How to service a generator

Tony

Tony

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So, we all know about the power cut in SA and a lot of us buy gennies to save our tanks.

I would like to know how one goes about servicing a generator? Is this something one can do at home or it there somewhere more specialised one can take the generator to like one would take a car for a service. I have a large 5 Kva gennie that takes a key to start it and it kicks in everytime and I dont want hassles during winter.

I assume one has to change the oil. How do you do this and where can one dispose of the used oil in an enviromentally firendly manner? Is there a special oil one uses or can any engine oil work? Changing the spark plugs from time to time is easy enough. We also have to clean the filter sponge where the air is sucked in to prevent blockages and poor performance.

Is there anything I am missing? Thanks in advance
 
Jokes aside :thumbup:, normally there is reference to servicing in the manual that comes with the generator.

What make/model is it? a google may help.
 
@Tony You are 100% correct, just change the oil, new spark plug and clean the air filter. Briggs and Stratton motors normally uses SAE 30 oil. But all these motors are normally the same. If you look at the motor there should be a drain plug at the bottom somewhere, But as Nemos Janitor said check the servicing manual
 
I have never been more grateful for the fact that we have a generator that can run the whole house. Our power has been off since 1:20am this morning and is still off. I would have been in serious trouble if it wasn't for our generator. Looks like the power might only be restored late tonight or only tomorrow morning.
 
Irma said:
I have never been more grateful for the fact that we have a generator that can run the whole house. Our power has been off since 1:20am this morning and is still off. I would have been in serious trouble if it wasn't for our generator. Looks like the power might only be restored late tonight or only tomorrow morning.
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Hi there.
Where did you get the generator from and what size is it?
I have been quoted R30k for a 5KVa generator that will be linked to the DB board with autostart but think that is way to expensive for the size quoted.
 
We had the generator installed a few years ago. The company is called Power on Tap. Phone Graham on 083 264 3614. Ours is a massive one that can power up the whole house but he does different size ones and can definitely give you a quote.
 
Irma said:
We had the generator installed a few years ago. The company is called Power on Tap. Phone Graham on 083 264 3614. Ours is a massive one that can power up the whole house but he does different size ones and can definitely give you a quote.
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Super.
Thanks very much.
Will give him a call and see what they have.
Looking for anything from 10KVa upwards.
 
I have a 40kva generator and it is a cummins runs my entire house for around 48 hrs on a full tank i installed it after i had 13 kva that i had to manually start since koeberg went down in 2007, I get it serviced once a year it is fully automated and i cant praise it enough but its not cheap but then neither is my investment in Aquaria!
 
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Unfortunately my Generator never came with a service manual but more of an instruction manual
 
Contact Concrete Works, they service Generators, I'll put some pricing on here tomorrow, they can service it for you, shouldn't take longer than a week to get it in and serviced.
 
The power outage lasted 39hrs! I would have lost everything if we did not have a generator:)
 
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