On demand generator ?

[luberhill]

We are looking at a house that has one but the owners don’t really know much about it.

I have a portable Honda inverter generator but I have to be home to run it.

Is there much maintenance to the on demands ?

Its natural gas . Can u test it by just shutting off the main breaker ? 
This area rarely has power outages but the house has a sump pump so it would be nice to have it working

[Moho81]

They run their own weekly test. Starts up at the time and day you tell it to. It will run for 12 min and if something is wrong it throws a light and will let you know the error. If it’s new enough it might even have WiFi and you can look at it in your phone or computer.

It’s a simple engine so basic maintenance is needed. Mostly just an oil change though.

In the 8 years we have been at this house I have only had to change the oil, replace the 12+ year old battery and put in a new starter relay.

This year I think something is up with the on board charging system for the battery so thats something I’ll have a generac dealer look at because it involves a lot more than I can test for.

I won’t own another house without one. We hardly loose power and when we do it’s not for long but when we do it’s so nice not to have to worry about the sump pump or the refrigerators/freezers. I don’t have to be home to run around and get a generator going. Power goes out and 30 seconds later the generator is running.


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[sbuff]

Moho nailed it .. 

[luberhill]

1 minute ago, Moho81 said:

They run their own weekly test. Starts up at the time and day you tell it to. It will run for 12 min and if something is wrong it throws a light and will let you know the error. If it’s new enough it might even have WiFi and you can look at it in your phone or computer.

It’s a simple engine so basic maintenance is needed. Mostly just an oil change though.

In the 8 years we have been at this house I have only had to change the oil, replace the 12+ year old battery and put in a new starter relay.

This year I think something is up with the on board charging system for the battery so thats something I’ll have a generac dealer look at because it involves a lot more than I can test for.

I won’t own another house without one. We hardly loose power and when we do it’s not for long but when we do it’s so nice not to have to worry about the sump pump or the refrigerators/freezers. I don’t have to be home to run around and get a generator going. Power goes out and 30 seconds later the generator is running.


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Yea I don’t think this one is working because the owners say they never hear it coming on.

Ill probably call someone to service it IF we buy the house .

It can’t have very many hours , we’ve lived in the area 35 yrs and the power has gone off maybe 3 times and never for that long .

But I’d like it to work …shouldn’t cost that much to service 

[Judoka95]

On demand generators typically have very little to no maintenance. Most are set to automatically start up and run once a month on a test cycle. 

There should be an Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) that senses when commercial power is out. This switch will open the commercial power circuit and close the backup power circuit so you don't backfeed the system and kill a lineman.

The ATS should have a test sequence to start up the generator and check it.  Otherwise you would have to shut off the main power coming into the house before the ATS.

[luberhill]

6 minutes ago, Moho81 said:

They run their own weekly test. Starts up at the time and day you tell it to. It will run for 12 min and if something is wrong it throws a light and will let you know the error. If it’s new enough it might even have WiFi and you can look at it in your phone or computer.

It’s a simple engine so basic maintenance is needed. Mostly just an oil change though.

In the 8 years we have been at this house I have only had to change the oil, replace the 12+ year old battery and put in a new starter relay.

This year I think something is up with the on board charging system for the battery so thats something I’ll have a generac dealer look at because it involves a lot more than I can test for.

I won’t own another house without one. We hardly loose power and when we do it’s not for long but when we do it’s so nice not to have to worry about the sump pump or the refrigerators/freezers. I don’t have to be home to run around and get a generator going. Power goes out and 30 seconds later the generator is running.


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Edited September 17, 2022 by luberhill

[sbuff]

4 minutes ago, luberhill said:

Yea I don’t think this one is working because the owners say they never hear it coming on.

Ill probably call someone to service it IF we buy the house .

It can’t have very many hours , we’ve lived in the area 35 yrs and the power has gone off maybe 3 times and never for that long .

But I’d like it to work …shouldn’t cost that much to service 

Open the lid it will tell you how many hours are on it 

[luberhill]

4 minutes ago, sbuff said:

Open the lid it will tell you how many hours are on it 

I think it’s a Generac 

I saw the box on the wall in the basement by the panel 

Wonder if the have a battery tender or charger to keep the battery up .

