Potentially Dangerous Generator Failure

Old Islander wrote:
This spring, bought a 1200 Watt Firman generator from Home Depot in Canada. It seemed like a good deal -- $249 plus tax, delivered right to the house, with a three year warranty.

On the second occasion of using this generator -- a hunting/camping trip with a truck camper late last month -- I set the generator on the ground. It started normally, but a few minutes later, we noticed a strong gas odor. The fuel tank's on/off valve was leaking gasoline which was trickling down into the air intake of the motor's cooling system -- about a half tank had leaked out.

The entire insides of the generator's motor, inverter, and electronic panel, were running with raw gas, to the point that the engine was starting to 'hunt'. Gas was being sucked into the air filter intake. It is extremely fortunate that it didn't catch fire, as it likely would have spread to the truck and camper. Managed to get the engine turned off and when the tank's fuel valve was closed, the leaking stopped.

The cause seems to be a stripped machine screw on the bottom this valve. (see attached photo of a similar valve...)


Click For Full-Size Image.

Home Depot provided a full refund. But when I posted the story above with a "one star rating" to their website under reviews for this generator, they refused to publish it.

So the learning here:

• Cheap Chinese machinery isn't always worth the savings
• situate your generator so if it catches fire, it's as far away as possible from your RV
• never leave your generator running unattended
• don't believe the reviews in Home Depot's web pages -- they won't publish the bad ones

Hate to tell you, that style of gas tank valve IS used in pretty much EVERY portable small engine device and is not limited to only Chinese made gens.. In fact most if not all big name brands like Honda, Yamaha use this valve design.

Many parts are "sourced", not made by many engine/gen manufacturers.

Yes, you found a flaw, but it was not designed nor produced by your generator brand.

I suspect in your case, manufacturer "QA" is the real issue since a small amount of gas put into the tank would have showed the flaw. But most manufacturers would have missed this since they most likely do not put gas into the tank to "test" the final product (not easy to flush gas residue out of the tank when fully assembled).

I might add that that valve design has another REAL flaw, the body is made of "pot metal" (AKA cast zinc).

I had one of these valves BREAK OFF at the threads after nearly 10 years of use.

Vibration and the fact that pot metal is not very strong can shatter the valve at a weak point..

I was lucky, mine broke while I was driving down the road and not while the gen was running.

Like all other things mechanical, things can break.

You don't have a lot of options for this valve so you really have to replace with the same design.