generator surging

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ceb58

ceb58

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Raeford, NC
This wonderful morning at 04:00 am someone decided to crash his truck into a large steel distribution pole that feeds two substations, one being the station that I get my power from. Anyway, on my house I have a 200-amp meter combo with, done correctly, a generator interlock with a 30-amp breaker for my portable generator. This afternoon around 5:30pm we started getting notifications that the power was restored. As it happened, I was outside going to check to see if my meter was on when my generator started surging. Luckly I was at the panel and turned off the 30-amp. I restored normal power and went back inside. That is when my wife told me that when the generator was surging the lights would go off and come back on. The generator has run perfect all day until the utility was restored. The only thing I can think is even though the 200-amp main was off there could have been one of or both contacts in the breaker that were still touching. There is nothing else wired that I could have gotten a back feed on the generator or back fed on the utility. What are your thoughts?
 
You could check the buss for voltage with the main off to verify. I have had several mains over the years that didn’t completely open. Mostly due to lack of maintenance, and hadn’t been opened in years. One was a 400 amp breaker, another was a 1200 amp gf main where I visually saw “C” phase stuck. But I imagine you have probably excercised it over the years. Could have just failed.
 
I think if that were the case you would have known about it when the generator was running. It would have tried to feed back out through the main and most likely overload the generator wouldn't it?
 
Could also just be a coincidence that it happened when the power was restored. There could have been a problem with the fuel or the generator itself. I had an older generator that would do that. It would run fine for a while then start surging, then back to normal.
 
Little Bill said:
Could also just be a coincidence that it happened when the power was restored. There could have been a problem with the fuel or the generator itself. I had an older generator that would do that. It would run fine for a while then start surging, then back to normal.
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I have a backup generator that I no longer trust because of running rough and it will just shutdown for no reason. Wait 30 seconds and it starts right back up. Pretty sure it's the governor but I can no longer get them and if I could the price would make me look at a brand new generator.
 
qcroanoke said:
I have a backup generator that I no longer trust because of running rough and it will just shutdown for no reason. Wait 30 seconds and it starts right back up. Pretty sure it's the governor but I can no longer get them and if I could the price would make me look at a brand new generator.
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Probably bad gas, since they started adding Ethanol, small engines gum up easily. Lots of trash and water in ethanol. I have two inverter generators that are identical, though one is a couple years older. Both the newest one, and the older one started running rough on the parallel kit. Thought maybe it was the kit causing it. The newest one was less than a month old, and had fresh gas in both. Just cleaned the carb on the new one, gas was bad. It runs fine now, but I need to tear down the other one and get the bad gas out of it. The reason yours runs, then can be restarted after a while, is the float needle valve is clogged or stuck not letting enough gas into the bowl. Once bowl fills again, it will run until it uses it up again.
 
I use ethanol free gas in my Honda inverter generator. It’s available at marinas and farm stores. I also add fuel stabilizer and run genny under load monthly
 
hillbilly1 said:
You could check the buss for voltage with the main off to verify. I have had several mains over the years that didn’t completely open. Mostly due to lack of maintenance, and hadn’t been opened in years. One was a 400 amp breaker, another was a 1200 amp gf main where I visually saw “C” phase stuck. But I imagine you have probably excercised it over the years. Could have just failed.
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Thats what I am doing tomorrow. I had been thru one tank of gas and was on the second on with new gas, so I am ruling out bad gas. This happening at the very moment power was restored leads me to think the breaker did not open completely. The meter combo is around 7 years old, and I have only had to connect the generator once about 2 years ago, so the main has not been opened since then. Going to open main and see if I am getting anything back on the buss
 
ceb58 said:
Thats what I am doing tomorrow. I had been thru one tank of gas and was on the second on with new gas, so I am ruling out bad gas. This happening at the very moment power was restored leads me to think the breaker did not open completely. The meter combo is around 7 years old, and I have only had to connect the generator once about 2 years ago, so the main has not been opened since then. Going to open main and see if I am getting anything back on the buss
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You can still have “good” gas, but the conditions you are reporting points to a gummed up carburetor. Try some fuel injector cleaner in the tank, easier than removing the carb to clean.
 
qcroanoke said:
I have a backup generator that I no longer trust because of running rough and it will just shutdown for no reason. Wait 30 seconds and it starts right back up. Pretty sure it's the governor but I can no longer get them and if I could the price would make me look at a brand new generator.
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I realized this once with my Honda generator,
I forgot to turn the vent open on the fuel tank cap. so as it ran for a while and depleted the fuel it would create a vaccuum in the tank and starve it of fuel.
 
mopowr steve said:
I realized this once with my Honda generator,
I forgot to turn the vent open on the fuel tank cap. so as it ran for a while and depleted the fuel it would create a vaccuum in the tank and starve it of fuel.
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I tried that too. Replaced the carburetor and took the carbon monoxide shutoff and the low oil level loose too. Runs rough with no load and it got better as I added load. But it can be running for 15 minutes and it just shuts down. No warning. Just like a safety shutdown or I turned the switch off.
And I had all this done by a small engine mechanic and really good friend Whom I trust.
 
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