacuum.
> ...


Not sure if my reply from yesterday went through, so I will reply again.

My small vacuum is 3.4 amps.
As for "idle", I can adjust the speed by turning the screw on the carb, but don't know the rpm's, just voltage.
If I set the idle volts to 140 - 145 and plug in the vacuum, the volts and rpm drop way down and quickly recover to 120v.
Add an additional 3 - 100w bulbs and the volts drop to 115 - 116.

Everything seems to be responding as it should, just not sure about the control of the volts output.
Maybe this unit is not suited for some of the more delicate household electronics.

Advise, please.
Thanks.


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## thehandyman1957 (Feb 11, 2017)

typical Gen sets run at 3600 rpm's the screw on the carb will adjust the rpm's and thus the voltage. 

3.4 amps is around 400 watts not including the start up load. If you had a clamp meter with amp surge reading you would probably see about a 1/3 more on start up. Thats about 6-700 watts start up. That is what drags the gen down when starting. When you say "way down" how far down does the volts go? 60-80?

It sounds like it's working ok but I would not trust it on anything you love. A good gen set should start with no load around 110-130 and stay very close to the middle even under load. If you have to start at 145 to keep it at 115 under heavy load I would say a spring is getting tired or it's just a cheap gen set.

If you can get the starting voltage below 130 then it should be ok. But if that makes it drop below 100 under a heavy load you will probably just have to leave it at 145. Just don't use it for good stuff.


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