Generator Services

With every generator comes the potential for the following problems:

• Battery failure is the most common issue. It’s typically the result of sulfate building up on terminals, shorts, open cells, tripped charger breakers, charger failures, or too loose or dirty connections.
• Low coolant occurs when there are leaks or clogged radiators. When this happens the generator starts running hot and so it shuts down.
• A faulty block heater occurs because they must run so often. You’ll know this has occurred when a low coolant temp alarm goes off.
• Wet stacking (a.k.a. an excessive no-load run time) results in an over-fueled engine wherein carbon particles, unburned fuel, condensed water, and acids in the exhaust accumulate.
• Air in the fuel system prevents injectors from firing. This is usually caused by generators that aren’t run regularly, so make sure you do your weekly inspections.
  If you accidentally push the emergency shut off, you’ll want to check the automatic transfer switch (ATS) . This isn’t something you’ll want to do if you don’t know how because doing so can result in severe energy or even death.

Also, remember to never plug your generator into a wall outlet! This is what’s known as backfeeding and when it’s done without throwing the main breaker you can send a power backup into the grid. When this happens you can seriously injure or kill someone.