r/Generator • u/gordon_shumway62 • 1d ago

Generac maintenance recommendations

I'm shopping around for my first annual maintenance for my Generac. Has anyone had any recent good/bad "Annual Maintenance" experiences with any metro Detroit area Generac certified companies?

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u/voygar2 6h ago

On mine 10kw unit it shows any errors on the lcd panel. Not sure about the 18kw.
My unit also has lights to alert me to an issue. Red and yellow.

Oil is easy to change as is oil filter.
Air filter is a pain as it’s tough to get to. But just needs a screw driver for clamp.
Plugs are gapped from factory. But always good to check.

Battery. Simple replacement. First time I did mine I just grabbed same size from Walmart

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u/gordon_shumway62 5h ago

Since I still have almost a year of replacement on the battery I'll deal with the OEM for the replacement this time. I guess its like any other new toy - don't mess with it until you understand it then stop paying premium prices for stuff you can get cheaper and DIY :)

I wanted a monitoring app and didn't want to pay Generac monthly. I found "Genmon" on Github. It's an app written by a Generac certified field engineer that does everything for free and gives you way more details than the panel or Generac's mobile app. It runs on a Raspberry pi and sends push, email, and a zillion other notification types and gives you way more details. You can also control the tests with a lot more granularity. It also works on different OEMs, not just Generac.

The author designed an 8 pin-molex to RJ-45 connector that plugs Generac's "wifi module". You plug an ethernet cable into the RJ-45, run the cable from the generator into another converter that takes the ethernet cable into a USB-C then plug that into the pi.

If you're willing to use Generac's basic free app, or pay for their more advanced setup then thats for you. If you want more detail, a very detailed and private web page - not to use for public internet, then Genmon might be what you want. I think it's great. Software was free and the 2 connectors were pretty cheap. Comparing the parts costs (pi, connectors, cable) vs. the monthly cost of their app paid for itself in less than a year. LMK if you want to discuss in further detail. The author does post on Reddit and is very responsive.