Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

My new place has a Generac standby generator. I guess I'll have to educate myself on how it works and how to test it.

Post-up the Model, hours, and grs will likely know off the top of his head what Service should have been done.

Rest of you guys, checking ahead of time, Your Neighbours Thank You, as that almost guarantees that the local-grid will stay-up.

90 - good luck with repairing your Primary, and let us know how it goes.....

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

Got done servicing all my customers for this season…..ahead of schedule for once. Just checking over inventory so i can order up next years parts ahead of schedule. Just received 270 oil filters and about 100 spark plugs and 100 air filters. A good start to resupply. Also stocked up on some new controllers, fuel demand regulators, transfer mechanisms, etc from buying out another guys new stock, as hes too busy to service units any longer. He offered 1/2 off wholesale…coundnt say no to that.

 

[arto98607]

Warming up the genset for an oil change as I write this. We've been running every day for over three weeks now. This year the rain season has started a bit early and with more than average precip.

To the subject, I don't even bother keeping track of hours. I just make a rough note of the aftermarket hour meter reading and when the oil (Mobile1) gets darker than opaque it gets changed. It's certainly more often than needed, esp for full synthetic, but it's only a bit over a quart. So what?

Not sure if that method would work well with propane or natural gas powered generator?

The oil is staying pretty clean in my little dual fuel generator so it gets changed based on hours used, or once a year.

I keep few 100 lb and 30 lb propane bottles in the barn and have no intention to put gasoline in it, if I can avoid it...

 

[eolesen]

Not for maintenance but we had winds two weeks ago gift us with a five hour power outage.

Bessie fired up on electric start and we were up and running, aside from our internet, which needed power at the meter pole and out of extension cord reach.

 

[gsganzer]

Post-up the Model, hours, and grs will likely know off the top of his head what Service should have been done.

Thanks, I will. It's running on a 500 gallon LP tank that also serves the HWH and cooktop and some gas fireplaces. It looked like a really clean and well thought out set up.

 

[3930dave]

Got done servicing all my customers for this season…..ahead of schedule for once. Just checking over inventory so i can order up next years parts ahead of schedule. Just received 270 oil filters and about 100 spark plugs and 100 air filters. A good start to resupply. Also stocked up on some new controllers, fuel demand regulators, transfer mechanisms, etc from buying out another guys new stock, as hes too busy to service units any longer. He offered 1/2 off wholesale…coundnt say no to that.

Sweet deal ! He must have been in a hurry to clear the shelf-space.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Not sure if that method would work well with propane or natural gas powered generator?

The oil is staying pretty clean in my little dual fuel generator so it gets changed based on hours used, or once a year.

I keep few 100 lb and 30 lb propane bottles in the barn and have no intention to put gasoline in it, if I can avoid it...


View attachment 4366119

I was at a tech training conference a "few" years ago, chatting with a counterpart who worked out of Dallas, about his F150 that he ran on propane. He ran it with a oil-temp gauge w. good resolution, and said he could see as the oil aged, the increase in the Oil Temp wrt Ambient, Load etc..... but the oil still looked like it was just poured out of a new bottle.....

Likely posted that ^ story a while ago.... but it was the first "known person" confirmation I had of the "problem" w. propane, natgas....... I'd hate to think how beat-up the oil would be, if you waited for it to look dirty....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Not for maintenance but we had winds two weeks ago gift us with a five hour power outage.

Bessie fired up on electric start and we were up and running, aside from our internet, which needed power at the meter pole and out of extension cord reach.

Good to have the house Up on Gen, but that sounds like a tough spot to install a big UPS !

(Big Wink )

Rgds, D.