There’s a cruel irony in backup power: the machine you bought for emergencies spends almost all its life doing nothing — and then gets asked to perform flawlessly, instantly, in the worst weather of the year. Whether that goes well is decided before the storm, during the unglamorous work called maintenance. Memphis gets two storm seasons — summer wind and winter ice — which means two good moments a year to run this checklist. Here’s what should be on it.
For Standby Generators
A whole-home standby unit is a small engine with a big job, and it has an engine’s needs:
- Oil level and condition. The single most important check. Engines burn and degrade oil even in weekly self-tests, and extended running on low or broken-down oil is how generators die mid-outage. Check level now; change it on the schedule in your manual.
- Battery health. Standby units start themselves with a battery, and batteries fail quietly — heat ages them, cold exposes them. A unit that can’t crank is a lawn ornament. Batteries more than a few years old deserve testing or preemptive replacement.
- The weekly self-test, actually verified. Most standby units run a brief automatic exercise cycle. Don’t just assume it’s happening — confirm it, and pay attention to any error codes or status lights on the controller. The unit keeps a log; someone should read it.
- Air filter and spark plugs. Same logic as any engine: clean intake and healthy ignition are cheap insurance against hard starts and rough running.
- Enclosure and surroundings. Clear leaves, nests, and debris from around and inside the enclosure — rodents love these cabinets — and confirm cooling airflow isn’t blocked by shrubs that grew all summer.
- A real load test. The weekly exercise typically runs the engine without carrying the house. Periodically, the system should be tested under actual transfer — grid dropped, load picked up — because the transfer switch is part of the machine, and it needs testing too.
For Portable Generators
Portables fail for their own predictable reasons, and almost all of them trace to fuel and neglect:
- Stale gasoline is the number one killer. Gas left in the tank and carburetor for months turns to varnish and gums the fuel system — the classic “it won’t start and the storm is tonight.” Store the unit dry or with stabilized fuel, and rotate your stored gas.
- Start it quarterly. Ten minutes under a small load keeps the carburetor clean, the oil circulated, and surprises visible. A generator that started in September will probably start in January.
- Check oil every single use. Small engines are unforgiving about it.
- Inspect cords and connections. Frayed extension cords and cracked outlet covers are hazards waiting for a wet night. If you use a transfer switch inlet, test it as part of your quarterly run.
- Restock the kit: fresh fuel cans, funnel, spare oil, and a working carbon monoxide detector in the house — because portables and CO risk travel together.
The Test That Matters Most
Whichever system you own, the real question is: has it recently proven it can do its actual job? For a standby unit, that means a verified transfer under load. For a portable, it means started, run, and connected the way you’d connect it in a real outage. If the honest answer is “not in over a year,” storm season is the deadline for changing that.
Put It on a Schedule and Forget It
Generator maintenance isn’t difficult — it’s just relentlessly easy to postpone, right up until the night it isn’t. Benny James Service Company services standby generator systems across Memphis and the surrounding areas: oil and filter service, battery checks, controller diagnostics, and genuine under-load transfer testing, on a schedule so it never depends on anyone remembering. Call 901-763-3600 or visit bennyjamesservice.com and go into this storm season with a machine you know will start — because the middle of an ice storm is a terrible time to find out otherwise.