On 11/7/2012 10:46 AM, hr(bob) wrote:
On Nov 7, 9:27 am, Smarty wrote:
On 11/7/2012 9:57 AM, wrote: Anyone here have experience with Generac generators in terms of
reliability, problems, etc? Most interested in the Guardian whole
house
standby type that run on nat gas.
A friend has a 12KW one that is about 5 years old. It apparently has
a bad rotor, possibly more wrong with it. Trying to figure out if
it's worth
fixing or if they are inherently cheap crap.
TIA
I installed and have a 6 year old Generac natural gas 7KW model, and
have been directly involved in selecting and assisting in the
installation of quite a few other Generac units up to 16KW size. They
were all installed directly as a result of a freak October ice storm
which took nearly 2 weeks to restore power.

All of the Generacs I follow are all working properly and each does a
weekly exercise of approx 12 minutes to confirm that the unit is working
properly. There have been no outages in the ensuing 6 years since they
were installed, so I cannot confidently claim that they will do the job
when actually called upon. Any simulated outages I have deliberately
created have immediately switched the generator on and transferred power
correctly so I do have some confidence that the Generac will do the job
when actually needed.

Sort of ironic that in the 3 years preceding my installation, there were
4 outages including the extremely long one I mentioned above of nearly 2
weeks duration.

Since the Generac was installed, I have never had an outage and thus
feel like somebody who has purchased insurance but never had a claim.

Smarty
On a yearly basis, what is that "insurance" costing?
This is a very good question and one which I had not previously
considered. The depreciation of the equipment per year I would guess is
roughly $200 per year based on my installation cost of $2000 and a
guesstimate of 10 years life expectancy.

Add to that the maintenance cost of $30 per year for the recommended oil
change (synthetic), oil and air filters, spark plug, etc. Add another
$10 per year to allow for a battery replacement once every 5 years.
Finally add maybe $60 per year fir the natural gas used in the weekly
exercise program.


Totals up to $300 per year for my do-it-all-yourself approach.

If I had to pay for professional maintenance, and had to pay originally
for a professional installation, my initial cost would have been $1800
higher and my annual maintenance cost would increase to $150 per year.
Thus my total annual cost would rise from $300 per year to $590 per
year. The additional annual cost of $290 would come from $180 additional
of depreciation and $110 of additional maintenance cost.

Bottom line is that this "insurance" costs me $300 per year but would be
as high as $590 if I had it all done by others.

Is it worth it to me? Absolutely!

Smarty