In your garage sleeps a striking a classic vehicle with leather interior. You wash it, polish it, maintain it and occasionally drive it for 15 minutes once a month on a beautiful Sunday morning. One day you decide to take your classic for a trip to Rum Point. While this may sound like an exciting adventure, the chances of your idle car making it there and back are not as good as you think. When a car is not used to driving often, you may run into trouble.
Corporate Electric uses this analogy for backup portable generators as well.
The problem is this: when technology does not run for long periods of portable backup generators, it may have a difficult time doing so when needed. If you do not run your portable backup generator on a regular basis, it will not operate in times of a power outage. There is nothing more frustrating than your back up generator not working during an outage.
- First, ensure you have the right person servicing your portable generator. Often times, people ask a maintenance man to adhere to their portable generator but they may not be skilled in that particular machine. Do extensive research before hiring.
- Do a full maintenance check at least twice a year. Keep the reports on your generator service and a log of when your generator is serviced so you do not forget. We often forget the last time we had a dentist appointment, let alone a generator check, so writing it down is key.
- In order for your striking classic vehicle, or your portable backup generator, to run properly on all occasions, put in half a gallon of gas and run it for thirty minutes. Continue to do this every month.
- Lastly, always clean your generator post-use. Remove grease, residue, organic matter and fuel. Use clean rags and a compressed air blower to clean out ventilation systems.
We hope that you will not have to use your back up generator often this hurricane season, but it very important to maintain it in case an emergency strikes.
