Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

Train in Peace..... nice post d.

Standardized Use By labeling would be useful, including on food ! Plastic resealable packages are some of the worst-offenders..... light-grey printing, on a light-brown surface ? Seriously ? My eyes are still pretty good (knock wood), but obviously high-contrast labels re. critical info would benefit everyone....

Respect, understand, continue to make use of Power.. hmmm too many rabbit-holes to go down there !

Propane is getting more and more attractive, stability-wise. No pool here, but excellent reminder about Chlorine.... many people either skipped, or slept through Chem x01......

Your post reminded me of an Uncle of mine, built a big timber framed barn from scratch, using logs off his own land. Connection: fire-safety. He used intact, but out of service drink-can vending machines to store flammables in - double-walled and solidly built to withstand vandalism, his ins. agent at the time was impressed.

Now a daze, you'd need correct approval labels on everything ^, but if you happen to reside in a jurisdiction Where Common-Sense Still Lives, local FD might appreciate those recycled enclosures.

Rgds, D.

 

[big bubba]

in regards to gen maintenance, have '2000 generac 6500W contractors model. great machine, less than 100 hrs. rodents got to the wiring to the manual idle switch. tried connections, still doesn't lower rpm when not under load. back then, idler switch was manual

not asking to look up part #, it's long discontinued it may just be a solenoid hookup, so any thoughts if that would work? rigged up manual hook to governor lever when when not under load, but a pain when i need frequent power equip use. sorry for confusing wording. don't have model # at hand but part not avail, thanks in advance

 

[Texasmark]

I did a maintenance run on one of mine yesterday, and decided to start this thread as a reminder-to-self to do this a little more often.

I had some issues with my old gen last year, detailed in another thread. Part of my corrective action plan (to what was reasonably careful storage in the past) is to run my generators at least every 2-3 months.

Using the Cloud, to offset my less than perfect memory........

Rgdgs, D.

The Generac brand of home standby generator is automatically programmed to run 15 minutes every week at about the same time. I have had mine since 2014 and has been one of the best decisions in my life, especially here later on in life.

 

[grsthegreat]

Actually the newer units since about 2012 run either weekly, bi weekly or monthly, for 5 minutes. The older units ran 15 min monthly only.

But they are strong machines.

 

[ultrarunner]

Exercise and maintenance limited to 20 hours per calendar year.

Use during documented power outage unlimited but annual fuel consumption must be reported for stationary hardwired diesel units...

I also have a Natural Gas genset but it predate the air district reporting requirements...

 

[3930dave]

in regards to gen maintenance, have '2000 generac 6500W contractors model. great machine, less than 100 hrs. rodents got to the wiring to the manual idle switch. tried connections, still doesn't lower rpm when not under load. back then, idler switch was manual

not asking to look up part #, it's long discontinued it may just be a solenoid hookup, so any thoughts if that would work? rigged up manual hook to governor lever when when not under load, but a pain when i need frequent power equip use. sorry for confusing wording. don't have model # at hand but part not avail, thanks in advance

If I'm understanding correctly, you mostly just have a wiring issue (?).

If you've "colour matched" the mice-chewed wiring back together, did the switch itself check-out properly with an Ohm-meter ? That's old enough that the switch itself is tired. If you can come up with a Model #, we might be lucky enough to scrape up a schematic. If it's a solenoid problem, perhaps something can be subbed off another model....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

The Generac brand of home standby generator is automatically programmed to run 15 minutes every week at about the same time. I have had mine since 2014 and has been one of the best decisions in my life, especially here later on in life.

Big Smile . You caught me, hanging-out here "a while".

I definitely see the utility of these automatic Generacs. Various reasons I haven't pulled the trigger..... (knock wood) grid-uptime here is generally v. good is the first one. I do have Natgas, so it would be a slam-dunk solution going that way.

IF I was away from home more (like I used to be in a past job, which paid a lot more) I'd have an auto-Generac here by now....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Exercise and maintenance limited to 20 hours per calendar year.

Use during documented power outage unlimited but annual fuel consumption must be reported for stationary hardwired diesel units...

I also have a Natural Gas genset but it predate the air district reporting requirements...

IIRC, that NG set came out of a building disposing of it.... running, but with a notably loud exhaust (not untypical for the vintage likely).

If that NG set is still grandfathered, might be time to play around (always easy to come up with more ToDo's, for other people ) with an alternate muffler.

Parts are pretty much always much better priced south of the 49'th than here, but one of the slickest v. low cost muffler upgrades I came across on the 'net was a guy who re-purposed a factory muffler from a 600cc Supersport MC onto a portable generator. (Worked out really well.... and, he'd actually done the volumetric calculations too).

You could obviously just use a car/truck muffler, but I mention the MC repurpose ^ for a few reasons..... factory Supersport mufflers are usually very well engineered, relatively compact, matched to high-rpm engines (so can punch outside their class, IMO, volume-wise), and Quiet .

The last reason ^, is why you can get take-off slip-on mufflers from MCs at low or No Cost... it's one of the first things many riders replace. Given where you live, these mufflers might be piling up on street-corners !

(The other thing I liked about that 600cc setup the guy built - nicely constructed tripod held the muffler, straight up, with flex going to the portable gen he had.)

Rgds, D.

 

[big bubba]

thanks 3930dave, i'll look into it

 

[3930dave]

thanks 3930dave, i'll look into it

NP, we've fixed a lot of stuff on here !

Rgds, D.