Being a mechanic all my life your are never to old to learn something. I have the big brother to this generator tri fuel, and I did not know there was a carb drain on it. I shall look if so I thank you for this information. Hopefully it will never have to run on gas. It is hooked up to a 100 gallon propane tank for emergency use only.
Your audio is ideal, the clarity of the video is ideal, the functional clarity of your explanation is ideal. And your knowledge of the carb screw that controls the drain tubing is impressive.
About 5 days ago, up here above Crescent City, CA. a fire crew service vehicle cross contaminated 42 firefighting vehicles, "Both Ways"! What a mess. I think we will have a new greeter at the local Walmart next week.
I had a new Toyota vehicle and the service warranty ran out to I did my first oil change on it. Well..... I drained the transmission and over serviced the oil with 5 qts of oil. At first I couldn't understand why the transmission would slip after an oil change. Then, on the highway, the RPM's almost redlined and I couldn't go faster than 65 MPH. I pulled off the freeway and googled the problem. Then I realized what I had done. I called a friend to give my a ride to the Toyota dealership and get the right transmission fluid ($193). On the side of the road, using a flash light I serviced the transmission and drained the excess oil. The Toyota ran great after that. Took it on a 2,000 mile road trip a week later with no problems. Idiot mistakes happen and I'm a mechanic.
I grabbed the wrong gas can by mistake. It was my stale diesel that I am just keeping around. Siphoned it out and drained the bowl. I was running again in ten minutes. The little bit of diesel in the tank did not affect the engine. In colder climates they used to add a bit of gas in the diesel for easier starting.
I was a volunteer fireman 45 years ago. Someone gassed up the only fire engine with diesel instead of gas. We made it to the house fire barely. The engine wouldn’t rev up enough to run the pump. The house burned down.
An additional step that might be of help is after putting in some fresh gas, drain the carb a second time. Even let it drain until you smell clean gas. This should help get both the diesel left in the carb, and also what was left in the bottom of the tank.
I too have had to completely empty my contaminated gas tank for a different reason. Although, I rotated the entire generator upside down and held it over a 5 gallon while shaking the fuel out of the tank to remove the debris. Put it back on its wheels and fired up like a champ. It took a whopping 30 seconds.
Mine was used once on the initial startup and ran great. Three months later and it won't turnover. But will run on propane. And I definitely didn't fill it with diesel fuel
I’m guessing your carb has some gunk in it. Propane doesn’t have to flow through the carb. I would find your favorite small engine place and have them clean the carb or fine a replacement on Amazon. Thanks for watching! :)
Same thing happened to mine & I used Ethanol free. I bought for the 3rd weekend in August for the Bow Hunt in Utah. Tried running it today & It doesn't work? My Champion worked better than this. Had that for three years & used all types of gas. Now it will start fine, but has very little power... only enough to run the microwave for 5-12 seconds with every other thing turned off, even the lights. Thought this Costco generator was going to be the Golden Ticket, 😁
Bought a lawnmower that wouldn't start. A quantum Briggs and Stratton Murray lawnmower for 25 bucks at a pawnshop. Same thing. Someone filled the tank with diesel. Regularly the lawnmower would have been $150. Drained the diesel from the tank and carburetor and boom it ran again.
I have the same model generator. We normally only use propane. Last summer I tested the night before but battery inside generator was dead. Charged battery for two hours using Firmans included charger. This past winter (we are in Boise Idaho) I kept charger going until May, off and on. Disconnected and tried it a few days later, and started great on propane. About ten days later, we took it on boondock camping trip. Would not start. Drove it out to phone coverage area, talked with Firman. and tried several things.Verify procedure, replace spark plug. Finally bought gallon of gas and went back to campsite. Started right up on gas with pull cord. Ran through that. When it shut off, I chose to try propane again.worked fine. At home firman sent a new battery. Swapped batteries. Old battery read 12.9 volts, new only 12. With new battery, worked great on propane. Old battery had significant crack. ouch. Our generator was a week or so before end of 3 year warranty. They sent battery quickly, free under warranty. They also sent new charger just to be sure, again free. Bought unit at Costco and Costco contacted Firman to confirm purchase date and to help get it fixed up From now on we'll take 1-2 gallons of gas on such trips. I still prefer using propane, but gas as backup is very valuable, since pull starts are fine with gas but not .
