On Friday, December 19, 2014 9:19:21 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Fri, 19 Dec 2014 23:18:29 +0000 (UTC), "Danny D."
wrote:

Smarty wrote, on Thu, 18 Dec 2014 21:45:09 -0500:

As Trader correctly states, the battery is charged whenever the main AC
power to the generatyor is present, not when the generator is running.

I just re-read the manual and there's nothing, either way, about
the charging circuit for the battery.

It should be described in the weekly "exercise" or "battery maintenance"
sections, but it's not.

Also, if there is a charging circuit, it's not obvious in the schematic
diagrams. If there is the requisite 240VAC to ~15VDC "charger", that's
not obvious in the machine either - as the control circuitry is pretty
simple (one small circuit board for the entire generator).

So, while I "doubt" that the battery is charged by a power supply
connected to the 240VAC (or even the 120VAC half), the question deserves
a definitive answer, which I will get from Generac and report back.
Very easy to get a definitive answer. Connect your volt meter. What
is the reading??? Above 12.2 volts??? then it is being charged without
the engine running.

A fully charged battery is 12.6V, without anything connected. If he's
seeing significantly higher than that, then I agree it's definitive that
it's being charged. However if he sees just around 12.6V, I don't think
it necessarily proves it one way or the other. Assuming it has a
charger/maintainer of some kind, we don't know how exactly they work.
IDK even how a BatteryTender, which has some smarts in it, works. It
allegedly only charges as much as necessary, so it could monitor, test,
and you'd only see the voltage raise during periods when it's actually
charging.

As to Danny's generator, I tried to find a service manual for it, but
couldn't find anything. The experience I have with Generac is a similar
generator that was built about 10 years ago. It definitely had battery
charging circuits that were driven off both the line AC and the generator,
if running. While trying to fix that one, I had the service manual.

I would think that's how Danny's would work too, for obvious
reasons. But IDK and you'd need a service manual, schematic, etc to know
for sure. I'm not sure I'd even trust the Generac people, as you'd think
a help line would have obvious answers like that at their finger tips.
They couldn't even tell him whether the spark plug cables were "bolted"
on to the spark plugs, so I wouldn't put much faith in them.

If I was D, I'd obtain the service manual, not just the operating manual,
for future reference.