The amount of water pouring into our sump is like Niagara Falls and I fear the electricity going off while we're gone and the basement flooding.  A couple of our neighbors have bought Generacs and I was giving some serious thought to installing one but they are so expensive.  Koehler and Briggs and Stratton also have units.  They're anywhere from $8K to $10.  Still doesn't make the threat go away as the sump pump itself could fail.  So much ground water and rain still threatening.  It's been three weeks of a leaky basement and sump going wild.  I never want a house with a basement again.  It's not worth the stress.

Any pros and cons to owning one?    

 i had a generic 12k that if power went off it kicked on ran everything but ac propane  you can by a generator and have it hook up to specfic breakers like a sump pump  look at north tool or hd

That sounds like a better idea.  Thanks 

you can do stand by without going whole house. 

After the big ice storm we had we bought one. It runs our whole house. Haven't had to use it much, which is good. Every friday it self checks itself. You can hear it come on. I need to get bob to change the time that it checks itself  :(  

fyi my 12k was 5900 installed including generatr

 i am looking to get a solor generator for hurricanne season  i have a 7500 powermate  runs propne but its lnosey but want so,ethig quiter  and ....  

nevermind, I did in fact read it wrong. 

Actually I do have a standby generator but that doesn't help when you're not right there to hook it up.  I just wondered if the Generacs are subject to foul-ups or totally worth the money.

What kind did you buy?

Ours is a Generac. We got it through tractor supply 

A stand by does not need to be "hooked up" it's always hooked up. 

With the proper transfer switch it starts imediatly when you lose power and runs until you turn it off. 

which brings us to this. ALWAYS have a proper transfer switch so you don't kill a lineman doing his job. 

it's not self checking, it's exercising itself. 

generators need to be run in order for them to maintian their effectiveness. 

We have a whole house Generac. We have had zero issues with it.. It also runs our sump pump, ac, and furnace. We don’t lose power much but have lose it 4 times with years to sever wind and storms. Our basement definitely would have flooded without it, completely flat here and no wear for water to go. That was our worry also!  The lights will flash once then everything kicks back. Both of my neighbors also have whole house Generacs.

Mine also cycles on a weekly basis, which is great since they don’t ever used often enough to keep everything working properly.

We had generators on all sets of our fish ponds (35) for years, and they came on the second the electricity went off (which where we live is too often).   But on the off years that they weren't run much, the men would turn them all on ever so often to "keep them in shape."   

Another weekend of storms in the forecast and basically all next week.  This is going into the fourth week of sweeping water and worrying about the sump failing.  Going to have to figure something out.   Insurance covers nothing. 

IT CAN BE HOOKED TO START WHEN POWER OFF

We've got a guy coming out today to sell us a Koehler.  I'll see what it takes to do only the sump.    Sounds way less expensive. 

Prayers for weather to break and things to start drying out