I own the same generator, never put diesel fuel in it but it will run for 5 minutes and then die and won't resart. Hook up propane and it fires right up and stays running. Figured out that if you loosen the gas cap it will run fine on gasoline with no issues. Called Firman and they sent me a new gas cap figuring the vent wasn't working properly but still have the same problem. I just leave it loose all the time.
@adamdominguez7470 I haven't had any issues running it this way. Still works fine, just have to loosen the gas cap half a turn or so. Haven't looked into the issue any further just cause it hasn't caused problems otherwise.
Nice video, not to be a stickler but we close the choke to force it to pull more fuel (butterfly valve on the carb, pre Venturi). Opening it is essentially turning it off.
I have the same generator purchased from Costco. Cheap and very quiet. Unfortunately the little plastic covers over the plugs and outlets apparently don't like ozone and only lasted about a year stored covered in the garage.
When I worked in a car wash (late 70s) in an affluent area, about once a month someone would fill up their Mercedes with gasoline. Usually it was the wife with a brand new car. Don't feel lonely.
I knew a lady, who travels in an RV. All her vehicles were gas. Her new RV was a diesel. That’s not the problem. She was parked, at an RV park, she went to hook up to her water spigot, and put water in her fresh tank. When she put the water in her fuel tank instead. Luckily she noticed what she did, before she started the RV. But she had just spent $380.00 for fuel earlier that day, and she had to toss all of it. Just to be safe.
Thanks for the video. I screen printed and laminated the shot of the carb draining hose and screw for future reference. Question... do you know why there is that "wake up the battery" button" as you refer to it ? I've had my generator for a few years now and have always been curious as to what is the point of that step in the starting procedure. Thanks.
I don’t entirely understand the battery wake up function. It doesn’t do much for mine as my battery dies if it’s not on the tender. Thanks for watching :)
What if you bought this generator 3rd week of August, used it that weekend & just tried to use it again now & it won't start? We put Ethanol free gas in ours... we don't use diesel fuel. That's awesome you got it working.
@@codys-garage lol ok that makes more sense. Looking forward to more videos! I’d love to see run times on propane and even realistic run times like a 24 hours day use.
good news is diesel in gas rig does no damage, clean it up and good as new. put gas in a diesel and potential disaster. P.S. gas diesel mix isnt good to run in anything newer than late 60s. too many sensors so you did the right thing. (i have an old 6 cyl dodge pu that will run just about anything. lol)
Hi there while I read that this video is a year old well it tells me you know something about generators and I so happen to know nothing, I have a question and hopefully you can help me, I have a firman generator and I ran it 3 times, it ran like a champ but today I started and it didn't start on choke ( start ) low I had to move the carburetor to full open ( run ) in order to get it going onec it starts cause it actually starts right away on full throttle it runs like it wants to choke and die, me and my wife started messing with it and I found a little bit of oil in the air ffilter. Any help how to fix something like that?
I've got the Firman W01781. Works great when it worked. Didn't run it for 3 months and it wouldn't start. There is no way to remove the main jet in the carburetor to get the emulsion tube out to clean it. I had the carb off 3 times now last time drained the gas tank and the carb and then sprayed carb cleaner til it came out the drain line. Let that sit overnight. put gas in it started it up and I've got a new generator again. Wish I knew you couldn't get the main jet out I wouldn't have bought it pain in the butt expensive cheap unit
Hi Cody, Have you ever make parallel for firman generator? Parallel outlet on it does not show which is negative and positive and both of them are black.
Its an AC output, there is no positive or negative. Just connect the left connector with the left connector on the other machine and the right with the right. I'm not even sure it matters which way its connected, but that is the safest way.
