9 kw generator suggestions

I am looking to replace my 7.5 MDJE. The units I am looking at are a Onan 9 MDKBL and a Northern Lights 9KW M773LW3. I would appreciate feedback/input regarding this decision.
Parts/service cost are all in the equation. I also currently power my water maker direct from the generator and would like to know if these two could do the same with a PTO.

Given your home waters, Northern Lights is the way to go, commonly accepted as the best regardless.

FWIW, I've noticed that on forum discussions when generators come up, Northern Lights always gets good wraps.I have an Onan, which has worked very well over the 6 years that it's been in the boat. I doubt you would go wrong with either unit.

The other thing to consider is do you have a sound shield or not.
They certainly vary in quality with the different brands,
here in Australia we don't have a lot of exposure to Northern lights and the popular brands here are probably local other than Mase (VG) Onan, Westerbeke etc.
I know Mase have very good silencing boxes and apparently so do Northern Lights.
Just re reading the onan specs and their sound boxes appear pretty impressive.
I am going thru the same process , thinking of replacing my perkins driven Stamford 9 KVA unit.
My 1 st choice is the Mase (Yanmar driven) and very competitive in price but I am in Australia and this does make a difference

You water maker HP pump is it electrically driven now and you want to change ?
Should be plenty of reserve to drive electric HP pump with 9 KVA
Cheers
Benn

You lucky guys

I have no choice but Fischer Panda. God Help!!!

I too have a faithful old 20kw Onan, 5500 hours and going strong. I like their new ones also and would buy one given the extensive service network, but the NLs seem just a slight cut above. I spent a fair amount of time shopping for small generators, looking to get a lower kw "night" unit. Came down to NL, Onan and Norpro. On The List, but not there yet.

Onan MDKD 6.5, quiet, 3cyl dsl, Kubota engine I think. Reliable ,parts available,recently renewed start/stop solenoid. Hour meter is stuck, PO wore out 2 before this one, so it probably has some hours on it.

The water maker is directly driven from the engine on the generator. Is a pretty efficient setup. Would keep it that way however if I have to change I will. I have found that the 7.5 kw is good for my needs however it would be handy to have a little more power for laundry, etc. I do want a sound shield as well.

Westerbeke is tops where my info comes from..but like engines...it's all about opinion.,

I love my Westerbeke.

For some reason NL has a mystique. Now if only they would do a better job on their exhaust elbow. Nothing like a bit of sea war getting into the cylinders to spoil your day or better said, summer.

MY 12.5 Westerbeke has done fine, well except for the raw water pump failure at 375 hours. But I probably cooked it when it ran for a few minutes with the intake water valve closed. This I know, the emegency stop circuit due to high temperature really works! For this reason alone I'm a Westerbeke fan for life.

We are NL fans. On both the NL generators we own (ed) we installed after market SS exhaust elbows. The dealer/parts network is good. Here in the Caribbean there are at least 16 service centers from Trinidad to the Turks and Caicos.

7.5 kw is good for my needs however it would be handy to have a little more power for laundry, etc.

IF the problem is just getting the motors started in these items a big following inverter will usually provide the current required.

This is a better solution than an over sized noisemaker , that will suffer under loading and burn more fuel 90% of its life..

Larry M said:

We are NL fans. On both the NL generators we own (ed) we installed after market SS exhaust elbows. The dealer/parts network is good. Here in the Caribbean there are at least 16 service centers from Trinidad to the Turks and Caicos.

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Larry, just replaced the exhaust elbow on my 12 kw NL. Discovered a crack in the original during annual maintenance inspection. Glad we caught it. The unit has about 700 hours on it. I would recommend anyone with a NL to inspect theirs and do a preventive change. I was just lucky.

The problem with the 7.5 is that while running the watermaker, hot water tank, 12 and 32 volt charger/inverters, etc. running any additional load will cause the 32 volt charger to cease charging to support the other loads being demanded on the genset. I want to be clear on this...so the exhaust elbow on the NL's are a issue? What about any electrical problems with either one?

