jeremysterling
Senior Member
- Location
- Austin, TX
Storage battery explosions aboard ship have blown submarines in two!
Generac starter battery exploded!
- Thread starter LarryFine
- Start date
- Status
Storage battery explosions aboard ship have blown submarines in two!
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
These are residential units, I tell the homeowner that the battery requires maintaince, just like checking the oil, but they forget, then in two years we get to sell a maintaince contract when the battery dies. Replaced the battery in the VP's unit, and have not had any more problems so far.
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Now I'm really interested. Please tell me the proper way to handle this.
The genny is only a 7kw residential unit that was purchased on 1/26/07 through HD.
PetrosA
Senior Member
- Location
- Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Seems like a lot of the Generacs at the 2-3 year age mark are having some pretty serious issues. I had a call Tuesday morning to check a Generac that wasn't starting during an outage. It wasn't a bad battery, but a bad starter. Must be the price for being the most popular brand...
I bought an electric start 8/12kW portable Generac last year at a blue box when we had a power outage last year. A wall wart was furnished as the trickle charger, and the instructions said to unplug it after the battery is fully charged (no indicator of any sort), giving an approximate recharge time of 5 hours or so IIRC.
The thing about trickle chargers is they cannot use the constant overvoltage method (which is a commonplace recharging method) if left connected longer than it takes to completely recharge the battery. I read about this somewhere on a battery manufacturer's site. Don't remember which site or the specifics as to why, though I could probably conjure up a fairly accurate guess
Being I like "set it and forget about it" type anything, I opted for one of these to replace the wall wart.
I have heard of Kirkland batteries but I'm not familiar with them.
Mostly we use Yuasa VRLA batteries for UPS systems. In total, we have probably supplied a few thousand. None, to my knowledge, has exploded.
Different application, I know.
jrannis
Senior Member
- Location
- Fort Lauderdale/ Miami
I have personally changed 5 "blown apart" batteries in Guardian generators. All of the failures were due to the water boiling off and leaving room for gas to build up.
The "boil off" takes about 8 to 12 months of neglect.
I have been topping off the low ones I find with plain water and then exchanging them before the warranty runs out if I can.
Guardians are such a miserable product. I wish I had 100 of them to maintain, at least until the kids are out of college.
The "boil off" takes about 8 to 12 months of neglect.
I have been topping off the low ones I find with plain water and then exchanging them before the warranty runs out if I can.
Guardians are such a miserable product. I wish I had 100 of them to maintain, at least until the kids are out of college.
don't know the answer to that question. (I'm sure someone else here must !)
what's the model # ?
ItsHot
Senior Member
- Location
- A little piece of heaven!
Generac
Generac
Does Genecrap make anything worth a crap?
Generac
Does Genecrap make anything worth a crap?
I don't know the answer for certain either... but I can't imagine they'd incorporate two trickle chargers when one would suffice.
- Location
- Massachusetts
Any generator that I can remember had a standard alternator on the engine for charging the battery and running the DC systems when the generator was up and running. The utility powered charger is only used while the generator is shut down.
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Kirkland is the signature brand of re-branded stuff packaged for Costco.
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
These small Generacs are a basic lawnmower motor tied to a generator,the first ones were belt drive.They have the same charging circuit as a riding lawnmower. With the small Generacs the brains are out in the generator, instead of the transferswitch, so there is a constant draw on the battery even when the unit is not running.
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
So, as far as you know, there are two charging methods.
No alternator on the air cooled units.
Here is a thread I found with the same complaint:
http://zillerelectric.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
Externally mounted, no, it's like a lawnmower, it's inside the flywheel, very low output.
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If it's like a lawnmower motor, that would be a magneto... and unlikely it is used to charge the battery.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question375.htm
Alden
Member
- Location
- Near Ann Arbor, Michigan
This was a common problem for Generacs for gen set manufactured several years ago. For the pas 1.5 -2 years, Generac has redesigned the charging system and actually put the charger in the transfer switch. I have seen many a battery overcharged and ballooned up / thrown up. The technical guru at the other E.C. I get my gensets explained the reason why they were over charging, but that portion of my brain is down for upgrades / repairs. I have a real good memory, it's just very short. I'll find out the reason and warranty issues and post Monday.
So did you figure out why the generator won't start? :grin:
But really, you think she would have noticed something like that and said something. Maybe like: "You might want to bring out a new battery when you come."
Steve
I call my particular version of this problem (or blessing
) priority-based memory recall conditioning... and the prioritization for most memories is on a subconscious level
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