I would have to know more. Is it air cooled or water cooled? Where was it purchased? Model number?
In fairness, the one thing that Generac has done right that no one else in the business has done is make a decent product for the consumer market. Their small standby units marketed through Home Despot and Lowe's are actually pretty decent for the money spent, and have a fairly high level of reliability. The other folks, such as Kohler and Onan, have tried to tap this market unsuccessfully for years. They can't make a highly "commoditied?" product because they're so deeply involved in the commercial market. Trying to make a generator based on price point rather than design is nigh impossible. Kohler's current and recent offerings, in my opinion, are too highly engineered and rely far too much on electronics. Their controls are microprocessor based and use proprietary software and hardware. If something acts up or breaks, you're screwed. Sadly, many consumers don't discover this until it's too late and they're stuck with a very expensive repair bill or a large expensive lawn ornament. Generac is an engineering house rather than a manufacturer. They design stuff themselves and base their production on volume, which is so far from what the others do it's an alien concept. That's why everything says "Generac" on it - it's someone else's product, like Briggs or Tecumseh, with Generac's exterior design for things like cooling. Case in point is the 25kW unit I got for nothing and fixed for $40. It had a Mitsubishi gas industrial engine that was never marketed in the US. Generac bought the long blocks directly from Mitsubishi and added all the peripheral parts such as fuel, drive and mounting. When the coil in the distributor failed (a system much like GM's HEI) the only fix was an assembly replacement - a new distributor - to the tune of $1600 for the part alone. With travel time, mileage and labor all wrapped up in that repair, it exceeded 50% of the cost of a new unit. The owner bought a new unit and we took the old one back. I did some research and found that the engine was common in Asia and Oceania, so I got a hold of John in Australia and he got me the coil - for a whopping $40 US shipped! This is the risk with the Generac product, but as far as the consumer stuff, parts are common and plentiful, so that's not an issue. Dan On Aug 11, 2013, at 8:29 PM, Scott Ritchey wrote: > > Dan, I have a Generac propane standby generator, about 15KW. The engine > says Generac on it but I suspect it's really made by someone else. Do you > know? > > By the way, the only time it failed to start was caused by a dead battery. > The 100 amp transfer switch is a knife-blade design so I suppose it could > stick if it hasn't operated in a long time. There is a manual override but > I don't think I'd want to open the box in a bad storm. > > Scott > > -----Original Message----- > From: Mercedes [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com] On Behalf Of Dan > Penoff > Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2013 2:00 PM > To: Mercedes Discussion List > Subject: Re: [MBZ] Speaking of diesel law tractors > > Kohler or Onan, but not the consumer grade stuff. If I was going to put in > another standby system I would shop around for a decent used commercial > system. There are lots of them out there with few hours on them as "take > outs". > > I had a 25kW Generac at my last house, but I got it through work as a take > out from a very expensive (2.5M) home. Cost me $40 to get it running, > courtesy of John, the Aussie guy with the MB shop. He could source the > electrical part the engine needed that couldn't be found here in the States. > > Dan > > Sent from my iPad > > On Aug 11, 2013, at 1:44 PM, OK Don <okd...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> So, what is a decent home back-up power generator/transfer switch combo? >> >> >> On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Dan Penoff <d...@penoff.com> wrote: >> >>> That's a Generac! >> >> >> -- >> OK Don >> "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary >> safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin 1775 >> "in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." >> - Benjamin Franklin 1789 >> 2013 F150, 19 mpg >> 2012 Passat TDI DSG, 45 mpg >> 1957 C182A, 12 mpg - but at 150 mph! >> _______________________________________ >> http://www.okiebenz.com >> >> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >> >> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
