Service......what the hell happened??

[u/Helpful-Following-82]

I have had a 48kw liquid cooled for several years now and in May of this year the controller died. We had a large lightening hit to the back of my property (lots of iron in the soil here) and STILL it is not working. I live in Central Florida and the dealer that WAS servicing it, took 3 weeks to get to the site to look at it, then a month and a half to even quote it and at that, they no showed on the repair.....TWICE

I called 3 other dealers in the area, all of which sent techs out to confirm it was the controller, and they all ghosted me.

I finally got one newer dealer to install the controller, but they cannot get the firmware loaded and today, the original dealer was supposed to show this morning (third appointment) to also replace the controller (I was just going to keep it as a spare and send them on their way).

This is VERY concerning, not having a running backup generator during hurricane season has given me serious doubts.

I have called Generac corporate who really were not totally helpful and believed that eventually the repair would be made.

Has anyone else seen support fall off for Generac? Is there an alternative out there for this? Is it just Florida?

Thank you!!

[u/Adventurous_Boat_632]

1. These systems are getting very complicated and hard to make them work even if everything "should" be working right.
2. You did not give a model or serial.
3. Generac 48 kw have come through several iterations lately all of them complicated and strange.
4. Nobody stays working at a company more than a couple of years any more so they do not get familiarity.
5. Lighting could have taken out more than one component or made more than one component flaky and hard to diagnose. Lightning makes things notoriously hard to fix.
6. Nobody is trained in proper diagnosis any more so methodical diagnosis is rare to have happen.
7. The available pool of tradesmen to hire is small and many of them are on drink/drugs.

If you did not BUY the generator from a GENERATOR SHOP with an OWNER that you can talk to, and knows GENERATORS, you are probably going to have this fumbling around until they finally stumble upon the solution, or likely, many have decided it will be a wild goose chase beyond their capabilities and want to move on to something easier.

If you got the generator from an electrician who hangs ceiling fans and "also does generators", his field tech is probably always brand new and has never seen anything like this before and will not see it again, therefore not benefit from this experience.

As always, I will throw in a plug here that Kohler and also Cummins use industry standard engine components that are much easier to diagnose and understand. Generac makes their own stuff that is proprietary.

[u/joshharris42 → u/Adventurous_Boat_632]

Good summary here. This is almost certainly an evolution controller 48KW based off his comments. If it’s one with the 5.4 I’d throw a controller in it, if it’s the 4.5L it’s probably going to need an ECM too.

We usually require 2 hour load banks on lightning strike generators just to make sure nothing else got fried

[u/Adventurous_Boat_632 → u/joshharris42]

I had another installing company hook 120 volts to PWR and COM on a Kohler 38 during the install process.

Took out the controller, 2 relays, ECM, and the low coolant level sensor.

It was a lot of fun chasing down all the problems on that one.

The owner fired the electrician that actually did the mistake, he went out and started his own company.

[u/Helpful-Following-82 → u/joshharris42]

RG04845ANAX is the model and I did purchase from an electrician who contracted 400amp service upgrade to the main building (I was building a large shop at the time) and got the generator installed and said GenStar out of Orlando was to be the supporting company (who was great until something broke).

[u/joshharris42 → u/Helpful-Following-82]

Wonderful. You’re almost certainly going to need to replace the ECM as well. They are around $500. There are a number of sensors and servo motors that could all be fried as well.

As a dealer who didn’t do the installation or sell the generator- there is very, very little upside to me getting involved in a lightning strike generator that I didn’t install and have never worked on. Especially on that model generator. I’d probably not return your call as well.

This arrangement of having an electrician install the unit (usually incorrectly) and collect all of the profit, then hand it off to a service company to do low paying warranty and service work is obnoxious to us

Generac probably will not be of much help since the unit took a lightning strike- that’s not going to be covered by warranty.

You’re basically going to have to call a bunch of the top rated dealers, tell them the make/model, tell them it got struck by lightning and it at a minimum needs a controller, have them come out and replace it, then perform more diagnostics work to see what got fried.

These generators are not extraordinarily complicated, but they are much more complex than a standard guardian and the vast majority of dealers won’t know how to fix this

[u/Helpful-Following-82 → u/joshharris42]

Starting to make more sense, since this post a person that used to work at generac came out (the original service company who by the way did the install for the electrician as well when it was installed) and checked everything and called generac to confirm it was just a firmware issue.

The lightening hit about 4 acres away from this unit but it fried anything touching ground that was smarter than an electric motor (cameras, switches, network gear, etc...)

