Generators

From a suitcase inverter to a diesel set in a cabinet:

generators split on how clean the power is and how loud they run. An inverter, the quiet suitcase-shaped kind Honda and Yamaha made popular, puts out steady power that laptops, routers and the control board of a modern fridge are happy with, and it throttles down at light load, so a tank lasts. An open-frame gasoline planta on a tubular cage gives more watts for the money and starts a well pump without fuss, but it is loud and its voltage wanders more. Diesel sets in a soundproof cabinet belong to hotels, sodas with a cold room and small factories, wired in and starting on their own when the grid drops. On a dairy farm, a PTO generator driven by the tractor keeps the milking machine and the cooler going with no second engine to maintain.

Sizing a generator to the pump, the fridge and the sockets:

add up what has to stay on, then allow for anything with a motor. A fridge, a well pump or an air compressor pulls several times its running power for a moment at start-up, and a set that cannot cover that surge stalls whenever the pump kicks in. Read the rated output, not the peak printed large on the box. Costa Rica runs on 60-hertz power with 120-volt sockets and 240 for pumps and welders, so a set built for the European 50-hertz supply is the wrong machine. Anything wired into a house panel needs a transfer switch, so it can never push power back into the street line while a crew is working on it.

What a planta costs, from a budget open frame to a diesel cabinet:

a budget-brand open frame big enough for the fridge, the lights and the television runs from about ₡200,000 to ₡400,000 new, and a branded inverter of similar output costs two to three times as much. With an entry price that low, a used open frame is a hard sell, since stale fuel can eat the saving in a carburettor rebuild. Second-hand value sits in diesel standby sets, which start in the low millions of colones for a small business and run well past ₡10 million for a hotel. There, a low-hours set with its service log and transfer switch saves a buyer a serious sum.

A used generator after months without an outage:

most plantas sit idle between power cuts, and the idleness does the damage. Gasoline left in the carburettor turns to varnish and blocks the jets, so a portable that only runs on choke was stored with fuel in it. Put a real load on it, an iron or a drill, with a plug-in meter showing whether the voltage holds. An engine that runs well but delivers nothing usually means a failed voltage regulator or worn alternator brushes: fixable, and a reason to pay less. On a diesel set, compare the hour meter with the service log, look for black oily drips at the exhaust from long running at light load, and ask how old the starting battery is; regulators, filters and batteries turn up under industrial parts. A unit styled like a Honda but wearing an unfamiliar engine badge is a copy.

Listing a generator a buyer will want to hear first:

give the rated output and the peak separately, the fuel, cord or key start, and the sockets. Film it starting from cold and running a load with the sound on, because people judge the noise before they picture it under a bedroom window. Photograph the data plate and the hour meter, and say how it was stored: drained and run dry before its last long rest is what a buyer hopes to read. With a diesel set, say whether the transfer switch and cabinet go with it and whether a crane truck can reach it. A shop owner in San Vito who lost a freezer of stock in the last storm will want it the same day, so say when you can be there to start it in front of them.