Matt & Tom, Guess it's time to put in my two cents. I have also had the same random failures to start and/or stop the generator automatically from the mate in 3 installation. Managed to boil dry 8 L 16's and run through 90 gallons of propane before we went back to the unattended second home over three days after checking it out and found the generator had been running since we left. As you have noted, all tests checked out good at the time. We are looking into 3rd party auto start modules as an alternative or continue to tell all customers not to use auto start if unattended. It seems that all auto start problems occur when the customer is not home. We had one Trace SW4024 start a Kohler generator flawlessly for 3 years and when they took their first extended stay from home, it failed.... Turned out it was a bad spark plug but it shattered their faith in the system. We have also had problems with The Xantrex SW Plus with similar problems. We have also had a problem with several Outback systems shutting down the generator prematurely at about 70% charge even though we reset the mate and Inverter to factory defaults. I still have trouble convincing the rich second home owners that the only reliable system is 2 generators with a person to run them. We are currently using a honda 2000i as our backup for our off grid home so our VFX3624 does just fine taking in the power. Love the low fuel consumption. My customer with the runaway Kohler used more fuel in one weekend than we have used in a year. John Blittersdorf NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer tm Central Vermont Solar & Wind, LLC. 104 River Street Rutland, VT 05701
802-747-0577 802-773-0924 fax 802-770-8625 cell _www.cvsolar.com_ (http://www.cvsolar.com/) **************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025)
_______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: [email protected] Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
