Originally Posted by Astro_Guy
Originally Posted by Asterix
I have one of these generators, but running off utility natural gas. There's no way to tell it to not run a weekly test; you only get to set the day and time it runs for 12 minutes, which obviously isn't enough time to fully dry it out.
Wow! The engineer in me says that this is a bad design, but then he also says it is a design for people who are not engineers.
(I am an electronic engineer...) I would rather it didn't run weekly as well, but it won't do that unless you switch it to manual, which defeats the whole purpose of a standby generator.
The power company gives mine a decent run maybe twice a year, but typically for under an hour. From memory, my 6-year old unit has maybe 120 hours on it.
LeakySeals, since the fuel on these is gaseous and not liquid, the carb is not the same as what you're used to. There's no bowl or float. Propane is quite clean, so the whole intake will stay clean. If you're going to work on anything about the intake, shut off the propane. There must be a valve not far from the generator.
Really, the only other thing to do is adjust the valves. Get a new valve cover gasket before you do that.