This one does not have a fuel shutoff valve unfortunately. That is one thing I would have liked to see, but when I store it I do make sure the fuel is empty :) thanks for watching :)
There's days we wish we've never had crazy. I'd say removing the fuel then totally flushing everything things should be fine after running time to clear out
I bought a Champion Dual Fuel 4-1/2 years ago. I don't know if it runs on gasoline, because I have never used any fuel other than propane. I suspect that if I did run it on gasoline, there would be danger of the carburetor getting gunked up, even if I managed to empty the fuel bowl.
I have the same generator. It's leaking oil from the drain plug. There's a hole in the middle of the plastic drain plug and it's leaking from there until it becomes empty very frustrating.
You can run diesel fuel at 20% with gasoline it will work just fine the older generators with a high-speed fuel mixture screw you can run kerosene in it 100 then there's propane with a propane diaphragm carburetor adapter
I have this same generator and have always like it until yesterday when it wouldn't start on gas, only propane. Will run for a few seconds if I spray starting fluid in the head, but nothing with gas. Have always used ethanol free gas and can't believe that the carb has gummed up even after running dry. That drain hose at the bottom of the carb is NOT documented in their manual AFAIK, and forget about trying to remove the carb bowl. The whole generator needs to be taken apart, then the whole carb itself before you can get to the bolt holding the bowl on. Will try to flush the fuel system with something (fresh gas didn't work), but afraid that I now have a propane only generator until I have the time an patience to take this whole thing apart.
Tell your buddy to get more Propane and never try to run gas again. Your never gonna have an issue if run on Propane. At least a 15 year shelf life. I realize he probably had an emergency so the is in reference to the future. I have never seen one of these geny tanks that hadn't rusted out in 5 years.
:58 "Close" the choke. 🙃 Incidentally, diesel fuel won't hurt the engine, not need for the cleaner. Just suck out the diesel, and then add the gasoline.
This, drain the diesel out of the tank and carb, then fill it full of gas and let it run. At most it will be a bit smokey. Gas in a diesel is bad, but diesel in a gas engine isn't bad, just wont run.
The first time you add diesel fuel to a gas generator, hey it was a mistake. The second time that you do this, It is not a mistake, it is more like not paying attention. How do I prevent this? I have a yellow Diesel fuel can for my diesel car. For kerosene, I have the blue kerosene cans. For Propane, I use 20 lb and 30 lb propane bottles. And for gas which can go into the other car, generator, and lawn mower, I have red Gas cans. Everything is labeled and I have not mixed up the fuels in the past 13 years that I have had a diesel car.
![Diagnosing Firman Costco/ Amazon Generator That Won't Start [3 Possibilities]](/img/n.gif)
Same story for stale gasoline. Amazing how draining everything and replacing it with fresh gas , works miracles.
Thank your buddy for his screw up I learned something from it. 👍
Being a mechanic all my life your are never to old to learn something. I have the big brother to this generator tri fuel, and I did not know there was a carb drain on it. I shall look if so I thank you for this information. Hopefully it will never have to run on gas. It is hooked up to a 100 gallon propane tank for emergency use only.
Your audio is ideal, the clarity of the video is ideal, the functional clarity of your explanation is ideal. And your knowledge of the carb screw that controls the drain tubing is impressive.
About 5 days ago, up here above Crescent City, CA. a fire crew service vehicle cross contaminated 42 firefighting vehicles, "Both Ways"! What a mess. I think we will have a new greeter at the local Walmart next week.
I had a new Toyota vehicle and the service warranty ran out to I did my first oil change on it. Well..... I drained the transmission and over serviced the oil with 5 qts of oil. At first I couldn't understand why the transmission would slip after an oil change. Then, on the highway, the RPM's almost redlined and I couldn't go faster than 65 MPH. I pulled off the freeway and googled the problem. Then I realized what I had done. I called a friend to give my a ride to the Toyota dealership and get the right transmission fluid ($193). On the side of the road, using a flash light I serviced the transmission and drained the excess oil. The Toyota ran great after that. Took it on a 2,000 mile road trip a week later with no problems. Idiot mistakes happen and I'm a mechanic.
