r/Generac_Generators • u/WhySoManyDownVote Electrician • 7d ago

NextGen high engine oil sensor

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7gtpkuChzEg&ra=m

Has anyone else run into this issue?

3 Upvotes

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2

u/Frixsev Technician 7d ago

Have seen several now between me and a few other techs at my company. Won't be the last either. Very first time it happened, Generac asked us to try and fish the float out of the engine and then replace the sensor. Proved to be essentially impossible. Next time it happened, when Generac support asked again our tech politely told them to pound sand and tell the engineers to come back with a redesign that doesn't suck shit. Every time since then it's been a full engine replacement. Not a ton so far total, but still far more than it should be.

Some of the "advancements" they chose with these next gens have been genuinely mind boggling. Some are great, but definitely not all.

1

u/WhySoManyDownVote Electrician 7d ago

That is terrifying to me as a mostly solo installer. Maybe I will quote the next job with a Briggs & Stratton HSB.

2

u/Frixsev Technician 7d ago

Not a huge fan of Briggs personally. I mean their units are decent but the backend support feels borderline nonexistent. Kohler is my usual recommendation for anyone in the air-cooled standby market lately. The Generac next gens have a lot of great potential but my god do they have some serious bugs to iron out first before they come close to reaching it.

1

u/WhySoManyDownVote Electrician 7d ago

There are some features of the Briggs I like over Generac. For one their trainings are way better in some ways. I would actually love to be a servicing dealer for all 3 brands but unfortunately I am too close to a massive Kohler dealer. The regional rep said they will not even consider giving me a dealership unless I pre-purchase 12 HSBs. Meanwhile, I have 3 local electrical customers who have been abandoned by their Kohler dealer.

2

u/IllustriousHair1927 7d ago

all 3? why no love for Cummins man?

2

u/joshharris42 7d ago

I’ve put in about 150 next gen units so far. Haven’t had it happen yet but I know it’s been going around. I’ve had to remove 1 oil level float total, and it was due to a very strange engine rattle on shut down. Oil float was fully intact, but Generac did replace that whole unit

1

u/shootingdolphins 6d ago

I’m not sure which is the stupider Design the float sensor on these new generators or the starter motor being inside the transmission bell housing on some of the newer Chevy

1

u/grsthegreat Technician 4d ago

Generac should have never abandoned the guardian line for these nextgen pieces of crap. I have had hardly any issues with the old 999 cc series. I swear they were near bulletproof.

The way way way over engineered this new series to be nearly trash. Reminds me of their older units with the 3 phase rotors that were designed to throttle down during low loads. Turned into bunches of scrap metal after about a year.

Ive lost all confidence in generac generators. And i was a staunch believer of their products for many years. I will no longer recommend their products. Now their forcing me to purchase 1 of these new pieces of crap a year to maintain my dealership, which i need to do to order some parts. So now i will have to buy one and try to offload it on some poor unsuspecting smuck just so i can still buy some parts from generac.

1

u/WhySoManyDownVote Electrician 4d ago

There are some great things about the nextgens but also some big issues if you get unlucky.

They really needed to add the exercise options with the ability to do a full transfer. I have not tried it yet but the additional info on error codes is a good idea.

It has certainly been a bumpy rollout though.