Your last generator Maintenance Run

   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,281  
Not right exactly. Diesel gensets are 4 pole / 1800 rpm. Gas is 2 pole / 3600 rpm. I own both btw. Gas can be water or air cooled but diesels are almost always water cooled. In fact I don't know of any major producer that uses an air cooled diesel engine.
Generac sell lots of gas fueled 1800 rpm liquid cooled units. Look at the 22, 27 kw units for example
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,282  
is the extra expense to go 1800 rpm due to needing a larger higher torque engine or
a more expensive alternator? or both
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,284  
Whatever and I'm not in the market for a new one as I already own 2 Generac's. One is diesel (1800 rpm) and one is gas (propane fired), 3600 rpm. Both are over 10 years old and both operate flawlessly.

I read comments about how unreliable they are and when I read negative comments, I think to myself, the negative comments are from owners who don't maintain them properly. Any standby genset is only as reliable as the owner is reliable about maintaining them.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,285  
1) I hope your property had no fire damage.

2) If that's how your luck usually runs (11 days, nobody home, no issue w. a 10 y/o battery), then I'll pay you to buy and mail me lottery tickets ! :cool: (y)

No fire damage🙏🏻 fire was stopped 5 miles from our property! I did go to the house every day just to check the oil and propane use! Thanks for the heads up on the battery, heading to town today, will stop and get that lottery ticket's you speak of😂😂😂 if I win I’ll split it with you!😎👍🏻☮️✌🏻 And get a battery!

3) Easy to spend somebody else's money (and, I'm not known for throwing mine away) but that 2014 battery has been well-amortized by now..... after that 11 day run, I'd have trouble sleeping w/o a new battery in your gen. A "while" back in this thread, grs had some good #'s on battery life expectancy (other people listed info too, but he probably changes more batteries on Generacs in a year, than the rest of us ever see). IIRC, 10 years on that class of battery is getting well out on the far edge of expected life.

Rgds, D.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,286  
Whatever and I'm not in the market for a new one as I already own 2 Generac's. One is diesel (1800 rpm) and one is gas (propane fired), 3600 rpm. Both are over 10 years old and both operate flawlessly.

I read comments about how unreliable they are and when I read negative comments, I think to myself, the negative comments are from owners who don't maintain them properly. Any standby genset is only as reliable as the owner is reliable about maintaining them.
That’s absolutely the truth. Units properly maintained work for many, many years. People that complain about never getting a 3600 rpm screamer dont understand that i service these units with over 2000 hr run time and they still work great.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,287  
I bet using synthetic oil has had a big impact on longevity
I wonder what the statistical difference is between an hour of wear on a 1800 rpm unit
and a 3600 one. Other than what is likely an incredibly small amount of cylinder wear.
I always thought my Generacs had great rings in them, I never used oil in any of them.
use the best synthetic, change the oil filter, air filters never seem to get dirty and keep the battery
charged if you have one. and take a small leaf blower to air blast inside of cabinet to keep the spiders out.

I have no such expectation of reliability from my Westinghouse gen.
however at my age I expect to outlast it....
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run
  • Thread Starter
#7,288  
Alan - glad to hear that all things worked out for you...... 5 miles is close enough.

When you posted, I was thinking - short of being over-run by fire, that's the next-worse scenario - compared to being away on vacation in normal times, and having a neighbour you can trust checking on things.....

Not knowing how tight the lockdown was, my next thought was - Fuel, Oil, other faults..... yikes, 11 days is a long time.

PM me here once the lottery wins come in, I'll drive down to pick up my half !!! (y)

Rgds, D.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run
  • Thread Starter
#7,289  
I read comments about how unreliable they are and when I read negative comments, I think to myself, the negative comments are from owners who don't maintain them properly. Any standby genset is only as reliable as the owner is reliable about maintaining them.
Reading these recent posts, I was thinking back to grs's horror stories on neglected Generacs..... NO Oil, exploded batteries, etc.....

People either Take Ownership, or, they don't.....

Rgds, D.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,290  
Most Generacs (at least mine do) have low oil and coolant (in the case of the diesel unit) shutdown. Not that they have ever did it as I'm always checking things on both of them. I like to check the overall 'health' every week. Only takes a couple minutes at most.

People tend to get lax about maintenance and that applies to everything, not just standby generators either. How many people check the air pressure in their tires regularly and why vehicles today come with air pressure monitors in the tires... because people never check the air pressure and radials can look inflated properly but in reality are low on pressure. Looks can be deceiving and it only takes a couple minutes to check them.

Same applies with starting batteries. I read threads on here where a posters tractor won't start and 99% of the time the starting battery has gotten to the end of it's life or the connections are corroded and have high resistance. I bever comment simply because I find those commenters to be sort of dumb and not worth a comment anyway. Starting batteries, especially flooded cell batteries have a definite lifespan and why mine get changed out if load tested and appear weak and when I change them out, all the connections and terminals get cleaned and brightened and then coated with a corrosion preventive. Never have had a battery related issue on anything I own, ever and I don't even own a 'jump start' pack. Don't need one so long as the starting battery and connections are maintained properly and the battery(s) are replaced when they get weak. Only 'tester' I own is a carbon pile load tester and I use it.
 

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