I bought a generator around this time last year. I have not had the need to
use it since then, and have never used it...still in the box. Does the lack
of use cause any problems in the engine. There is no oil or gas in it yet as
I have not used it...

Any ideas

John W

Since the generator is something you will likely need in an emergency
(which is why I assume you bought it), then I'd take it out, fill the
crankcase (if 4 cycle), and put some gas in it, and see what happens.
There should be instructions for storage -- usually drain gas, run
dry, and mist the cylinders (remove plus(s) to do this). There should
be instructions that came with the generator that address these
issues. Years ago, in a former life, I was a part-time engineer for
an AM radio station in Connecticut. We had an emergency generator.
Part of my job was to fire it up once a week, just see if it would
run, etc., check oil, fuel, and so forth.

"John W" wrote in message
...
I bought a generator around this time last year. I have not had the need to
use it since then, and have never used it...still in the box. Does the lack
of use cause any problems in the engine. There is no oil or gas in it yet
as I have not used it...

Any ideas

John W
I would not think it would. I bought one of around 5000 kw and opened the
box to get the correct electrical plugs for it and to look over the manual.
Slid the box over it for about 3 years . We had an ice storm and I put oil
and gas in it and fired it up for that. Started in 3 or 4 pulls. About all
that may hapen is the generator may loose its magnatism and you have to use
a battery to reactivate it. That is listed in the manual. This did not
hapen to me.

After using it, I ran it out of gas, drained and changed the oil. It went
back into storage for about 2 more years and I took it out and fired it up
again.

It really should not have any problems at all, if you have not put oil
or gas in it yet. As long as it is stored in a dry area you won't have any
rust issues. I too have a genny that we bought 2 years ago, the first year
it saw no use at all and I have only needed it for 8 hours this past summer.
Since I have gas and oil in it I run it for ten min. once a month and use
the fuel shut off and let the carb run dry. I use Stabil in the gas tank but
this summer I will drain the tank and use that gas in my mower. Having an
emergency genny is an iffy proposition, its there when you need but its also
sitting there wasting money if you don't need it. We had an outage of about
8 hours last summer, we had the genny running our fridge, A/C and sat TV and
lights. Luckily, we did have the genny because our neighbor has a health
issue that requires an O2 generator. They do have a battery backup but that
only lasts 3 hours, I was glad that we were able to help. Thats when the
genny paid for itself!

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