[RE-wrenches] generator suggestions

[toddcory at finestplanet.com]

it sounds like my experience with this company about 10 years ago when i installed one of their 8 kW units as a grid back up for a customer. the battery charger was wired wrong out of the box... and they would not help me with troubleshooting... so i figured it out on my own. about 6 months later the mount for the starter broke (bad design) and the replacement was the same design - so we know how long that'll last... sigh. also a couple of voltage regulators have failed which burned up a few appliances in the customers home. all this was hampered by their "we only talk with dealers bullshit" = absolutely no support for wrenches in the field.
 
so, it sounds like they are still up to their old tricks and my vow to "never again" stands firmly in place.
 
todd
 
 
 
 
On Wednesday, January 30, 2013 3:13pm, "RM You" <solareagle at solareagle.com> said:


I'm not a generator guy but had to supply a couple of generators for a contract last year. I had a look at the Generac EcoGen and liked what I saw. Additional reading confirmed that others felt positive about the EcoGen so I got a dealership. One year later here's my take on it - and unfortunately these generators I installed have not been run extensively (under 50 hours) so I don't have much real world experience with them.
One failed out of the box, couldn't get detailed service info from Generac as they only supply that to service level dealers, I am a retail dealer. Their recommendation was to call in a service tech who would service that under warranty. That was fine until you find out that the service tech, who has to travel a nine hour return trip to get to the site plus time on site would charge $1000+. The alternative was to pull the 500lb unit, haul it back to civilization and ship it to the service centre. Easily the same cost which is not covered by Generac. The problem seemed simple and I just needed some guidelines to troubleshoot but Generac would not give me access to tech support. I would have had to take the course for service tech level which required travelling to Wisconsin for a three day course, paying nearly $1000 in course fees plus airfare, accommodations and meals - maybe $3k total. And this requires re-certification every two years to maintain access to warranty parts and info.
Long story short I found a service level dealer who gave me some useful info and was good enough to supply some new brushes and a new propane intake valve. After two trips and a couple of 12 hour days I got it running but my confidence has been shaken both in the machine and the company.
there are a couple of good threads at this site for and against:
[http://zillerstore.com/forums/search.php?searchid=112095] http://zillerstore.com/forums/search.php?searchid=112095
[http://zillerstore.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2268] http://zillerstore.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2268


Ron Young
earthRight Products - [http://Solareagle.com] Solareagle.com


On 2013-01-29, at 7:39 PM, [mailto:toddcory at finestplanet.com] toddcory at finestplanet.com wrote:

 

wrenches,


i am working on a design for an off grid camp. they need a new generator as the one they have is a total pos. 
i am interested in suggestions for a commercial grade, 10 to 15 kW propane fueled unit. are kohler and onan still the best thing going or am i living in the past?
thanks,


todd


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