SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20130130-94DC4-2147459311. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Generac name = GP5500 number = 0057360 (Portable generator MFG = Generac Model GP5500). Incident: I own a Generac GP5500 generator purchased in May 2011. The problem I have experienced is massive fuel leakage from the carburetor after the unit has been stored for several months and then put into service. Storage of the generator was in a conditioned space (garage). The procedure issued by the manufacturer is to run the unit with fuel shut off until the generator quits running. I followed this procedure before storing the unit. Having been trained to work on small and large engines and after the fuel spill occurred, I removed and disassembled the carburetor. I found that the float needle was stuck in the open position due to heavy corrosion of the needle valve, which caused it to remain in the open position, allowing fuel to continue to fill the float chamber. This corrosion is definetly a defect which deserves an immediate recall by the manufacturer. If an open flame or ignition source had been present when this occurred there is no doubt in my mind this would have been a serious fire and likely explosion of the fuel tank.