Sadly, the generator saga has gone nowhere. Generac answered my customer support inquiry almost immediately… great!… with two Generac service providers in a nearby small town. I was surprised, but when I called them one said he gave up his Generac contract last year so cannot do warranty work. The other’s phone was disconnected. There are no other service providers on the island. They then suggested that I contact some of their big generator installers; they said those installer could contact Customer Service who would authorize them to do repairs on portable generators. I called the three numbers they gave me. One was a place I know that has never returned my phone calls. The second thought I was nuts, “I wouldn’t know what to do with a portable generator” and, besides, he couldn’t even look at it for the next five weeks as he is booked up. I’m waiting on a call back from the third, but I suspect I’m not going to hear “sure, I’ll do a warranty repair on your machine.”
Mastodon reader @retech suggested I just call my credit card company “and tell them to sort it out.” I think that’s probably the right answer. After all, Lowe’s sent me a broken machine and they can’t just arbitrarily create a policy that lets them weasel out of that. I can see a return limitation if you decide you don’t want it, don’t like the color, it doesn’t fit, etc. But I think returning a product that’s defective out of the box is a right. I think I’ll let Lowe’s know I’m doing that and see if they reconsider.
Anyway, I decided to move ahead while waiting for things to get sorted. I wired pigtails into the autotransformer and tested it. I mounted the autotransformer in the generator house.
Next, I applied stick-on sound-damping foam.
It’s remarkably effective. Now all I need is some paint and a working generator to put inside it.
—2p