Ill check it out if we buy the house , again it shouldn’t cost much to get it going or to service I wouldn’t think .

Are most of them air cooled ?

Edited September 17, 2022 by luberhill

[fasteddie]

We have a Generac whole house generator. It does a five minute self test once a week. I don't mess with it and have it serviced yearly. We get about three power outages each year.

[suburbanfarmer]

45 minutes ago, luberhill said:

Yea I don’t think this one is working because the owners say they never hear it coming on.

Ill probably call someone to service it IF we buy the house .

It can’t have very many hours , we’ve lived in the area 35 yrs and the power has gone off maybe 3 times and never for that long .

But I’d like it to work …shouldn’t cost that much to service 

You can always make it a condition in your offer for current owner to make it functional. The market has cooled off a bit to start haggling.

[luberhill]

45 minutes ago, fasteddie said:

We have a Generac whole house generator. It does a five minute self test once a week. I don't mess with it and have it serviced yearly. We get about three power outages each year.

Does it have a built in battery charger

[Moho81]

Does it have a built in battery charger

I don’t know about his but my generac does have a built in charger. Which is what I’m going to have looked at before winter. I’m just waiting for it to throw an error code again.

Towards the end of winter my battery got depleted and it would have enough of a charge to start the engine for the weekly test.

I hooked a battery tender to it to buy me some time to figure out what was going on. That worked all winter long. I unhooked the tender in the spring and it has yet failed to start but I’m guessing the cold weather will once again cause it to not work properly.


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[Chef]

We are looking at a house that has one but the owners don’t really know much about it.
I have a portable Honda inverter generator but I have to be home to run it.
Is there much maintenance to the on demands ?
Its natural gas . Can u test it by just shutting off the main breaker ? 
This area rarely has power outages but the house has a sump pump so it would be nice to have it working

It is natural gas, yes. It runs its own weekly test. You can get a service contract through I local provider. I have one at absolutely love it.


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[mowin]

Just had a 14k generac installed this spring. Tired of running leads or making sure the portable will start. 

Assuming your going to do the normal inspections on the house? If so I'd add that to the list. You don't know if this unit is even worth repairing, and the cost to replace isn't going to be cheap.  Depending on size, generac gen alone is going to run you 2.5k. Pd $4200 for our 14k with hole house transfer switch. Installation was around another 2k. 

[BizCT]

It is natural gas, yes. It runs its own weekly test. You can get a service contract through I local provider. I have one at absolutely love it.


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Same, I have a full house generator too. Propane though, like rest of house. It runs every Thursday for like 20min weekly test. If we lose power, which happened once so far, it kicks on automatically in like 5-10 seconds. I had an electrician come out when we moved in to give it a look over and showed me how to change oil annually etc. it’s not piece of mind


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[luberhill]

1 hour ago, BizCT said:

Same, I have a full house generator too. Propane though, like rest of house. It runs every Thursday for like 20min weekly test. If we lose power, which happened once so far, it kicks on automatically in like 5-10 seconds. I had an electrician come out when we moved in to give it a look over and showed me how to change oil annually etc. it’s not piece of mind


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Are they air cooled 

[mowin]

Typically residential units are. The larger commercial units are usually water cooled. 

[BizCT]

Are they air cooled 

No clue. The condenser you see next to it is my central air


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[GreeneHunter]

4 hours ago, luberhill said:

Are they air cooled 

Yes they are ... I have two , one for the House and one for the Garage ( apartment on top ) ... they work great !

[luberhill]

9 minutes ago, GreeneHunter said:

Yes they are ... I have two , one for the House and one for the Garage ( apartment on top ) ... they work great !

So if it isn’t working is there much that goes wrong with them ?

Seems like if it has a good battery and starter it should run ??

[mowin]

1 hour ago, luberhill said:

So if it isn’t working is there much that goes wrong with them ?

Seems like if it has a good battery and starter it should run ??

It's no different than any other motor. Could have been run with low oil, or oil never changed. Compression could be low because of that.  Cylinder's could be bad, or hole in piston, bent crank, or as simple as bad plugs.  Motor might run fine, but is the generator unit working properly. 

Get it inspected before you purchase the house so you know what your up against. 

Edited September 18, 2022 by mowin