The annual service (the important one)
Once a year, your generator needs a real service — think of it like a car's annual checkup, except this car has to start perfectly on the worst night of the year. A full annual service includes: oil and filter change, air filter check/replacement, spark plug inspection, battery test (and replacement if weak — batteries typically last 2–3 years), coolant check on liquid-cooled units, fuel system inspection, transfer switch inspection, and a full load test where we simulate an outage and confirm the whole system performs.
The weekly exercise (automatic)
Your generator runs itself for a few minutes every week. This isn't a full workout — it's a systems check: the engine turns over, oil circulates, the battery charges, and the controller verifies everything's healthy. Make sure the exercise schedule stays enabled. If you ever notice it didn't run its weekly test, that's worth a call — something's wrong.
What you can check yourself
You don't need to be a mechanic, but a monthly glance helps: clear leaves, mulch, and snow from around the unit (it needs airflow — keep about 3 feet clear on all sides), check that the exercise ran this week, glance at the controller display for any warning lights, and after a storm, make sure nothing fell on or against the unit. That's it — leave the rest to the annual service.
What happens if you skip maintenance
The honest version: most neglected generators don't die dramatically. They just don't start — dead battery, gummed-up fuel system, or a fault the controller detected months ago that nobody noticed because nobody looked. The outage reveals it. Annual maintenance is cheap insurance against the most expensive surprise: needing backup power and not having it.
Our maintenance plans cover the annual service plus priority scheduling. Send the form to set one up.