The questions we answer every week

At minimum once a year, plus the weekly or biweekly self-exercise cycle the controller runs on its own. Commercial and life-safety installations should be on a twice-yearly or quarterly schedule with annual load-bank testing. Annual service is the single strongest predictor of whether a generator starts when the utility drops.

Yes. We service all major brands regardless of who sold or installed the unit. The first visit on an unfamiliar generator includes an assessment so we can document its condition before putting it on a plan.

A residential air-cooled install is typically one to two days on site once permits and equipment are in hand, with lead time driven by unit availability and inspection scheduling. Commercial projects run on the construction schedule and are quoted individually.

Yes, generator installations require electrical permits and, for gas-fueled units, gas permits. We pull the permits and coordinate inspections as part of the installation.

Essential-circuit backup covers heat, water, refrigeration, and lighting at a much lower cost, and suits most Montana homes. Whole-home backup with load management makes sense when the budget supports it or when the household simply will not manage circuit discipline during a multi-day outage.

It depends on running load plus the starting surge of your largest motor, usually the well pump or HVAC compressor. Most Montana homes land between 14 kW and 26 kW; small commercial sites typically between 25 kW and 150 kW. We calculate rather than guess.

No. Oversizing costs more up front in pad, conductors, transfer equipment, fuel storage, and permitting, burns more fuel per useful kilowatt-hour, and chronically underloads a diesel engine, which causes wet stacking (unburned fuel fouling injectors and turbochargers). It also does nothing for reliability, because generators fail to start on fuel condition, battery health, and controller faults, not on capacity. A properly engineered load calculation with a prioritized load-shedding scheme almost always lands a smaller, better-loaded unit that carries your critical loads for less money, with documented headroom for growth.

Two things, and both are expensive. Mechanically, standby diesel absorbs water and grows microbial contamination within a couple of years, start batteries fail under cranking load long before they look dead, and controllers log failed weekly self-tests that nobody reads, so the unit does not start during the outage it was bought for. Contractually, manufacturer warranties generally require documented, on-schedule service by an authorized dealer, so a covered failure becomes an out-of-pocket repair once the records are missing. That combination is how a good generator becomes a very expensive object on a concrete pad.

Natural gas where a utility line reaches the property, propane where it does not, and diesel for large commercial gensets where power density and runtime matter most. Fuel choice affects sizing, so it is decided during the site assessment.

Not on its own. There is a several-second gap between utility loss and generator transfer. A UPS covers that gap instantly, then hands the load to the generator. Any site with servers, controls, POS, or medical equipment should have both layers.

Coverage varies by brand and model, typically spanning several years on parts and labor for standby units. Warranty generally requires the unit to be installed by an authorized dealer and maintained on schedule, which is one practical reason to buy and service through the same dealer.

Generac, Cummins, Kohler, Briggs & Stratton, and Champion. Because we carry five lines, the recommendation follows your load and fuel situation rather than a single manufacturer's catalog.