- 785 Westney Road South, Unit #4, Ajax, Ontario L1S 7G1
- info@genworx.ca
All makes serviced · Ontario-wide · Based in Ajax
The short answer: more often than most people expect, and on several different schedules at once.
It is the question we get asked more than any other, usually by someone who has just taken over responsibility for a building and found a generator in a room with no paperwork attached to it.
A vehicle engine that does a hundred thousand kilometres a year is in constant use. Everything is warm, everything is circulating, and problems announce themselves quickly.
A standby generator does the opposite. It sits still in a cold room for months. Fuel ages in the tank. Batteries slowly discharge. Seals dry out. Connections work loose with vibration and temperature change. Nothing tells you any of this is happening, because the machine is not running.
Then one day the power fails and the generator is expected to start immediately and run for hours at full load. That is a lot to ask of a machine nobody has looked at.
A short visual check and, on most systems, an exercise run. Someone confirms the controller is in auto, there are no warning lights, fluid levels are right, and there are no visible leaks. This is quick, and on many sites the building’s own staff do it.
A more thorough inspection. Battery condition and charging, fuel level and condition, coolant, belts and hoses, and a check that the exercise runs have actually been happening and were recorded.
Now a technician is involved properly. Filters, fluids, a close look at the fuel system, the cooling system, the exhaust, the electrical connections and the transfer switch. This is where most developing problems get caught.
The full service. Everything above, plus load bank testing to prove the machine can carry a real load, plus fluid sampling for laboratory analysis, plus a full inspection report for your records.
This surprises people. Meeting the CSA requirements for an emergency power system is the responsibility of the building owner, not the service company. If the inspections have not been done, that sits with you.
What a service provider does is make it straightforward — carry out the work, keep the records properly, and tell you when something is due. At GenWorx we offer complete packages covering all four schedules. Where a customer’s own staff already handle the weekly and monthly checks, we build a modified plan that covers only the gaps rather than charging for work you are already doing.
A generator that has been neglected for three years will often still start on a test. The problems it has — degraded fuel, a marginal cooling system, a tired battery, wet stacking in the exhaust — are all problems that only show up when the machine is asked to do real work. Which is the one occasion when there is no room for it to fail.
Nothing, usually. For a long time. That is exactly why it keeps happening: the absence of a consequence gets read as evidence that everything is fine.
If you are not sure when your generator was last properly serviced, that is your answer: it is due. Have someone look at it, get a written report of its actual condition, and set a schedule from there.
GenWorx services standby generators across Ontario on all major makes — Cat, Cummins, Kohler, Generac, MTU and Detroit Diesel.
A generator that starts is not a generator that works.
Most failures give warning first. Here is what to look for.
What happens inside the tank, and how to prevent it.
