Marin · Generator Installation & Repair
Generator Repair
Diagnostics, repairs and scheduled servicing for every brand, including the emergency call when a set will not start.
Generator Repair · Marin
What Repair And Servicing Actually Involves
Almost every generator that fails during an outage failed long before it, quietly, while nobody was looking. The battery lost capacity over an eighteen-month summer. The fuel in the tank absorbed water and grew something. The oil went past its interval because the machine only ran for twelve minutes a week. The controller logged a fault in March that nobody read. A standby set is a machine that spends 99 percent of its life switched off and is then asked to work perfectly, unattended, on the worst night of the year, which is exactly why annual generator maintenance is the whole of the product rather than an add-on to it. We service and repair every brand we come across, including sets we did not sell and sets whose original installer has long since disappeared, across all ten Marin towns. That covers scheduled work, one-off diagnostics and emergency generator repair when a machine has already let somebody down. Where a set turns out to be beyond sensible repair, we will say so plainly and price a replacement rather than sell you a sequence of repairs.
Why Go With Us
The repair end of this trade has a reputation problem, and it is mostly earned by two habits: quoting a replacement for a machine that needs a battery and a fuel filter, and turning up without the parts. We hold the common consumables for the brands that dominate this county, we diagnose from the controller log and a load test rather than from a guess, and we give you the fault, the cause and the options in writing. Because we install as well as service, we can tell you honestly when a fifteen-year-old machine has reached the end of its useful life, and we have no incentive to pretend either way.
- All brands serviced, including Generac, Kohler, Cummins, Caterpillar, Champion and machines somebody else installed.
- Diagnosis from the controller history and a real load test rather than from symptoms described on the phone.
- Common filters, belts, batteries, sensors and controller spares carried on the van, so most faults are fixed on the first visit.
- Emergency generator service out of hours, dispatched from San Rafael across all ten towns.
- Written reports with the fault, the cause and the options, so a repair-or-replace decision is yours to make with the facts.
- Annual maintenance agreements with a reminder system, because the single best predictor of a failed start is a skipped service.
Reasons To Call For A Repair Or A Service
The symptoms that bring people to us, and what they usually mean:
It will not start
The most common call and the most commonly misdiagnosed. In order of likelihood: a flat or failed battery, stale or contaminated fuel, a blocked fuel filter, a failed charger, a fuel solenoid, and only then something expensive.
It starts but will not take the load
The engine runs and the house stays dark. This usually points at the transfer switch, its control circuit or a controller fault rather than the engine, and it is the failure people discover during the outage because the weekly test never proves a transfer.
It shuts down after a few minutes
Overheating from a blocked radiator or a low coolant level, low oil pressure, or an overload from a load that has grown since the machine was specified. All four are worth catching before an outage rather than during one.
There is a warning on the controller
Modern controllers report low battery, low coolant temperature, a charger fault or a missed exercise run. Those alerts exist precisely so the machine can be fixed on a Tuesday afternoon rather than at two in the morning.
It is smoking or running rough
Persistent white or blue smoke and unburnt fuel in the exhaust on a diesel set usually means wet stacking from years of light-load running. It is fixable, and the fix includes changing how the machine is exercised.
It has not been serviced in years
A set that has sat through several dry seasons without a visit is not a working generator, whatever the hour meter says. A single assessment visit will tell you where you stand for a fraction of what the first failure costs.
Give us the make, roughly how old it is and the symptom, and we can usually say on the phone whether that is a service call or a bigger conversation. Call: 415-324-4858
How We Work
A site visit that opens the panel, a flat written price, permits filed by us, and a machine commissioned under load.
1. Diagnosis
We pull the controller history, test the battery and charging system under load, check fuel condition and filtration, and run the machine if it will run. The fault log usually tells the real story, because most failures announced themselves weeks earlier.
2. The report and the options
You get the fault, the underlying cause and the choices in writing, with prices. Where a machine is at the end of its life we say that and show the reasoning, rather than quoting one repair at a time until you give up.
3. The repair
Most faults are fixed on the first visit because the common parts are on the van. Anything needing an ordered part gets a date rather than a vague promise, and where a business or a household cannot be without cover in the meantime we can drop a rental unit in.
4. Testing and prevention
Nothing is signed off without a run under load and a transfer test in both directions. Then we set a sensible exercise cycle and, if you want it, put the machine on an annual schedule with a reminder so the next fault gets caught early.
Servicing, Oil Changes, Fuel Work And Emergency Callouts
What the work actually consists of:
Annual generator maintenance
For a residential standby set, once a year or every 100 to 200 running hours. The visit covers an oil and filter change, air filter, spark plugs on a gas machine, a battery capacity test, a coolant check or analysis on a liquid-cooled unit, the valve clearances at the longer intervals, an enclosure and rodent inspection, a controller review and a transfer test under load.
Generator oil change
The single most important item and the one most often stretched. Oil in a standby engine degrades with time and with condensation as much as with hours, which is why the interval is annual even on a machine that has run for twenty hours. Air-cooled residential units are typically annual or every 100 to 200 hours; larger liquid-cooled and diesel sets are on a shorter hours-based schedule.
Battery and charging faults
More failed starts trace back to the battery than to everything else combined. Standby batteries fail from age and from sitting on a charger rather than from use, so they are replaced on a schedule, usually every three years, and tested under load at every visit rather than checked with a voltmeter.
