One of the best ways to have a happy, relaxing, and low-stress holiday season is to know that you have a whole-house generator that’s ready to go to work if the power goes out. An extended power loss during the winter does a lot more than shut off the holiday lights: it will result in spoiled food, cold discomfort, and even life-threatening situations for anyone who uses powered medical equipment.
The best way to ensure you have a reliable generator is to schedule routine maintenance for it. This will help prevent most potential malfunctions. Even with the best maintenance, you may still encounter a need for our technicians to come out and provide generator repair in Depew, NY. In this post, we’ll look at several of the more common generator troubles we fix.
Overheating
Generators are essentially engines, and like any engine, they can overheat. This usually happens because the generator has lost the coolant it uses to evenly disperse heat. Checking on coolant is one of the basic steps done during maintenance, since coolant can evaporate over time. Coolant may also leak. Don’t try to continue to run your generator if it’s overheating, as this may cause catastrophic damage to it. Call for our technicians to restore the proper coolant level and fix any leaks.
Failed battery
This is probably the most common issue we find with generators—it’s not much different from having a car battery fail. As with a car, the battery will wear down much earlier than the rest of the generator, so you will likely need to have the battery replaced at some point in your generator’s service life. Maintenance will help extend the battery’s life and keep its connection clean, but be prepared to call for assistance if your generator won’t turn on—it’s likely due to a bad battery.
Block heater hose failure
The block heater warms the coolant to help create the right generator starting temperature. If the hose to the block heater wears out (which can happen because of the high temperature of the block heater), then the hose will allow coolant to start to leak. Maintenance will regularly replace these hoses when they show signs of wear.
Stalling
Have you noticed that your generator is struggling to continue to run when it’s operating? This stalling can be due to several causes, such as failing spark plugs and dirty filters. The filters remove contaminants from the generator’s engine oil so they won’t create build-up that will force the engine to work harder and wear down sooner. Our technicians can replace spark plugs or clogged filters, so don’t hesitate to call us when your generator begins stalling—it could soon fail to work entirely.
Oil leaks
Just as with a car, leaking engine oil can cause a generator’s engine to burn out. These leaks can occur because of cracking in fuel lines and tank pumps.
Once again, prevention is your best tool against potential generator problems, so if you haven’t arranged for generator maintenance yet this year, please schedule it today.
Scherer Electric Is Western New York’s Favorite Electrician! Contact us for your generator needs.
