Over the last few months in Connecticut on separate occasions we had two significant power outages. During the first my mother's house was without power for a week. She's always had a generator available and she has a transfer switch setup which switches between a generator and street power.

During the second episode my future in-laws lost power for a week. They bought their house in the mid 90s and it just so happened to have a propane powered generator outback under the deck and the associated transfer switch. As I understand it they spent a fair bit of money getting that generator running more then a decade ago, used it a few times, couldn't believe the amount fuel it used and let it fall into disrepair again.

After being without power for a week they want to buy a new generator. First I'll try and get that old one going but I expect it to be fairly hopeless.

Anticipating their purchase I drafted up what I think is a reasonable maintenance schedule generally speaking. I'm not an expert, this manual comes with not warranty or guarantee, anyone utilizing it should first figure out if what I say is safe and reasonable. I am not responsible for your actions!

Disclaimer out of the way, here is my first draft: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16TvRDQHp1wd50aTMoT2D9fm7Zp3aZaLWd0R2hKr_mlE/edit