Your last generator Maintenance Run
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TractorGuy
Elite Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2013
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- 4,616
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- N. FL
- Tractor
- John Deere 4310 CUT, Ford New Holland 575E Cab Backhoe (sold), John Deere F725 Front Mount Mower, Kubota LX3310 cab.
Lucky outage, sort of. Today was my scheduled maintenance run but I was going to postpone it due to rain. Our unreliable power had other ideas. Fortunately the rain slowed when the power went out. Saved me from having to get the load bank out since it is warm enough to run the AC.
On the downside my oil pressure gauge had stopped working when I went to shut it down. Will have to look into that next week.
On the downside my oil pressure gauge had stopped working when I went to shut it down. Will have to look into that next week.
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
We had close to a four hour outage last evening...
The wood stove was going and I have it set up for central heat. That means it has a fan on it to move the air, so I needed to start my Honda 2000. Another thing, we are having rain, so my sump pump wants to run some too, so I also plugged that into the Honda too.
I keep a heavy cord going into the basement year around just for this purpose, so it's really no big deal to hook up, I don't have to run an extension cord.
We keep our house ready with LED lamps ect. just for an outage like this, so there's no scrambling around here, when the power goes out.
As always, the Honda worked perfectly and that means it started/ran quietly and used a minimal amount of NO E fuel!
SR
The wood stove was going and I have it set up for central heat. That means it has a fan on it to move the air, so I needed to start my Honda 2000. Another thing, we are having rain, so my sump pump wants to run some too, so I also plugged that into the Honda too.
I keep a heavy cord going into the basement year around just for this purpose, so it's really no big deal to hook up, I don't have to run an extension cord.
We keep our house ready with LED lamps ect. just for an outage like this, so there's no scrambling around here, when the power goes out.
As always, the Honda worked perfectly and that means it started/ran quietly and used a minimal amount of NO E fuel!
SR
TractorGuy
Elite Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2013
- Messages
- 4,616
- Location
- N. FL
- Tractor
- John Deere 4310 CUT, Ford New Holland 575E Cab Backhoe (sold), John Deere F725 Front Mount Mower, Kubota LX3310 cab.
Always something, eh JD !
Had a chuckle about the AC, not something I think about for residential use up here this time of year.
Is that gauge mechanical or electrical ?
Rgds, D.
The gauge is electrical. I assume it still had oil pressure but I didn't open it up to look at the mechanical backup gauge. It has a separate low oil pressure safety system to shut it down if that switch opens.
cqaigy2
Super Member
Time before my last generator run was sorting things out and running part of the house for twenty minutes. Probably around 3-4Kw load. Week later came home to a dark house, everything was sorted and to just a few minutes to fire up the generator and switch load over to it.
This thread reminds me to do the maintenance so im ready for the real thing. :thumbsup:
This thread reminds me to do the maintenance so im ready for the real thing. :thumbsup:
PILOON
Super Star Member
Well, like it or not I did a 'maintenance run' today.
Power went off early AM and just came on.
The generator started up like a champ and I served hot coffee and toasts to the Mrs.
Other that freshening my gas I don't ever need to do maintenance runs.
I did however start up the tractor hoping the engine was still warm enough to start. It did.
(Mitsubishi need glow plugs more than other brands)
Life is good!
Power went off early AM and just came on.
The generator started up like a champ and I served hot coffee and toasts to the Mrs.
Other that freshening my gas I don't ever need to do maintenance runs.
I did however start up the tractor hoping the engine was still warm enough to start. It did.
(Mitsubishi need glow plugs more than other brands)
Life is good!
...... started with me wanting more RoundTuIts in my face...... to help get me moving on maintenance..... along the way, we've had some very interesting setups presented, and at least 1 or 2 maintenance snags come up that I wouldn't have expected......
Balky or dead engines are never fun, but one thing I always want to fire and run smoothly on short notice is a generator.
Rgds, D.
cqaigy2
Super Member
Completely agree. Thank you for getting thread started.
You're most Welcome.
Started with my Lousy Memory....... thanks to that
, I've gained 100x more out of this thread than I expected..... Thanks to All for the great information that has been posted here.Esp. if you are faced with your first dead engine, it helps to know that you are not the first one down that road...... many good test and maintenance tips have been posted here....... not the least of which is realizing that with today's off-shore manufacturing economics, you can often buy a complete ready-to-go new carb for not much more than what a carb-kit goes for !
As I type that last paragraph, I'm thinking......"Get that RoundTuIt Done to better organize my Parts Storage, then just buy 2 complete carbs (one large, one smaller portable gen in my case) and have them on The Shelf"...... Food for thought....
