The last part of our lake and soon to be main house rebuild was the NG powered backup generator, a 24KW Kohler. I was there for most of the install and test run. All appeared fine after a few not unexpected glitches. The generator was doing its weekly ~20 min self-tests apparently fine.
Fast forward to this recent bad storm in southern New England. Power fails and the genset fires up. I receive alerts of the failure, the restore by the genset then a short while later, another failure. I was rather mad, but not completely surprised...just jaded about many current goods and services.
Early the following morning and defying the Governor's travel ban (since the State wasn't going to pay for any frozen pipe damages, I felt no obligation), I head down and sure enough, its off. 4wd low range is nice sometimes. The installer electrician also drove down, yes, he should have but given the conditions I really appreciated it. The display indicated ~9 hrs which is expected given the number of self-tests and showed "low coolant shutdown". Coolant reservoir was on the low end of normal and no evidence of any leaks and I remember looking at coolant and oil when we first fired it up. I found compatible coolant at the only local store open for miles and filled the reservoir. Ran and shut down again.... I then accessed the radiator cap and no coolant was visible above the core. None. The coolant level was too low to draw coolant from the reservoir. Back to the store, got their last gallon and over a few heat cycles it took another half; ~1.5g low in a 3.5g system. Ran for an hour w/ no evidence of leaks, then ran perfectly for the next 12 hrs or so until power was restored. Again, no evidence of leaks.
Yes, the installer or I should probably have checked the coolant level in the radiator, but understandable if it was visible in the reservoir. I cannot see any other cause except delivered from the factory severely low on coolant...frustrating.
BTW, Michelin Defender LTX MS2s may be my new favorite tool.
Pic from drive down, maybe the Governor was right..
Fast forward to this recent bad storm in southern New England. Power fails and the genset fires up. I receive alerts of the failure, the restore by the genset then a short while later, another failure. I was rather mad, but not completely surprised...just jaded about many current goods and services.
Early the following morning and defying the Governor's travel ban (since the State wasn't going to pay for any frozen pipe damages, I felt no obligation), I head down and sure enough, its off. 4wd low range is nice sometimes. The installer electrician also drove down, yes, he should have but given the conditions I really appreciated it. The display indicated ~9 hrs which is expected given the number of self-tests and showed "low coolant shutdown". Coolant reservoir was on the low end of normal and no evidence of any leaks and I remember looking at coolant and oil when we first fired it up. I found compatible coolant at the only local store open for miles and filled the reservoir. Ran and shut down again.... I then accessed the radiator cap and no coolant was visible above the core. None. The coolant level was too low to draw coolant from the reservoir. Back to the store, got their last gallon and over a few heat cycles it took another half; ~1.5g low in a 3.5g system. Ran for an hour w/ no evidence of leaks, then ran perfectly for the next 12 hrs or so until power was restored. Again, no evidence of leaks.
Yes, the installer or I should probably have checked the coolant level in the radiator, but understandable if it was visible in the reservoir. I cannot see any other cause except delivered from the factory severely low on coolant...frustrating.
BTW, Michelin Defender LTX MS2s may be my new favorite tool.
Pic from drive down, maybe the Governor was right..
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