Review Generac Guardian Series 5875 20,000 Watt Air-Cooled Liquid Propane/Natural Gas Powered Standby Generator With Transfer Switch (CARB Compliant)

 

In May I will have had this generator installed for 2 years. I have had ZERO problems with it! Just like it is supposed to it "wakes up" every Monday morning and runs at half speed for about 12 minutes to keep everything limber. Recently, I discovered Amazon had the maintenance kit for only $13.97. It has a new air filter, oil filter and 2 spark plugs. Generac recommends changing the oil at 200 hours or 2 years whichever comes first, so my plan is to change the oil at the 2 year boundary next month.

I have had 2 complete power failures here in the country over the last 2 years. One lasted about an hour and a half. Both times the generator started in the required 10 seconds or less and the power transferred automatically. I had to laugh when I saw the power company truck drive by looking for the outage and our lights were the only ones on. Grin!! But I am a retired Electrical Engineer and I KNOW how this stuff works. This 20kw unit has practically rock solid voltage and frequency regulation. I have one of those little plug-in units called a Kill-A-Watt and the frequency counter maybe goes down to 59.9hz and up to 60.1hz occasionally, however, most of the time it stays right on 60hz. Now I will admit when the whole house air conditioner starts the generator "moans" a little bit but recovers instantly and keeps on truckin'. The only other comment that might be appropriate here is my surprise when the electric contractor that installed the unit poured the concrete pad that it sits on. I asked, "Isn't this too small". They assured me it wasn't. And since, in the past I had one of the Generac 10kw contractor units that is almost twice the size, was I surprised when I saw how small this unit was. But new technology has allowed even generators to shrink.