There were many generators that didn't work during the 2021 freeze. Does anyone recall what the main reason was for that? There was a part that froze and I can't remember what it was. Thanks.

I’d like the answer to that too. I was lucky to have no run problems, other than the generator being a bit too small for the maximum load. However, prior to the big freeze, I had to have the rather old unit worked over. Sure glad I did. My worry now during really cold weather is having a starter battery too weak due to the cold or not enough propane.

You could call a Generac service shop and ask them what the big problems were.

There are guys on here that knew exactly what it was but I can't remember what they said.

I didn’t have problems but I was using two small 2000watt Hondas.

I had a couple 3500 watt generators during that cold snap. One of them had a fuel leak at the shutoff petcock, when I turned it on. The rubber seal had shrunk due to the extreme cold, so it was useless. It was an older model Honda.

Almost the same here. We ran a Honda 2000 and a Briggs and Stratton 2000 watt clone for the entire 5 days without a problem.

I think Jason is talking about the large generators at the major electric plants. If I recall, there was a natural gas valve feeding the boilers that froze.

If he's talking about home generators, I'd guess that the biggest issue for most homeowners is a clogged carb from old gas sitting in it.

Are you asking about personal home generators or the large power plant generators that put electricity on the grid?

I'm talking about the stationary home generators like generac.

I think the stationary home problems were related to the power plants going off line due to natural gas valve freezing problems which in turn failed to push natural gas down lines to those home NG home systems. I agree individual generator gas lines freezing/leaking could be a problem. Happened to my older small generator which I still need to fix and clean carb while at.

I haven't heard of any widespread problems of home generators, but the isolated issues I have heard about from my friends or coworkers that do have them were caused by lack of maintenance. They let them sit for a year or two without even touching them, but expect them to work on demand.

in 2021 the main issue was ice accumulation on wind turbines and transmission lines. this year we dealt mostly with snow and not alot of ice. it also helped that west tx had very little precipitation. Ive been working in this industry for 15 years so if anyone has questions just let me know.

My generator ran fine for about 2 hours then started sputtering and eventually shut down. It was a clogged carb as unclebubba pointed out. I used regular pump gas treated with ethanol gas stabilizer and ran it every couple of months and it still clogged up. After rebuilding the carb, I now only run ethanol free gas in it.

The ones I know come on once a week as part of maintenance and run for a few minutes.

I’ve had good luck just running ethanol free and killing the gas and letting the carb run dry. Has worked for a few years now just using it when we have bad weather and running it a few times a year.

Ethanol free gas and stabilizer in all my small gas engines and gas cans and haven’t had a failure since.

A general warning to Make sure you use a Briggs and Stratton shut off valve if you add one inline. I've had cheap knockoffs, with the valve closed seep fuel past. A week later you have a fuel bowl full of fuel