I grabbed the wrong gas can by mistake. It was my stale diesel that I am just keeping around. Siphoned it out and drained the bowl. I was running again in ten minutes. The little bit of diesel in the tank did not affect the engine. In colder climates they used to add a bit of gas in the diesel for easier starting.
I was a volunteer fireman 45 years ago. Someone gassed up the only fire engine with diesel instead of gas. We made it to the house fire barely. The engine wouldn’t rev up enough to run the pump. The house burned down.
An additional step that might be of help is after putting in some fresh gas, drain the carb a second time. Even let it drain until you smell clean gas. This should help get both the diesel left in the carb, and also what was left in the bottom of the tank.
I too have had to completely empty my contaminated gas tank for a different reason. Although, I rotated the entire generator upside down and held it over a 5 gallon while shaking the fuel out of the tank to remove the debris. Put it back on its wheels and fired up like a champ. It took a whopping 30 seconds.
Mine was used once on the initial startup and ran great. Three months later and it won't turnover. But will run on propane. And I definitely didn't fill it with diesel fuel
I’m guessing your carb has some gunk in it. Propane doesn’t have to flow through the carb. I would find your favorite small engine place and have them clean the carb or fine a replacement on Amazon. Thanks for watching! :)
Same thing happened to mine & I used Ethanol free. I bought for the 3rd weekend in August for the Bow Hunt in Utah. Tried running it today & It doesn't work?
My Champion worked better than this. Had that for three years & used all types of gas. Now it will start fine, but has very little power... only enough to run the microwave for 5-12 seconds with every other thing turned off, even the lights.
Thought this Costco generator was going to be the Golden Ticket, 😁
Bought a lawnmower that wouldn't start. A quantum Briggs and Stratton Murray lawnmower for 25 bucks at a pawnshop. Same thing. Someone filled the tank with diesel. Regularly the lawnmower would have been $150. Drained the diesel from the tank and carburetor and boom it ran again.
I have the same model generator. We normally only use propane. Last summer I tested the night before but battery inside generator was dead. Charged battery for two hours using Firmans included charger. This past winter (we are in Boise Idaho) I kept charger going until May, off and on. Disconnected and tried it a few days later, and started great on propane.
About ten days later, we took it on boondock camping trip. Would not start. Drove it out to phone coverage area, talked with Firman. and tried several things.Verify procedure, replace spark plug. Finally bought gallon of gas and went back to campsite. Started right up on gas with pull cord. Ran through that. When it shut off, I chose to try propane again.worked fine.
At home firman sent a new battery. Swapped batteries. Old battery read 12.9 volts, new only 12.
With new battery, worked great on propane.
Old battery had significant crack. ouch.
Our generator was a week or so before end of 3 year warranty. They sent battery quickly, free under warranty. They also sent new charger just to be sure, again free. Bought unit at Costco and Costco contacted Firman to confirm purchase date and to help get it fixed up
From now on we'll take 1-2 gallons of gas on such trips. I still prefer using propane, but gas as backup is very valuable, since pull starts are fine with gas but not .
I have the same generator and found out how to remove gas from the carburetor in this video. Thanks
Here in South Africa containers for diesel are Yellow in color. Red or Green for Petrol.
I own the same generator, never put diesel fuel in it but it will run for 5 minutes and then die and won't resart. Hook up propane and it fires right up and stays running. Figured out that if you loosen the gas cap it will run fine on gasoline with no issues. Called Firman and they sent me a new gas cap figuring the vent wasn't working properly but still have the same problem. I just leave it loose all the time.
Found this comment, mine wouldn't fire up until I loosened the cap as well... have u had any problems running it like this??
@adamdominguez7470 I haven't had any issues running it this way. Still works fine, just have to loosen the gas cap half a turn or so. Haven't looked into the issue any further just cause it hasn't caused problems otherwise.