Bigsalmonfish said:

The problem with the 7.5 is that while running the watermaker, hot water tank, 12 and 32 volt charger/inverters, etc. running any additional load will cause the 32 volt charger to cease charging to support the other loads being demanded on the genset. I want to be clear on this...so the exhaust elbow on the NL's are a issue? What about any electrical problems with either one?

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The elbow has been the only issue with my NL. We changed it a couple of weeks ago. It runs strongly, and puts out clean power, It will run everything on the boat at the same time.

Moonstruck said:

Larry, just replaced the exhaust elbow on my 12 kw NL. Discovered a crack in the original during annual maintenance inspection. Glad we caught it. The unit has about 700 hours on it. I would recommend anyone with a NL to inspect theirs and do a preventive change. I was just lucky.

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Don: Good catch. The exhaust elbow is a maintenance issue in my opinion. I was replacing them about every 18 months on our 5 kw unit. Our current NL 8 kw was changed to SS 5 plus years ago and is fine.

We also have a Northern Lights. Works great. Better get down to the Seattle Boat Show. They will be on sale. North Harbor Diesel in Anacortes sells them and had the best price when I bought mine.

Thanks all. I appreciate the feedback. Purchasing one of these is not a often task.

Russell Clifton said:

We also have a Northern Lights. Works great. Better get down to the Seattle Boat Show. They will be on sale. North Harbor Diesel in Anacortes sells them and had the best price when I bought mine.

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I bought my NL fron North Harbor diesel as well.

Total man hours for the installation was around 20 if memory is correct.

Have you considered just replacing the generator end itself? If engine is fine this may be a lower cost/less hassle solution.

I believe that replacing the generator in its entirety would be better. This generator is still good as a running take out to someone and I have tons of spare parts to go along with it. The choices are what have me analyzing all models and I like the idea that the NL and Onan's truly have a single service side. Others I have seen have the raw water impeller buried low and on the opposite side.

7.5 is that while running the hot water tank

Sounds like by plumbing the HW heater to use the circ water from the existing noisemaker your problem would be solved.

$40 of hose and an afternoon of work,,,or $10K ?

Bigsalmonfish said:

I believe that replacing the generator in its entirety would be better. This generator is still good as a running take out to someone and I have tons of spare parts to go along with it. The choices are what have me analyzing all models and I like the idea that the NL and Onan's truly have a single service side. Others I have seen have the raw water impeller buried low and on the opposite side.

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I have the NL 9 kw unit.

Everything is on the service side, and the seawater pump is on the front, so you need two free sides to service the NL units.

As far as replacing the generator end goes, depending on the generator that can be a cost effective approach.

The smaller generator ends, if they are utilizing SAE sized bell housings can be replaced with often better quality generator ends for <$2K in parts.

The Onan MDJ series of generator ends have no new replacments available. They utilized the YD generator end which was a great end, but it is taper fit on the crankshaft, so again no new replacements but plenty of NOS parts around.

The problem with small generator major repairs is that if you are not in a position to DIY the job for any reason (time or skills) then labor can quickly turn a generator repair into a endevor that would cost justify a new generator.

Here's a good example. As part of my living I work on generators. Been doing it for decades. I bought a boat and for time reasons I needed to hire out some generator repairs. (the boat was in Anacortes and I am in Alaska)

This was a westerbeke generator. The generator end was needing replacement, and the heat exchanger was needing service. The shop called me and at their labor rate of $90 an hour they estimated $4800 in repairs.

For me it was an easy decision to opt for a brand new NL generator. The total cost of that, installed was much more at $15K but there was no way I was going to drop 1/3 of a new unit price into the old westerbeke, which in my opinion isn't the best of designs anyway.

Now, if my boat hadn't been 1500 NM away I would have yarded out the old generator and refurbished it with a new Marathon generator end, digital control system, etc... My cost then would have been a little over $2500 but my labor cost would have been "free"