Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

Timely warning in light of all the downed power lines we can expect this week coming up from Louisiana.

I also dropped that link into the Ida thread on here too.

We've had a spot or two of nasty weather here this Summer, but nothing like a Cat 5.

I've spent some time around high voltage systems, so likely have slightly better awareness than average. That said, reflex-reactions can be hard to check - if I saw something on fire, I'd grab a fire-extinguisher too. Too bad somebody else hadn't been there to yell out "Stay the ______ away from that line".

Even if you understand the threat range of high-voltage, it's hard to triage multiple threats, esp. when one has high visibility like fire.

Rgds, D.

 

[Patrick Herd]

Not a planned maintenance run, but we had a pretty massive storm last week:
Power was out from about 02:30 in the morning due to numerous tree branches getting tangled up in the lines. My friend down in town said it was like a lightning storm with all the line clashing going on before things went completely dead.

Equipment:
Powered our house essentials such as internet, computers, lights, and freezers off of our battery backed solar system. No issues to report, batteries were still showing 90+% full when the power came back on at 20:00 that evening. Moved the house back to the gravity water supply in the afternoon as it was getting a bit boring without running water.

"2hp" 2 stroke shoe box sized generator started first pull of the cord after a quick prime of the air intake with some 2 smoke mix. It powered the neighbours hydroponic pumps and tunnel house skin blower from early in the morning until power was restored. Carb drained for next time.

"1600W" off brand inverter generator which belongs to my employer and was at home for a (yet to be done) maintenance run. This one put up a little bit of a fight, taking half a dozen pulls of the cord to get it to go. It went over to the neighbours later in the afternoon as their fridges were starting to warm up a little. The neighbours wanted to watch tv too

All in all pretty successful usage and testing of all the systems. A bigger inverter and new transfer switch which covers the whole house and workshop are a lot higher on the priority list now.

 

[3930dave]

Well played Patrick, things went well for you.... maybe you kept our Murphy standing on his head

Good after-action analysis..... leading to new design targets, always time well spent

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

isn't it wonderful when they all start?
isn't it wonderful when they all keep running?

plenty of hurricane season left.

 

[3Ts]

Just had the local Generator maintenance done on my 22k Generac. However, the controller says the next maintenance due date is Oct 19, 2021. I asked him to reset it because I didn't want it to start warning me about faults in a few weeks. He said it can't be done that when it does show a fault, to just reset it.

Is this real? It can't be reset to show that service was done a little early?

 

[grsthegreat]

Just had the local Generator maintenance done on my 22k Generac. However, the controller says the next maintenance due date is Oct 19, 2021. I asked him to reset it because I didn't want it to start warning me about faults in a few weeks. He said it can't be done that when it does show a fault, to just reset it.

Is this real? It can't be reset to show that service was done a little early?

it can be reset thru dealer menu. problem is that also resets the schedule a and schedule b warnings. not a big deal really.

i always reset the schedules on units i service. but you can wait until the yellow light shows up and just press the enter button 2 times to clear the yellow light. the yellow light does not effect operation of unit.

 

[3Ts]

Thanks

 

[3930dave]

Exercise and "eating" Right..... not just for Hugh Mans.....

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

not a "run" today but while I had the smart charger out for another battery, I let it run on the gen for several hours.
I try to do this two or three times a year to run the final desulphate cycle.

 

[cdaigle430]

Just had my 16KW natural gas Generac services-5th year. I am having them add a wifi monitor this year for 325 bucks-includes one year of montoring-it has the EVO 1 controller.