Essential Tips to Keep Your Generator in Tip-Top Condition

If you used your generator this past winter, you know it’s an essential tool during bad weather. The ability to maintain power if the grid goes down brings immense peace of mind. Make sure your unit continues to do its job with a few maintenance tips that will help keep it in top condition.

Run It Properly

Generators list two capacity ratings, one is rated/continuous watts and the other is maximum/starting watts. The starting watts indicate the extra power the unit creates when an appliance like a furnace starts up, and it’s not safe to try running your unit at that level continuously. Run your unit at the rated/continuous watts to ensure that it doesn’t burn out quickly.

Change Oil and filters

Just like your car engine, the generator engine requires regular oil changes and filter replacement to keep it at peak performance. The recommended time for an oil change on new generators is after 25 hours of use. Following that initial oil and filter change, your unit requires changes every 50-60 hours, so stock up on factory filters and oil.

Fill the Tank

Keep the generator tank filled with gas while it’s running. If your unit runs out of gas while running, it will continue to create power, but the electrical load from powering your house damages the generator coils. This means that the next time you use the unit it won’t create power and will require repair.

Use Fresh Fuel

Fill your unit with new gas every time because old gas breaks down and causes gummy buildup in the tank. Empty the carburetor and tank after the worst of the storm season and wait until predicted bad weather to refill it with fresh, stabilized gas.

Find the Right Cord

The noise most generators create means you’ll probably want to keep it far from the house, but make sure you use a heavy-duty 12-gauge cord and don’t run it beyond 100 feet. The shorter and heavier the cord, the less chance of a voltage drop than can burnout your unit.

For more information and assistance with generators, contact C.R. Wolfe today.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Middletown, New York about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about generators and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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