On 8/13/2013 1:41 PM, devnull wrote:
On 08/13/2013 01:58 PM, Moe DeLoughan wrote:
An elderly friend of my family is moving from Florida back to the
Midwest. Her husband passed away a few years ago and she's decided
their property is too large and hurricanes are too much hassle for
her to deal with on her own.

Some of us will be flying down to help her pack up and move,
including driving her and her worldly goods up to her new home. In
exchange for our help, she's offered us some of her possessions that
she doesn't intend to keep for herself. She's offered me a
generator, which I can use, since I live in a hilly, treed
neighborhood that tends to lose power in severe storms.

I haven't seen the generator and she hasn't been able to provide
much in the way of details, except that it's large and it hasn't
been run or serviced since her husband's death. When she says
'large', I suspect it will be quite large, because it's a shorefront
property and a very substantial house (seven living rooms, for
starters).

I don't know if it's gas or diesel. I don't know the capacity, I
don't know its age. But I'm pretty sure this is going to need some
cleaning and servicing since it hasn't been looked at in about seven
years.

I've never owned a generator. Can folks here provide me with tips as
to its cleaning/servicing/testing once it arrives here?

Thanks in advance.


Good luck with that!

Florida humidity + ocean-front salt air + hasn't been serviced for
seven years = corroded up engine and generator head

That's what I'm afraid of. On the other hand, my brother-in-law is
reasonably handy, and he's captaining the moving mission, so he'll
check out its general condition. If he deems it worth servicing, he'll
load it onto the truck and bring it home.

This lady's husband was very handy, very capable. He took care of his
own equipment for as long as he was able, and supervised the people he
hired when he no longer could do things himself. So I think it's safe
to assume that it was serviced and properly stored after its last use,
and has just been sitting there, waiting, ever since.

There's actually a second, smaller generator as well. It never even
got uncrated, because they only needed this one to run everything. The
smaller one is going to be donated to the local church. Which is
another reason why I'm wondering just how large is the generation I'm
getting, if the smaller generator is enough to meet the church's needs.