"Pop" wrote in message
...
Hi,

It's never happened to me and I've never seen it
discussed, but every generator manual I've seen has
instructions on what to do if the magnets in it beome
weak or reversed. Grab a lantern battery, back charge
it, turn it on and go sort of things.

I hope Ive made it understandable to know what I mean.

1. What causes the loss of magnetic field?
2. Is there a preventive method to avoid it?
3. Is there a sort of "in between" state where the
mags are just weakened? What do you do then?
4. When you exercise a generator periodically, should
you load BOTH poles or is one at a time OK to do?
Should you use a light, moderate or heavy load?

Why am I asking? I haven't gotten the transfer switch
installed yet. Probably won't until this fall. Money
issues. It's a 5,000 Watt Koleman unit wiht a 10 HP
B&S motor, interestingly enough, Industrial grade, not
residential. It's kept us from freezing twice so far -
THIS year that switch goes in!

Thanks for any knowledge that might be here

Pop

1.Loosing the field exciter is rare in my experience. They break
If you bought a Coleman it would be easier to get a spare set of parts for
your genset. I used to work on them. Not an commercial unit by any means.

2. With the Coleman none that I am aware of

3. Not to my knowledge,

4. Exercise is sort of a personal thing. I have seen gensets exercised
weekly and fail when they were needed. I have seen exercising monthly and
work fine.
As to the load I would use at least 80% of the rated output for 15 minutes,
do not forget the cool down time.
What does Coleman recommend?