It might be the fact that natural gas has an unlimited shelf-life that draws you toward a natural gas generator solution.
Whatever your reasoning, you’ve made a good choice. Now you have another choice to make. Should you go with a new model or a used generator?
Among the many advantages to buying in on used natural gas generators, three stand out on top. We’re going to dive deep into performance, variety, and price, but touch on some other points along the way.
Keep reading to know more!
Table of Contents
As-New Performance
It’s important to find out what the technical expertise of the refurbisher is. A used generator, especially one with few running hours on it, can often work at the same level of performance as new generators. It all depends, though, on the expertise of the refurbisher.
If a generator is being sold, the seller should refurbish it to an as-new state. While Diesel commercial generators can last between 25 to 30 years, a natural gas generator requires more maintenance and service.
Still, a natural gas generator lasts up to 3,000 hours in most cases.
The life expectancy lowers because owners don’t always get this work done on time. In terms of refurbishing work, newer is better, but operating hours are of prime importance.
Some ways to increase the lifespan besides maintenance are:
- Keep plenty of space in the enclosure.
- Make sure to clean the enclosure inside and out on a schedule
- The enclosure has good airflow
- The encloser is in a flood-safe zone
- Only authorized personnel have access to the enclosure
You should develop a good daily, weekly, monthly, bi-annual, and annual maintenance checklist and routine. Talking to your reseller and servicer about this checklist can help to extend the life of your natural gas generator, and reduce the chances of a breakdown.
Only a bi-annual and annual maintenance are required, but having a daily, weekly, and monthly routine and checklist will save on cost over time.
Variety of Choices
Considering the long life of generators, you can easily find models working just fine that are 20 years old—working fine, for now, that is. The point is, the reliability of generators means you have at least a decade’s worth of models to choose from.
Some of the big names in natural gas generators are:
- Caterpillar
- Cummins
- Generac
- Waukesha
- Kohler
Now, remember that we said the older generators are working just fine, and they are. But if you buy a “newer” used generator, you could have a good 20 years of life in the generator.
A 2015 generator could have almost 2000 hours, while a one from the mid-90s has under 500 hours of operation. Keep in mind that those are hours with lights on, rather than being in the dark.
Financial Savings
While having a newer model does perhaps bring some technological advancement, the other consideration is the price tag. You could save between 30% to 70% on buying a used generator, rather than a new one.
In looking around on Google searches, you might see that the typical wait for new generators is between six to eight weeks before it’s installed. We can deliver a used generator immediately.
Keep in mind you likely have to do site work and find proper placement before installation.
It’s obvious that the higher you go in KW, the higher the price goes, but even used generators at higher KW can go for $45,000 or more. Triple or double that price, and that’s what a new one would run you.
Is it worth it to double your expense over a couple of hundred hours?
A natural gas generator is expected to last between 2,000 to 3,000 hours. Unless you’re going to keep them as always-on generators, having 10% of your lifetime hours used up in return for 50% (or more) of a price drop sounds like a pretty good deal!
Why Downtime Matters
Downtime is a real economic killer. Texas holds a claim to a large portion of the nation’s data centers due to its strategic position between the East and West coasts.
Because of hurricanes and flooding, power outages are a real danger to this vital economic contributor. Data centers on average spend 35% of their operating budgets on power.
Over 30% of 100 outages cost more than $250,000, according to Uptime. Three outages cost more than $20 million to data centers.
The cost to data centers in 2015 due to power outages cost $8,851 per minute!
Manufacturing companies suffering power outages at least once a month. It contributes to the nationwide report of one-quarter of manufacturing businesses experiencing power outages. All totaled it could be worth up to $5 million per hour on a large manufacturer.
Data centers and manufacturers are not the only ones who suffer. Here are a few companies and organizations that suffer most:
- Data centers
- Healthcare
- Military
- Manufacturing
- Grocery stores
- Small business
That covers just about everyone, though I think we can all agree on hospitals and other healthcare facilities having reliable power generation. Especially in these times of COVID-19, the healthcare industry, military, food industry, and data centers need to have complete uptime for national health and security.
New vs Used Natural Gas Generator: Now You Know
When it comes to new vs used natural gas generators, it should be a clear choice about what you need to do. Sometimes, though, it isn’t quite so cut and dry because you might have special needs.
If that’s the case, Swift Equipment Solutions is there to help you make decisions that will make a positive impact on your business. We’re your industrial equipment experts, dedicated to delivering you the right solution for your needs.
Get in touch today and find out peace of mind we can offer!
Leave A Comment