Diesel generator repair and fuel work
Diesel stored for years absorbs water, grows microbial contamination and blocks filters at the worst possible moment. Fuel sampling, polishing, filter changes and biocide treatment are ordinary maintenance items on any diesel set, and skipping them is the most common reason an otherwise healthy industrial machine fails to run.
Transfer switch servicing
The switch is the part that decides whether an outage is a non-event, and a weekly engine exercise proves nothing about it. Contacts, control wiring, the sensing circuit and the mechanical operation all get exercised and inspected, because a machine that starts and never transfers is a machine that failed.
Emergency generator repair
When a set has already failed, or has failed during an outage, we take those calls out of hours. Contract customers get a defined response time. We carry the consumables that fix the majority of no-start faults, so most emergency visits end with a working machine rather than a parts order.
Wet stacking and load testing
A diesel engine run for ten minutes a month at almost no load never reaches temperature, and unburnt fuel accumulates in the cylinders and exhaust. The symptom is smoke and lost output. The fix is a load bank test to burn it off and a change to the exercise regime so it does not come back.
What Generator Repair And Servicing Costs
An annual service on a residential air-cooled standby unit typically runs $300 to $600 depending on the machine and what the visit turns up. Commercial and liquid-cooled sets are more, and are usually bought as an agreement covering two visits and an annual load test. Diagnostic callouts are charged as a visit plus parts. What moves it:
- The type of machine. An air-cooled residential unit is a short visit; a liquid-cooled or diesel set has more filters, more fluids and a longer checklist.
- Whether it is scheduled or an emergency. Out-of-hours callouts cost more, which is most of the argument for being on a schedule.
- What the machine needs. A battery, a set of filters and an oil change is routine. A starter, an alternator, a controller board or a fuel system rebuild is not.
- Fuel condition on a diesel set, where polishing or a full tank clean is a job of its own rather than a line on a service sheet.
- How long it has been neglected. A set that missed five years of servicing needs a first visit that looks more like a rebuild than a check.
- Access. A hillside position in Sausalito or Mill Valley, or an equipment room reached through a trading restaurant, takes longer than a flat side yard.
Assessment visits on inherited machines come with a written report, so you know what you have before deciding anything. If replacement turns out to be the honest answer we will price a new backup system alongside the repair, and businesses can fold servicing into a commercial generator agreement. The rest of what we do sits under generator installation, servicing and hire.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should a generator be serviced?
A residential standby unit needs a full service once a year, or every 100 to 200 running hours if it has done unusual work, plus the weekly self-test it runs on its own. Commercial and industrial sets are typically twice a year with an annual load test. The interval is driven by time as much as by hours, because oil degrades and batteries age whether or not the machine has run.
What does an annual generator service include?
An oil and filter change, air filter, spark plugs on a gas machine, a battery capacity test under load, coolant check or analysis on liquid-cooled units, fuel filter and fuel condition check on diesel sets, valve clearance at the longer intervals, an inspection of the enclosure for rodent damage, a controller and fault log review, and a transfer test with the machine under load. You get a written report afterwards.
My generator will not start. What is usually wrong?
The battery, most of the time. Standby batteries fail from age and from sitting rather than from use, and a voltmeter reading of 12.6 volts tells you very little about whether it will turn an engine. After that, in rough order: stale or contaminated fuel, a blocked fuel filter, a failed battery charger, a fuel solenoid, and then the genuinely expensive items. A diagnostic visit sorts most of it in an hour.
Do you repair generators you did not install?
Yes, and most of our service base arrived that way. We work on Generac, Kohler, Cummins, Caterpillar, Champion and the rest, including machines whose original installer is no longer trading. The first visit on an unfamiliar set is a full assessment with a written report, so any repair decision is made on evidence rather than on a hunch.
How often does a generator need an oil change?
Annually on a residential standby set, or every 100 to 200 running hours, whichever comes first. Larger liquid-cooled and diesel machines run to a shorter hours-based interval, commonly 250 hours. Portable units need it every 50 to 100 hours. The reason time matters as much as hours is condensation and additive breakdown in an engine that spends most of its life cold.
Do you offer emergency generator service?
Yes, out of hours and at weekends, dispatched from our San Rafael shop across all ten towns we cover. Customers on a maintenance agreement have a defined response time. We carry the batteries, filters, belts and common sensors that account for most no-start faults, so the majority of emergency visits end with the machine running rather than with a parts order.
How long should a standby generator last?
A well-maintained residential air-cooled unit typically gives fifteen to twenty-five years, and a liquid-cooled or industrial diesel set can run far longer than that on hours alone. What usually ends a machine’s life is controls obsolescence and parts availability rather than a worn engine. A set that has been serviced annually is generally worth repairing; one that has sat untouched for a decade often is not.
Why is my generator smoking?
On a diesel set, persistent white or blue smoke with unburnt fuel in the exhaust is usually wet stacking, caused by years of running short monthly tests at almost no load so the engine never reaches temperature. It is reversible with a load bank test to burn off the deposits, but it comes straight back unless the exercise regime is changed to load the machine properly.
Need power in Marin?
An address, a panel size and a rough list of what has to keep running is all we need. We call back inside one business hour with a free estimate and a flat price.
Or call us now: 415-324-4858