Don’t Wait Until a Hurricane is Approaching to Service Your Generator

Advertisement

NASSAU , BAHAMAS – Generator sales manager Rachel Lightbourne knows a lot about these machines.

We recently caught up with her to talk about the importance of staying ahead on service.

She says too many owners wait until the height of storm season to call for maintenance, when simple steps like filter changes and oil checks can be done months earlier.

Rachel Lightbourne – Generator Sales Manager, Lightbourne Marine
“If you’re not on a maintenance contract, then I would just check around hours, which, on your control display on your generator, and just keep a record of that, so that you know when it’s on services, and book ahead of time. Don’t wait until June, July, August, to call for your generator to be serviced. Get it done in January, February, March. The cooler months, you know, before it all builds up, you know, that would be my recommendation, is just to keep your records, stay ahead of it. You know, the filter change might sound like a lot. If you’re really only doing it, like, once every 250 hours, you know, that could be a year and a half, you know, doing it once every year and a half. So just for that unexpected. But it’s a small price to pay to maintain, rather than to have to be reactive and call, you know, diagnosing and repairs.”

Lightbourne notes that even basic upkeep comes with a price. She breaks down what owners can expect to pay.

Rachel Lightbourne – Generator Sales Manager, Lightbourne Marine
“I would say for parts and labour, for a small residential unit, like this one here, Piney, is about $300. And then for the diesels, they can be $700, parts and labour, for oil and filter changes.”

When storms approach, safety becomes part of the maintenance story. Rachel Lightbourne explains why sometimes it’s best to conserve and power down the generator until it’s actually needed.

Rachel Lightbourne – Generator Sales Manager, Lightbourne Marine
“Yeah, we’ve been over this over the years. If you’ve got a pretty strong storm heading this way, we always advise our customers to, maybe before things start getting too dicey outside, to go ahead and turn the machine off, and don’t run it during the brunt of the storm, because it’s sucking in air, and it’s bringing in that salt-laden air and moisture into the machine. Perhaps leave it off for a few hours while we make it that headboard, this one pass, and then after you can turn it back on afterwards, because it’s the days after the storm that you’re gonna need it. You know, it may not be for the four hours that it’s passing over us.”