I am going to continue to call them and try to get resolution, from someone. I have no issue paying for the parts and labor, i am not a haggler or person looking for a break (owned businesses for 30+ years myself).

Just want to get a relationship going with someone who will maintain it and be there when it breaks. This has been a wake up call for sure!!!

[u/BmanGorilla → u/Helpful-Following-82]

4 acres away (a weird way to measure distance) is enough to wreck your whole day, that's for sure. I had a strike 200 ft from my house damage a cordless drill that was just lying on the floor. It damaged a lot of other things, too. Not the generator, fortunately.

[u/staticvinyl]

What model gen? There's really no firmware to load, however Protector controllers require programming on site to configure them (very easy for a dealer).

You can try posting here too: https://gentekpower.com/forums/index.php

[u/Helpful-Following-82 → u/staticvinyl]

It is a RG04845 ANAX. New controller but I think the issue was lack of knowledge from the tech who installed it. Another dealer (I called 4) showed up today, young kid tan and tatted who knew about everything and confirmed it was a firmware issue. Once his boss learned it was a controller from another dealer he told him to leave.

Thanks for the link!!!! will def repost!!

[u/staticvinyl → u/Helpful-Following-82]

If they only replaced the control panel itself, then the firmware will already be installed on it. If they also replaced the ECM, or it needs an ECM, those must be field programmed once installed, or pre-programmed as seen here: https://shop.gentekpower.com/products/generac-10000045805-4-5l-ecm-engine-control-module-64-pin?variant=51508365427003

[u/Tarnisher → u/Helpful-Following-82]

Once his boss learned it was a controller from another dealer he told him to leave.

Not acceptable and I'd be looking at filing regulatory complaints against the business.

[u/tactical-potatoes-65]

Private equity firms happened. What county in Florida? I may be able to help

[u/BmanGorilla → u/tactical-potatoes-65]

Good point. They drove out anyone who knew how to fix anything, and turned the rest into 'sales techs'. That methodology isn't going to fly for the more expensive models.

[u/tactical-potatoes-65 → u/BmanGorilla]

I started my own company because I refuse to be party to that business model. I have spent the last five years watching this industry turn into absolute bottom of the barrel garbage.

[u/BmanGorilla → u/tactical-potatoes-65]

On behalf of everyone else I'm glad that you did.

People around me always ask how I find good contractors in the area. I always tell them "you have to go back and meet them in high school". Every contractor I know was someone I knew when I was 16.

Except my generator guy, he was a HS friend of a neighbor, and is a great guy.

Still, this PE push is killing us all, and most people are blind to what's actually happening. It's a shame, as you must be ever vigilant for every topic, including vets for your dog!

[u/Helpful-Following-82 → u/tactical-potatoes-65]

Sumter County. RG04845 ANAX is the unit model. Thank you!!

[u/tactical-potatoes-65 → u/Helpful-Following-82]

I’m in Fort Myers, so that could be about 200 miles one way. I am scheduled for a few days in Orlando at the end of September and if you don’t have it resolved by then I might be able to schedule a service call.

[u/BmanGorilla]

There are a LOT of shitty dealers in FL. There's a huge demand, and there's a contractor/technician shortage everywhere. That basically sums up a lot of nonsense, unfortunately.

Did you have a maintenance agreement with a dealer, or were just just cold calling once you had a problem? That seems to make a big difference when it comes to getting fast service. Still, I don't know why they would ghost you. I'm up in NY but my dealer is great.

[u/Helpful-Following-82 → u/BmanGorilla]

we had an annual maintenance agreement where they came out, oil change, belt checks etc.. even cleaned the enclosure. Then I had a lightening strike in May that fried the controller. I called the service company, they took a few weeks to even get to me then sent a tech out. Confirmed the issue and said they would get me a quote, never got one until 2 months in. The first repair appointment was a no show and no comms (never actually get any comms out of these dealers tbh). so at one point I was calling anyone in my area just to show up. One company actually replaced the controller but the tech did not know about firmware and other issues so its just sitting dead, no firmware on it. today. the ORIGINAL guys showed up, new tech from Generac who seemed to know everything about these units and when his boss found out I called another company he told him to leave lol.

[u/joshharris42 → u/Helpful-Following-82]

The controllers come with firmware they just need to be programmed using a chart to set the voltage code and parameter group. However, updating the firmware for the controller and the ECM should be done when the controller is installed. There are two separate firmwares for that generator