Customer Reviews

Generac Guardian Series 5505 17,000 Watt Air Cooled Propane/Natural Gas Powered Home Automatic Standby Generator With Transfer Switch (CARB Compliant)

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After owning my 16,000 watt Guardian for 2 years and 3 months, the life of that Generac product, I am calling it quits. It failed at the 18 month mark when the overvoltage controller went and it blew out an expensive clothes dryer, security lights and a breaker panel protector. It took several days to get a dealer to service the unit under warranty and neither the original installing dealer or Home Depot, the retailer that sold the unit, wanted anything to do with the unit. We of course at the cost of damage done by the failed generator.

At 23 months the same board failed, causing the choke control to fail. Additionally, a magneto failed so the unit wouldn't start. This was discovered after one of Generac's dealers completed a $175 maintenance job, before telling us the unit was inoperative. At Generac's suggestion, we had the unit repaired by one of their Elite dealers.

The bill was $800 for repair, half labor, half parts. It took them three hours to remove enough of the parts stacked on top to get to the magnetos, so the dealer changed both to head off another big labor charge in the event the second magneto failed. The unit ran, then 8 days later the same circuit board failed and had to be replaced.

After Generac said they would probably help cover repair costs because of the high failure rate and a design that was rendered obsolete so quickly, they had be write the details of all failures, provide all documentation, then bascially told me to stuff it. Their response was that they didn't think the failure rate or cost to repair was excessive. Home Depot's response was basically "Sue us".

Junk emergency generator, short life and expensive. Terrible company service and buyer beware attitude. Doesn't speak well for Generac or Home Depot as a source of emergency equipment. Now I am shopping for a quality product and the Generac is an expensive lesson I will not need to learn again.

If you live in an area where people commonly use standby generators, just ask others before buying. In our area you'll find nothing but horror stories about Generac's equipment and company attitude.