The appliances are not powering up as quickly as they have been after starting my gen. Usually after a couple " coughs", they would go on. Now it's about 8-9 coughs , then they activate. Don't really use it except for in the driveway for maintenance run or on longer trips to keep fridge cold till arrival. I start it regular when not using it and run 20-30 minutes. My questions. 1 why does it take longer all of a sudden to power up appliances?2 Do I need to shut off stuff before stopping the gen after a maintenance run? It is a 2013 Cummins Onan 5,500 watt

always turn off things like the A/C and the water heater etc..before stopping the gennyalways start the genny, let it run a minute then turn on loads one by onelargest load ( A/C ) firstnot doing this is hard on the generator and the transfer switchcausing arcing of the contacts on the TS, and extreme load on the genny when startingthis has been covered 'hundreds' of times on this forum

My Onan usually takes 10 seconds or so before it releases power to the rig - not sure how that equates to your "cough". I have always been told to turn off AC appliances before shutting off the generator. Not a science guru so can't tell you why .. but can say I have never heard anyone say otherwise.

I exercise my Onan 5000 once a month for about 45 minutes under a load. Do you run your 5500 on a regular basis?

Genset may have some carbon build up around the choke or the choke is not free due to dirt or whatever. Genset needs to warm enough to stabilize RPMs. Then in some the transfer switch has a time delay.Turning off genset while under load can cause arcing on the transfer switch relay contacts. This is somewhat like turning off circuit breakers in shore power post before plugging in or unplugging.

My old '94 Onan 5500 needed to have the slip rings polished occasionally to get better performance and speedier voltage stabilization.

Gen power transfer issue | Good Sam Community

enblethen
Nomad
Sep 23, 2018
Genset may have some carbon build up around the choke or the choke is not free due to dirt or whatever. Genset needs to warm enough to stabilize RPMs. Then in some the transfer switch has a time delay.
Turning off genset while under load can cause arcing on the transfer switch relay contacts. This is somewhat like turning off circuit breakers in shore power post before plugging in or unplugging.
gbopp
Explorer
Sep 23, 2018
I exercise my Onan 5000 once a month for about 45 minutes under a load.
Do you run your 5500 on a regular basis?
ksg5000
Explorer
Sep 23, 2018
My Onan usually takes 10 seconds or so before it releases power to the rig - not sure how that equates to your "cough".

I have always been told to turn off AC appliances before shutting off the generator. Not a science guru so can't tell you why .. but can say I have never heard anyone say otherwise.
MrWizard
Moderator
Sep 23, 2018
always turn off things like the A/C and the water heater etc..

before stopping the genny

always start the genny, let it run a minute then turn on loads one by one
largest load ( A/C ) first

not doing this is hard on the generator and the transfer switch
causing arcing of the contacts on the TS, and extreme load on the genny when starting

this has been covered 'hundreds' of times on this forum

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