re: Westinghouse Inv/Gen Brand New Won’t Start

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Try squirting a little starting fluid in the air intake when it starts to die. If it still dies, it’s something shutting the spark off. If it keeps running, it’s fuel/carb related assuming there’s no massive air leak at the intake.

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OK sleepy good call, and though I thought I had tried what you suggest I guess I didn’t.

Once it fires off i can keep it running by spraying a constant stream of starting fluid into the air intake -stop it and it dies. I know gasoline is flowing into the carb from the tank so it must be carb related and I’m guessing it’s not the stepper motor now, so even though it s new I think I’ll just pull the carb, disassemble clean and blow it out the ports, reassemble and see what happens. I had already removed the carb bowl and checked the float and the needle valve earlier while the carb was still attached and it appeared to be OK so must be another obstruction. I’d rather not deal with Westinghouse if I don’t have to.

If it keeps running from shots of starting fluid its definitely the carb. Must be a blockage in a passageway or maybe they didn't drill all the holes in the carb. Its got to be something weird. Maybe the wrong gasket blocking a passageway. You can do that to a Holley carb if you're not careful, so could be the same for that.

Update: OK tilco, good news, at least for me, I removed the carb on the brand new IGen 2200, cleaned it, re-assembled and the generator runs fine now. There was clearly gasoline varnish residue inside the carburetor, I suppose from when the unit was test run at whatever Chinese plant manufactured it.

I could not ID a specific component in the carb that was gummed up. I just used spray carb cleaner and compressed air, removed every brass jet (3 of them) one at time, cleaned and ran an torch nozzle tip cleaner wire through every hole in each jet, blew compressed air though every orifice after spraying carb cleaner through each orifice, re-assembled and it was good to go.

You might find this generic 5 min video helpful to review first to see what carb components to target for cleaning. LINK

Also this article will help to know what screws/bolts etc will need to be removed to open the housing to access the carb to remove it. LINK

It’s also very helpful to have a set of welding torch nozzle tip cleaners to have a small enough wire to run through the jet holes. I needed to use the smallest wire in the set to push through the holes in two of the jets.

Good luck.

I had the same problem, would not start out of the box. I sprayed starting fluid up into the carb and she ran.

Then I noticed that if the generator was not in economy mode -- it would not run/idle unless the choke lever was halfway between choke and run. And If tried to switch from economy mode to regular, the generator would stall unless the lever was between choke and run.

The generator would deliver full power when I tested it with some appliances this way, however I decided to look further.

There is a doc on adjusting the choke:

Choke instructions

I did this and now the generator starts easier -- because full choke is now kicking on. However, in order to get the generator to run when not in economy mode -- I still have to put the lever between choke and run. I verified that this is leaving the choke on a bit.

I ran through close to a bottle of SeaFoam and that did not make any difference thinking that maybe there was some gunk in the carb.

So, any reason, why I have to leave the choke partially on? If I am only going to gunk up the spark plug by running too rich, I am okay with that.

I also noticed that my choke lever was extremely loose. I was able to pull it off without turning the screw. For some reason, they put a rubber plug on top of the screw to hide it? I pulled out the rubber plug and then screwed the lever in place. Did not change the behavior, but worth noting.

So, any thoughts here?

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So, any thoughts here?

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I’m not a small engine guru, but that still sounds like it is a carb related issue - Seafoam will clean some varnish and gum, but it could a small metal shaving from the manufacturing process partially clogging a jet or something related not fixed by a solvent. I’ve had similar issues with other small gasoline engines (only would run with choke partially closed) and it was always carb related, fixed by removing and cleaning the carb or replacing the carb.

I’d suggest removing the carb, cleaning it (welder torch tip cleaners through every jet, blowing out with compressed air) as I described in my earlier post above. Spray some carb cleaner through every jet and orifice.

It is a pain to crack open the case on this model, to get access to the carb - not much room to work, even worst putting the case back together. The instructions posted above for doing this is very helpful.

Thanks.

I pinged Westinghouse and said "warranty" -- but there are no nearby service centers that do warranty work for Westinghouse.

They are sending me a new carb and stepper motor for free -- I just need to muster up the courage to open the case up and give it a try.

Thanks again, I also found a youtube video on how to do this.

Youtube video on carb removal

Just an FYI, I have 2 of these genies. We slave them together for running the RV. We put over 800 hours on them over the last couple of years without a single problem. Things to remember about small engines.
1. THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEM: break in your genie properly!
2. Be diligent with your oil changes. Crap builds up fast in small engines like these. We ran ours 11 days straight after Ida. Keeping the RV and three deep freezes running. Only stopping to refill with gas and doing my oil changes EVERY 48 hours of run time. I even built a little oil change station that went with us on our longer boondocking trips.
3. Run ethanol free whenever possible. Yeah yeah yeah( I can just run it out each time and not let it set or add stuff to stabilize). You WILL forget and you WILL leave gas in before putting it away. I just find that ethanol free runs cleaner and longer than the alternative. My time is valuable. Keeping the better half cool in the summer while boondocking half a mile from the Sun is priceless. I’m seriously considering a couple of the external tanks to add to the setup. They are PROUD of those setups though!$$
4. Keep your spark arrestor clean. There have been so many “dead” inventor generators that “died” because the spark arrestor was clogged.

Just my experience with this model generator. We used 2 of them heavily for a couple of years and they still crank on the first pull.
This season we did “upgrade” to one Predator 3500. Just for ease of use, electric start, longer runtime. Less load time and setup at the camp. We will see how it goes. My 2 2200’s will be riding along for the first few trips just in case. If nothing else, we will lend them out to a group that thought they wouldn’t need AC because their solar system will cover everything and temps are “only in the 60’s and 70’s”.