Generator didn't start! I feel your pain!!! Nothing worse for a "self sufficient type guy" than to smugly head out to the genny in the dark, cold, snowy, hailing, sleeting, storming wind to once again prove to the world the expenditure for a generator was worth the price and expecting to be a hero... And the @#$*%& WON'T START!
If it's a pull start it will always sound like it will start on the very next pull... It won't! If it's an electric start, naturally the battery is flat dead. IF you have one that has a pull start backup starter... It will sound like it will start on the very next pull... and you guessed it, it won't and like the rope start guys, you'll feel that ligament in your shoulder for weeks!
I learned my lesson with my old 3KW "Choke Free Pull Start" Tecumseh, get that starting procedure down pat in the worst conditions when the POWER IS STILL ON and the shop still has lights. Find out what sneaky little tricks your unit needs to convince it to start every single time BEFORE the dreaded black of rainy night. Now I have a 7500w Generac with the little square cell no-fillem battery AND the rope. You can be sure I may not know how many V's are left in the battery, but I DO know that when it's 9ºF and with only one half dead blinky flashlight, I can start that sucker on the second pull of the rope. (Haugh, haugh, hauuuugh!)
And... that questionable "gas" business? Every 6 months the five gallons in my generator goes into a can for the next tractor fill-up and new Stabil-ized gas goes into the generator. The tractor may not start, the snowblower may not start... I can always hire kids to shovel the driveway for $500... But if it's snowing and my house goes dark and the toilet won't flush... it will be another frying pan mark on side of my head if the generator won't start!