This thread does perpetually seem to create work.....
Rgds, D.
nikdfish
Veteran Member
A couple of unscheduled "tests" yesterday.
First one lasted a couple of minutes, later in the day the second one lasted about a half hour or so. The whole house generator kicked in as designed each time, only about 20 seconds of no-power each time (I forget the exact spec). With the various UPS units in place around the house there was no interruption on sat. TV, house WIFI or the 3d printer that was running a job during both events. No knowledge of what caused the outages. The second event had the wife smiling about how nice it was not to have to worry about when power would be restored & quite happy we spent the money..
On a different generator note, I finished up setting up the Champion 7K dual fuel with quick connects for the propane feed. Leaving the provided hose w/regulator attached had me worried about breakage when moving the unit around & removal between uses had me concerned about the flare fittings eventually leaking from repeated install/removal. The only pain was getting/building adaptors between SAE flare connections (on the gen & extension lines) & NPT (what the quick connects use). The original line & generator got one set and the extension hose got the second one. I already have a two bottle manifold set up for extended/high consumption use if needed. I keep 7 20lb bottles in the shed for "just in case".
First one lasted a couple of minutes, later in the day the second one lasted about a half hour or so. The whole house generator kicked in as designed each time, only about 20 seconds of no-power each time (I forget the exact spec). With the various UPS units in place around the house there was no interruption on sat. TV, house WIFI or the 3d printer that was running a job during both events. No knowledge of what caused the outages. The second event had the wife smiling about how nice it was not to have to worry about when power would be restored & quite happy we spent the money..
On a different generator note, I finished up setting up the Champion 7K dual fuel with quick connects for the propane feed. Leaving the provided hose w/regulator attached had me worried about breakage when moving the unit around & removal between uses had me concerned about the flare fittings eventually leaking from repeated install/removal. The only pain was getting/building adaptors between SAE flare connections (on the gen & extension lines) & NPT (what the quick connects use). The original line & generator got one set and the extension hose got the second one. I already have a two bottle manifold set up for extended/high consumption use if needed. I keep 7 20lb bottles in the shed for "just in case".
It's great when a plan works out as intended ! AND, the wife likes ! Double bonus points :thumbsup:
Fittings/lines don't like impacts...... good point about converting to quick-disconnects.
"When you get a minute"
..... pics of those quick disconnects please ? Inquiring minds want to see exactly what they look like......Rgds, D.
nikdfish
Veteran Member
I used these, sourced from Amazon -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073BW88D3/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
described as "Solid Brass Propane/Natural Gas Quick-Connect Kit 3/8 inch Male Pipe Thread x 3/8 inch Female Pipe Thread- CSA Certified."
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073BW88D3/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
described as "Solid Brass Propane/Natural Gas Quick-Connect Kit 3/8 inch Male Pipe Thread x 3/8 inch Female Pipe Thread- CSA Certified."
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TheMan419
Veteran Member
So in this vein.... when should I replace the battery in my generator? It is electric start portable. It is 5 yrs old at this point and has the original battery. Last maintenance run at thanksgiving it fired up like it was new. It is on a battery maintainer 24/7. However I don稚 want to tempt fate....
LittleBill21
Elite Member
no one can answer this but you, if you can't take a SG level from the battery there really is no way to tell the health. that said can you pull start it? can you get the battery locally? you have to decide. battery's can die at any moment, they don't always show signs especially seldom use ones.
BoFuller
Veteran Member
My generator auto starts once a week for maintenance, but a couple days ago the Mate kicked it on because my batteries were down to 75%. It would run for a minute then shut off, run a min and shut off, again and again.
Upon checking the Mate for error messages, it kept saying “low voltage” - 76 vac to be exact. I thought my generator was dying (only 3 yrs old), but my neighbor said to let it run a couple minutes before engaging the charger. Then it worked fine. It has been rainy and cold and he said the humidity was wreaking havoc with the electronics until it is warmed up. So I set the timer on my Mate to engage the generator after 2 minutes of run time instead of 30 seconds. Seems to be working fine now.
Upon checking the Mate for error messages, it kept saying “low voltage” - 76 vac to be exact. I thought my generator was dying (only 3 yrs old), but my neighbor said to let it run a couple minutes before engaging the charger. Then it worked fine. It has been rainy and cold and he said the humidity was wreaking havoc with the electronics until it is warmed up. So I set the timer on my Mate to engage the generator after 2 minutes of run time instead of 30 seconds. Seems to be working fine now.
