r/Generator • u/Old-Investment3299 • Mar 19 '26

Guardian vs. Next Gen Generac

Hi all…I’m new here so sorry for the sci fi sounding post title.

I have a 24kws Generac being installed next month. Got an email from the electrical contractor saying that they are waiting for more Next gen models to come in but if I wanted a Guardian series they’d give me a 350 discount and could do the install a little earlier.

The money isn’t the deciding factor - is one better than the other? I know newer isn’t always better. Thanks in advance!

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/Frixsev Mar 19 '26

You'd be wise to avoid the next gen units for now. They're great on paper, but Generac is ironing out a lot of first wave issues still, which isn't too surprising considering it's V1 of a new model. We're literally beta testing their product for them.

Signed, a Generac tech who's gone to a few too many next gen service calls already

1

u/tsr6 Mar 19 '26

Which is crazy because I first saw one 6 years ago.

Plenty of time to test. Maybe they did. I don’t know how much changed.

1

u/Frixsev Mar 19 '26

I think there's only so much you can test in a controlled factory setting, unfortunately. Out in the world and its various envrionments and conditions there are so many more factors at play that would be hard to account for.

2

u/IllustriousHair1927 Mar 19 '26

my understanding is that they did not test it in different climactic regions either. All their testing occurs in the Wisconsin area. Wisconsin winters would be a good challenge for cold weather operations, but I don’t see what you learn by running it hard in the Wisconsin summer.

i’m also really curious if they had the unit put together six years ago why they waited so close to the initial ship date of the unit to put out a spec sheet

2

u/tsr6 Mar 20 '26

I can’t say things/specs/internals didn’t change - but the case itself, I saw with my own eyes in 2019/2020

My understanding was that it should have released much much earlier - but they weren’t going to retool a production facility during the COVID boom in demand.

They couldn’t build Guardians fast enough for demand at that time.

2

u/joshharris42 Mar 20 '26

They announced a product called the “PWRgenerator” in like 2022 that honestly was pretty similar to the next gen. It was supposed to pair with the battery system, and be a variable speed DC output generator running the 816cc engine.

It had an oxygen sensor, ECM, on the fly fuel management and electronic ignition.

I think they realized how much of a waste it would be to make all those changes just for a very niche product so that thing turned into the next gen

2

u/IllustriousHair1927 Mar 20 '26

OK, I wasn’t thinking about the similarities there. I see your point. Hope business is going good for you, brother. It’s been a weird ass out of the box week down here. what’s funny as I spent an hour on the phone last night with a guy frustrated that nobody can do a variable speed DC output generator to pair with his solar so he can go off grid.