Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

I made up this instruction list for generator operation and taped it near the panel box in basement. Have gotten feedback that main breaker should always be turned off
before generator started and plugged in. My reasoning for this is to allow the gen to warm up a little, a few minutes anyway, before a load is put on it. Since the mechanical interlock prevents energizing the panel with gen power until the street power master breaker is flipped off, I didn't see any safety concerns here. But maybe I'm wrong. There is a 100 amp breaker for panel and separate 50 amp breaker for gen, and only one can be turned on at same time. Thoughts? I gave these instructions to electrician and he said they were fine. Safety first, but I thought the interlock prevented unsafe operation.

I'm glad things worked out for you d, in a timely fashion. I know how problematic commercial shipping has been....

Checklists..... good for helpers, 3am starts, or having to do it with a pounding head-cold.....

This one you posted looks good; only thought I had was turning on fuel-petcock. You may well have another Start Up list @ generator, that covers it...... thought of it because someone I know () was briefly wondering why his new gen wasn't starting, until he remembered that this one has a fuel petcock that his older small one lacks......

Rgds, D.

 

[fried1765]

I haven't gotten the bill yet with the specs on it, but I'll look on the receptacle tomorrow. I think Amazon has some...

I am not an electrician, but I just dug into my totally disorganized electrical supplies boxes.
Two 30A/50A receptacles found.
Too much saved stuff.....but sometimes it comes in very handy.
Home Depot is 30 miles away.

 

[3930dave]

Had and issue not long ago with all the power shut offs here in California.

I loaned a generator to my tenant and went though a few easy steps on how to use it...

He called to say it's running but the circuit breaker trips instantly now... I asked what he had plugged in as he said it was only for refrigerator, a couple of LED table lamp and charging his computer battery...

I go back and first thing I noticed is a cord going to the bathroom and find his daughter had plugged in a curling iron and another to microwave.

He said it worked earlier in the day but now not...

So all the loads were hitting the 3500 generator at once... did the best I could to explain but I don't think I got through...

I firmly believe technology is expecting too much for many and see this increasing as tech increases...

A corollary is when I called one of my tenants years ago regarding a bounced check... she insisted there was not a problem as she still had plenty of checks in her checkbook...

I don't really expect avg non-tech folk to think about surge currents. Adding up nominal wattage doesn't really take much more than basic arithmetic though.

Sadly, your last point speaks to where we are today re. basic math.....

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

I had one customer call me during an outage telling me the portable he purchased to work with a manual interlock i installed wasnt working right. Gen would start up but as soon as he flipped interlock gen would die. I explained over phone about turning off all large breakers, he said he did that. So i drove over. Everything looked ok, all large breakers off, unit dies right away. So i turned off all breakers, started gen, thinking id turn on 1 at a time. Gen turns off before i turn on 1 breaker. I go look at brand new gen.......NO OIL. The guy didnt even add oil. Who needs to read an instruction manual. He even removed the tag telling then to add oil. I added oil and it ran fine. Have no idea if he damaged it.
Again, cant fix stupid. I left bill and left to go eat dinner.
Got a check the next week

 

[ultrarunner]

I've found it is easier to make a call for many than to roll.up their sleeves... not that this is a bad thing for the person paid to make the problem go away.

Reminds of no heat service calls only to find gas off due to non-payment... although once in 30 years it was a defective smart gas meter.

Personally I found my attitude to call outs changed immensely when I became hourly and no longer salary.

When I was salaried no problem was too small to call me out... even a broken bottle in the parking lot...

Don't get those calls anymore with 2 hour minimum call-out pay which could be overtime or even double time on a Holiday... living 10 minutes from work makes it work..

 

[daugen]

I'm glad things worked out for you d, in a timely fashion. I know how problematic commercial shipping has been....

Checklists..... good for helpers, 3am starts, or having to do it with a pounding head-cold.....

This one you posted looks good; only thought I had was turning on fuel-petcock. You may well have another Start Up list @ generator, that covers it...... thought of it because someone I know () was briefly wondering why his new gen wasn't starting, until he remembered that this one has a fuel petcock that his older small one lacks......

Rgds, D.

If I was running gasoline, absolutely. Running propane, it only gets connected when needed and there is no petcock/valve; only the gasoline or propane selector valve.
The instruction sheet is if I leave this place and landlord wants to buy my generator. Otherwise, I'll take the sheet with me, liability hazard to leave it, who knows (as we have all discussed...)
the brains or lack thereof of the next person. Of course if they don't turn on the gasoline petcock, it won't start for sure and one would hope they would understand that.

 

[3930dave]

When I was salaried no problem was too small to call me out... even a broken bottle in the parking lot...

Don't get those calls anymore with 2 hour minimum call-out pay which could be overtime or even double time on a Holiday... living 10 minutes from work makes it work..

Pain, or No Pain.... fixes many things, but Stupid like in grs's example..... might need a Legion of Superheroes to defeat.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

If I was running gasoline, absolutely. Running propane, it only gets connected when needed and there is no petcock/valve; only the gasoline or propane selector valve.
The instruction sheet is if I leave this place and landlord wants to buy my generator. Otherwise, I'll take the sheet with me, liability hazard to leave it, who knows (as we have all discussed...)
the brains or lack thereof of the next person. Of course if they don't turn on the gasoline petcock, it won't start for sure and one would hope they would understand that.

Propane..... forgot about that . Peeked back a few pages, but didn't spot anything...... running single-tank for now, or did that manifold go together OK ?

Does this gen have an hour-meter ?

Rgds, D.

 

[Rustyiron]

With up to 15" of wet snow forecasted, and wind gusts up to 50mph forecasted, I just walked out to plug in Genny's block heater.
i

 

[3930dave]

You are all prepared Rusty.

Murphy - Move Along - nothing to see here !

Rgds, D.