re: How long can a Generac run before I need to change the oil?

My 15kw natural gas Generac manual says every 100 hours.

I can confirm this because I did an oil change right before the storm with 5w-30 fully synthetic that was clear with a slight yellow tint like vegetable oil.
Yesterday evening put me at 80 hours run time and the oil was the color of sweet iced tea, medium to dark brown and still had a low viscosity.
Based on the color progression, at 100 hours I believe my oil would still have a low viscosity but look as dark as coke or coffee and anything past that would look like tar with a much higher viscosity causing additional wear on the engine.

That being said - don't go past 100 hours.

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Any experience with bad brushes on 18-22kw Generac air cooled?

Is it a part that can just be replaced repeatedly as it fails until Generac can replace the unit under warranty (I guess they will do that anyway).

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sorry just saw this. not expierence with it, but many times the low voltage...i believe its error code 1902 is this.

it can be replaced but i think it has to be by service tech

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Not sure which size or model Generac you are referring to. My dad runs a 20KW air cooled standby, company he hired to install it told us 250hrs(10 days) between oil changes. Dad can’t get around much, they offered to come do the oil change for him.

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22kw here. My dealer told me Generac recommends a max of 200 hrs and they usually shoot for 175 hrs.

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FTR its supposed to be only 100 hours if its under continuous use. also that is at 77 degrees. so you really want to change much sooner.

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777, you seem very knowledgeable regarding small engines and generators. Here’s my question, a Champion portable generator with 11,500 starting watts and 9200 running watts (459cc engine) converted to natural gas instead of gasoline… How many running watts will that sacrifice?

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minimum 10% loss but prolly closer to 15%. that is assuming the champion is derated at 100+ degrees and not 75-80 degrees like many air cooled. should be able to find this in the manual though.

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And maybe a question for OT plumbers, what size gas line would need to be run? Thinking about getting a plumber to tap in to the gas line that goes to my hot water heater. It’s a 1 inch line. Comes into house as 2 inch line and then branches off into smaller 1 inch lines.

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manual should give you the pressure needed. the plumber will have to do a quick calc to make sure you can get that. one thing to make sure though is that the regulator that installed can handle that and you dont drop below pressure. typically its around 5 inches WC which is about 0.18psi

Appreciate the quick response. Regarding the gas pressure, yeah I’ll do some more research on that. I figure the folks that sell the motor snorkel converter would be able to advise me on that.