Generator Maintenance

[Lucid Moments]

So I saw a couple of other threads talking about generators and it got me thinking about mine. I have a Predator (Harbor Freight) 9000 watt starting 7250 running generator. Got it last year when my house and shop were being built. Shop got done first and was actually running the shop off the generator for a couple of months until the power got hooked up. Quit using it about last September or October. About that time I changed the oil in it and drained all the fuel from the tank and from the carburetor.

What else should I do to this to make sure that if I need it all I have to do is add gas? It has electric start so I supposed I should put a battery maintainer on it. Anything else?

 

[justme-]

Drain the fuel tank, run the unit until it stops (or drain the bowl) then (and most important) out a few quarts of ethanol free fuel in the tank and run the unit for a couple of minutes.
Draining alone doesn't remove all the fuel from the carb passages which will contain water and corrode the carb and will evaporate and leave addative deposits in there. Ethanol free has no water which is 90 percent of the issue, and few addatives.

Run the unit every couple months for a few minutes with a load and only add pump gas when you need the unit for service...then repeat the above for storage.

Oil change before storage. Oil will have collected combustion byproducts and become acidic..sitting will cause damage (can be major, but generally minor) so change before.

Gens with avr system (like yours) can loose the magnetism in the rotor with inactivity...so the regular running for short period with a load (60 watt light bulb) will force it to re magnitise it.

I repair power equipment for a living.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

 

[PatY]

Drain the fuel tank, run the unit until it stops (or drain the bowl) then (and most important) out a few quarts of ethanol free fuel in the tank and run the unit for a couple of minutes.
Draining alone doesn't remove all the fuel from the carb passages which will contain water and corrode the carb and will evaporate and leave addative deposits in there. Ethanol free has no water which is 90 percent of the issue, and few addatives.

Run the unit every couple months for a few minutes with a load and only add pump gas when you need the unit for service...then repeat the above for storage.

Oil change before storage. Oil will have collected combustion byproducts and become acidic..sitting will cause damage (can be major, but generally minor) so change before.

Gens with avr system (like yours) can loose the magnetism in the rotor with inactivity...so the regular running for short period with a load (60 watt light bulb) will force it to re magnitise it.

I repair power equipment for a living.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

This is exactly what I do with mine. We had a power outage the other day for a few hours and I pulled it out and fired right up. Ethanol free fuel is key.

 

[Lucid Moments]

Seems easy enough.

 

[Niteman9]

Both of mine run on propane. If I need to run then on gas I only use ethanol free gas. As I do with all my gas powered equipment. Which is only a small Toro snowblower and a John Deere GX325. The Kubota and Grasshopper are both diesel. Everything else is Greenworks 60 Volt battery operated.

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[JerryC]

FWIW, I've had a HF 3200w generator for a few years. I put normal ethanol pump gas in it stabilized with StarTron.

I run it every two to three weeks for a few minutes with a light load (two 4' fluorescent lights) and sometimes with a 1500 watt heater attached. I've had 18 month old gas in the tank and it still started on the first or second pull. Startron is good stuff, I double the dose when I stabilize my gas.

I close the fuel shut off and choke when I turn it off. The shut off so there's no chance of the gas draining due a float, gasket, whatever carb issue and the choke to slow the evaporation of fuel in the carb (perhaps wishful thinking).

I think the key is that I don't let it sit long enough to dry out the fuel bowl in the carb and the Startrom keeps it from gumming up.

 

[nadogail]

Years ago I read on the fuel tank cap of a Cat Generator Set.
BUY CLEAN FUEL AND KEEP IT CLEAN

 

[Legion Prime]

Our power outages here happen mostly in the winter or spring. Once things warm up usually May/June I change the oil and put it up for the summer with fogging oil in the chamber which is when I check the plug and the gap. Then in fall I fire it up for a ~10 min test run before another quick spritz of fogging oil. I keep 10+ gallons of ethanol free with Stabil that I use for the genny, snowblower & mixing up for the chainsaws. Come fall they get added to the car gas tanks and refilled. I also keep a log of all maintenance done even if only oil changes and keep a spare plug and couple quarts of oil on hand. The only times it hasn't started within a pull or two was one time I forgot to turn the fuel petcock on and once when it was ~15 below and it took a quick spritz of ether.