Kohler Generator Controller Woes

[Lassen Forge]

Went to check the generator after it didn't do it's normal 3PM Saturday exercise run, and the controller had some kind of error message on it. Finally searched it down, turned out to be an internal short.

I was going to just buy a new board... until I found out they were north of $1000. Ouch!

So I FINALLY found a Kohler dealer who would replace it under warranty (we were at year 4 1/2 of our 5 year warranty) - who tells me that "We just came from a training seminar which discussed the first and second series of these boards have known flaws, and are prone to failure"...

We still had to pay their travel but they changed out the board on the factory warranty. What worries me is if someone else has one of these beasts (20KW 2 cylinder LPG) and their board hasn't failed - yet - and when it does, they get the $1000 surprise...

 

[ihateminimumwage]

Glad to hear you got it handled under warranty (as it should be).

The older DC2 and RDC2 controllers (Green Board) have had some issues. They updated to Blue Boards, then those needed an additional part added to them, then quickly updated to the Red Boards. Since then, there have only been occasional firmware hiccups (switching languages, losing OnCue connectivity), but Kohler has been updating pretty regularly to get rid of the last of the bugs.

Most of the home standby gensets have fallen into the "eggs in one basket" with their controllers now, where one expensive computer controls engine speed, voltage regulation, safeties, remote monitoring, exercise function, etc. instead of multiple (affordable) boards for separate functions.

Overall the air cooled Kohlers are fantastic gensets. Run quiet, don't hog fuel, no adjusting the valves. Outside of the occasional board, I've basically only had to check them over, change the oil and update the firmware. No dropped valves, puking seals, or burnt up alternators. In years of working on them, I've only seen one engine failure, and that was because of an improper install inside a concrete cell tower building with no ventilation. It ran all winter with no one maintaining it, and burned itself up.