Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

Water and ZZZZZ's ...... never good being short on either.

Here's hoping you won't be out long 419

Rgds, D.

 

[swines]

30 kW whole house generator. Runs a self-diagnostic routine every two weeks and runs for 20 minutes. I check the oil and coolant and that's it.

 

[3930dave]

30 - all electric house, big A/C tonnage, supporting a business/shop as well ? Just nosy , as a lot of folk seem to "get by" on 22k....

Rgds, D.

 

[RalphVa]

Probably best to call.... I know that many commercial suppliers I deal with up here are short on staff, and are not getting to things as timely as they used to....

That ^, and i know (in my case) some Fleetguard and Baldwin filters are often running behind in the chain, so they'll often come in/go out of a distributor the same or next-day on stock b/o's.....

Rgds, D.

Called and got a computerized reply with an email that does not work. Tried faxing my request. No reply. Think I'll probably just have to get everything locally. At least I have the Wix and NAPA replacements for the oil and fuel filters. Assuming my JD Coolgard II will work for 6 years anyway. Why don't tractor manufacturers do 10 year coolant like is in all our SUV, car and pickups now?

 

[5030]

Getting time to purchase a new cabinet for my standby as the original one is getting rusty. I see Generac is now offering an aluminum enclosure for their earlier steel cabbed units. I'll have to gut the old cab and install everything in the new enclosure. 1900 for a new cab, but cheaper than a new unit.

 

[TheMan419]

Water and ZZZZZ's ...... never good being short on either.

Here's hoping you won't be out long 419

Rgds, D.

Thankfully only out for about 4 hours. I was at the gym when the power went out. Picked up a pizza for dinner on the way home since the oven/cook top is electric. Fired generator up around 7:30 and ran it for 2 hours before power came back on. Power company uses the Scotty method of estimating restoration time. Told us 11:30 and it was really 9:30.

Best guess is used a bit over a gallon of gas. That is pretty consistent with the consumption we have seen in longer outages. Between .5 and .7 gal per hour depending on load. If I knew a bad storm was coming I would have the tank full and all jerry cans full giving me about 22 gal of gas on hand. In a real cold snap the furnace runs a lot more than we think it does. So that would last me a couple days if needed. In a more moderate temperature many many days of use out of that fuel.

 

[3930dave]

Called and got a computerized reply with an email that does not work. Tried faxing my request. No reply. Think I'll probably just have to get everything locally. At least I have the Wix and NAPA replacements for the oil and fuel filters. Assuming my JD Coolgard II will work for 6 years anyway. Why don't tractor manufacturers do 10 year coolant like is in all our SUV, car and pickups now?

# years.... good question. One issue might be operating hours (vs. years) - commercial diesels tend to see high operating hours (loaded, and just idling) vs. what a typical light duty gas engine sees.

Hopefully that distributor you were trying is still in business, and just understaffed.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Getting time to purchase a new cabinet for my standby as the original one is getting rusty. I see Generac is now offering an aluminum enclosure for their earlier steel cabbed units. I'll have to gut the old cab and install everything in the new enclosure. 1900 for a new cab, but cheaper than a new unit.

Aluminum should stay clean looking, but at $1900 USD I'd be tempted to build something myself.... says the guy with more projects than time

If you get the new enclosure, please post up some pics !

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Thankfully only out for about 4 hours. I was at the gym when the power went out. Picked up a pizza for dinner on the way home since the oven/cook top is electric. Fired generator up around 7:30 and ran it for 2 hours before power came back on. Power company uses the Scotty method of estimating restoration time. Told us 11:30 and it was really 9:30.

Best guess is used a bit over a gallon of gas. That is pretty consistent with the consumption we have seen in longer outages. Between .5 and .7 gal per hour depending on load. If I knew a bad storm was coming I would have the tank full and all jerry cans full giving me about 22 gal of gas on hand. In a real cold snap the furnace runs a lot more than we think it does. So that would last me a couple days if needed. In a more moderate temperature many many days of use out of that fuel.

Short outage.... that worked out well.

My big generator would use a similar amount, so I try and keep at least 22 gal on hand (not a fan of crowded gas stations, or long drives to same...). Years ago, I decided that all cans get fuel stabilizer, ALL the time.... cans are tagged, but Stabil etc buys me a little extra time, if I get lazy/sloppy about rotation......

.... I've cleaned carbs and changed floats over the years, but it's not a favourite pastime, and definitely not something I want to be doing during a major outage.....

Rgds, D.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

How much does a wire brush and some paint cost??

SR