Nice video, not to be a stickler but we close the choke to force it to pull more fuel (butterfly valve on the carb, pre Venturi). Opening it is essentially turning it off.
I have the same generator purchased from Costco. Cheap and very quiet. Unfortunately the little plastic covers over the plugs and outlets apparently don't like ozone and only lasted about a year stored covered in the garage.
I drove a VW Diesel Jetta for a number of years. I filled it with Gas not once, but twice.
Did u had to drain the gas ?
@@james18450 Yes, the tank was dropped and drained both times.
I loved my TDI
When I worked in a car wash (late 70s) in an affluent area, about once a month someone would fill up their Mercedes with gasoline. Usually it was the wife with a brand new car. Don't feel lonely.
I knew a lady, who travels in an RV. All her vehicles were gas. Her new RV was a diesel. That’s not the problem. She was parked, at an RV park, she went to hook up to her water spigot, and put water in her fresh tank. When she put the water in her fuel tank instead. Luckily she noticed what she did, before she started the RV. But she had just spent $380.00 for fuel earlier that day, and she had to toss all of it. Just to be safe.
Thanks for the video. I screen printed and laminated the shot of the carb draining hose and screw for future reference. Question... do you know why there is that "wake up the battery" button" as you refer to it ? I've had my generator for a few years now and have always been curious as to what is the point of that step in the starting procedure. Thanks.
I don’t entirely understand the battery wake up function. It doesn’t do much for mine as my battery dies if it’s not on the tender. Thanks for watching :)
What if you bought this generator 3rd week of August, used it that weekend & just tried to use it again now & it won't start?
We put Ethanol free gas in ours... we don't use diesel fuel. That's awesome you got it working.
So he did it first to your generator and the his own? That doesn’t sound like just one of those days lol
He did it to them both at the same time…lol
@@codys-garage lol ok that makes more sense.
Looking forward to more videos! I’d love to see run times on propane and even realistic run times like a 24 hours day use.
@@codys-garage dear lord
I have those days too!! I just try not to take it out on my stuff or anybody else’s stuff!😂
good news is diesel in gas rig does no damage, clean it up and good as new. put gas in a diesel and potential disaster. P.S. gas diesel mix isnt good to run in anything newer than late 60s. too many sensors so you did the right thing. (i have an old 6 cyl dodge pu that will run just about anything. lol)
Hi there while I read that this video is a year old well it tells me you know something about generators and I so happen to know nothing, I have a question and hopefully you can help me, I have a firman generator and I ran it 3 times, it ran like a champ but today I started and it didn't start on choke ( start ) low I had to move the carburetor to full open ( run ) in order to get it going onec it starts cause it actually starts right away on full throttle it runs like it wants to choke and die, me and my wife started messing with it and I found a little bit of oil in the air ffilter. Any help how to fix something like that?
I've got the Firman W01781. Works great when it worked. Didn't run it for 3 months and it wouldn't start. There is no way to remove the main jet in the carburetor to get the emulsion tube out to clean it. I had the carb off 3 times now last time drained the gas tank and the carb and then sprayed carb cleaner til it came out the drain line. Let that sit overnight. put gas in it started it up and I've got a new generator again. Wish I knew you couldn't get the main jet out I wouldn't have bought it pain in the butt expensive cheap unit
Hi Cody,
Have you ever make parallel for firman generator? Parallel outlet on it does not show which is negative and positive and both of them are black.
Its an AC output, there is no positive or negative. Just connect the left connector with the left connector on the other machine and the right with the right. I'm not even sure it matters which way its connected, but that is the safest way.
In mode gas can you stop the engine by closing the gas line like unclosed frame generator with this one?
This one does not have a fuel shutoff valve unfortunately. That is one thing I would have liked to see, but when I store it I do make sure the fuel is empty :) thanks for watching :)
@@codys-garage
Merci pour votre réponse...
Mine does not like gasoline left in the tank. It gummed up the carburetor
That day I've pumped a few gallons of Fuel in my Diesel Silverado 1500... 😂
If it's mostly diesel, you can mix it with heating oil to get rid of it.
