My theory on generac whole home’s is that EVERYONE has them. This leads to a few things:

People don’t know how or just don’t maintain them
NG supply is an issue
The sample size is huge
They don’t know how to operate them

So of course if there’s a tons of that single model out there, there will be stories of them breaking more than all the other random brands.

One guy was bitching to me today about how he knew someone that had a brand new one and it failed. I asked if it was maintained. They said it was brand new. I said yes, so did they change the oil after break in and at the proper intervals after that? “No”. Well………….

I added “they don’t know how to operate them”. I saw one walking to my office today (it’s next to a neighborhood) and they were running It without the side panel to keep it cool. You can’t do that. That’s not how it works. It has to be fully assembled so it can pull air across the engine. It being open is way worse.

This post was edited on 9/9/21 at 9:41 pm

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Posted by lsu777

Lake Charles

Member since Jan 2004

31802 posts

Posted on 9/10/21 at 8:12 am to Coon

quote:
My theory on generac whole home’s is that EVERYONE has them. This leads to a few things:

People don’t know how or just don’t maintain them
NG supply is an issue
The sample size is huge
They don’t know how to operate them

quote:

One guy was bitching to me today about how he knew someone that had a brand new one and it failed. I asked if it was maintained. They said it was brand new. I said yes, so did they change the oil after break in and at the proper intervals after that? “No”. Well………….

pretty much the issue 99% of the time...well that and people think they can put a 22kw on a house that really needs about 30kw and they can live like nothing ever happened. Running Central AC, microwave, electric dryer while the wife is using the electric stove

quote:
I saw one walking to my office today (it’s next to a neighborhood) and they were running It without the side panel to keep it cool. You can’t do that. That’s not how it works. It has to be fully assembled so it can pull air across the engine. It being open is way worse.

thats not true. it will pull air across it no matter what. After laura I found my 20kw would run much better and not burn th circuit board in the stepping motor up if i kept front panel off and top open.

the 22kw are much better about this not happening due to the stepping motor housing being changed to a fully enclosed stainless housing design.

Everyone should try running it as designed, but if they start having problems with surging and getting overspeed error, very well could be the stepping motor getting too hot and need to keep it open and fan on it.

in the end though generac doesnt recommend the air cooled in our climate and in fact they derate after 77 degrees.

to answer OP, have a 9 year old generac 20kw guardian. After Laura it ran for 5 weeks, 4 days. Had a couple issues but nothing we couldnt work through. We babied it the whole time and it was a fricking life saver.

new home will be getting a 40kw liquid cooled installed before next hurricane season.