There's days we wish we've never had crazy. I'd say removing the fuel then totally flushing everything things should be fine after running time to clear out
Perhaps a video on reconditioning a saltwater-flooded firman.
I bought a Champion Dual Fuel 4-1/2 years ago. I don't know if it runs on gasoline, because I have never used any fuel other than propane. I suspect that if I did run it on gasoline, there would be danger of the carburetor getting gunked up, even if I managed to empty the fuel bowl.
I just bought a Firman for Hurricane Helene that is duel fuel. I'm like you and never plan to run gasoline in it unless absolutely necessary.
I have the same generator. It's leaking oil from the drain plug. There's a hole in the middle of the plastic drain plug and it's leaking from there until it becomes empty very frustrating.
Oh that’s no good! Reach out to firman support and let them know the problem. They have been great to work with!
Your a good friend!
Kool, U got them running
do it once yeap do it twice?
Does the Firman come with the tubing to drain the carburetor? Or is that something we'll need to purchase afterwards?
it comes with the drain tube attached , at least it did on my new wo3386
They should have installed a factory fuel cut off valve.
When you switch it to propane it will cut off the gas and thus the charb will drain of the gas when you run it on propane.
I wonder WHERE it cuts off the gas, at the tank or carb? @@kayak_1
I feel him
You can run diesel fuel at 20% with gasoline it will work just fine the older generators with a high-speed fuel mixture screw you can run kerosene in it 100 then there's propane with a propane diaphragm carburetor adapter
I have this same generator and have always like it until yesterday when it wouldn't start on gas, only propane. Will run for a few seconds if I spray starting fluid in the head, but nothing with gas. Have always used ethanol free gas and can't believe that the carb has gummed up even after running dry. That drain hose at the bottom of the carb is NOT documented in their manual AFAIK, and forget about trying to remove the carb bowl. The whole generator needs to be taken apart, then the whole carb itself before you can get to the bolt holding the bowl on. Will try to flush the fuel system with something (fresh gas didn't work), but afraid that I now have a propane only generator until I have the time an patience to take this whole thing apart.
Better diesel in a petrol tank than petrol in a diesel tank.
Tell your buddy to get more Propane and never try to run gas again. Your never gonna have an issue if run on Propane. At least a 15 year shelf life. I realize he probably had an emergency so the is in reference to the future. I have never seen one of these geny tanks that hadn't rusted out in 5 years.
Thank you!
Thx
:58 "Close" the choke. 🙃 Incidentally, diesel fuel won't hurt the engine, not need for the cleaner. Just suck out the diesel, and then add the gasoline.
This, drain the diesel out of the tank and carb, then fill it full of gas and let it run. At most it will be a bit smokey. Gas in a diesel is bad, but diesel in a gas engine isn't bad, just wont run.
Chain your buddy to the generator and have him clean it out.
😂😂
Way to go with non government gas can spouts!!!!
If I had done that to your generator I would have bought it from you.
We all have those days.
100%
Hey if I visit his food stand and I taste diesel 😅
2nd time~!?!? I think your friend has more problems then just "one of those days"!!!!
So he put diesel in twice? 😂
The first time you add diesel fuel to a gas generator, hey it was a mistake. The second time that you do this, It is not a mistake, it is more like not paying attention. How do I prevent this? I have a yellow Diesel fuel can for my diesel car. For kerosene, I have the blue kerosene cans. For Propane, I use 20 lb and 30 lb propane bottles. And for gas which can go into the other car, generator, and lawn mower, I have red Gas cans. Everything is labeled and I have not mixed up the fuels in the past 13 years that I have had a diesel car.
We all have brain-farts.
I know what’s wrong with it, it ain’t got no gas in it
you need a different buddy if he was stupid enough to do it twice....
Oppsy,,,
DON'T USE ETHANOL GAS IN SMALL ENGINES....NON ETHANOL GAS ONLY....