Residential Generac PW with issues

Hello all, I am a homeowner, but this seems to be the most active forum I could find in regards to pressure washers. I have been searching the internet for a couple weeks trying to find out what might be wrong with mine.

It is a Generac 6024, 3100psi, 2.7GPM, I have had it for ~6.5 years with no major issues, only had to replace the recoil/starter. Other than that, just routine maintenance of air filter, spark plug, and oil changes. In the past month, it has started giving me issues. It starts typically first pull every time. The problem lately is that after running for ~5 minutes, the engine bogs down and starts dropping RPM (and pressure), then jumps up and does this repeatedly until it dies, assuming I am still holding the trigger. If I let off the trigger, it goes back to running normally, but as soon as I press the trigger again, it starts that same cycle of going up and down before dying. It will allow me to restart it right away most times, but once this has happened, I might get 1-2 minutes of use before the same thing happens and sometimes it is right away. The same issue persists no matter which tip I use (0*, 15*, 25*, or 40*).

In my reading, one of the main culprits pointed to was the unloader valve. I bought a replacement as well as a pressure gauge so I could see what it was doing. With the new unloader valve, the same issue persists. I see that PSI drops from normal around 2600-2700 down to 1000-1500 when it starts the cycle of bogging. The only way I have been able to keep it going is either letting off the trigger or by taking the tip off and keeping the trigger on. When I release the trigger, it does jump back up to about 3000 rpm.

At this point, I am at a loss. I feel like it has to be an issue on the wet end, but I am not sure it makes sense to put too much more money into it, especially if it is a bad pump or something like that. Can anyone think of anything I am overlooking?

Yes, you are overlooking the fact that you got that many years out of a homeowner grade machine. Stop wasting your time and money and buy another one.

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Sounds like it’s just a dirty carb :joy:

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Max1, thanks! Honestly, this is exactly what I was looking for. Reading online at the lifespan of something like this is a crap shoot at best to truly know how long it will last. This is the first gas powered PW that I have owned, so I had no real frame of reference for such.

I think everyone would agree that a $350 pressure washer (bought in the last 10 years) is not going to most likely last a lifetime, regardless of how well you maintain it. But if $50 in parts got it going for another few years it would be worth it. $100+ more into it doesn’t make sense.

Please tell me you have checked the inlet filter? How did you set the unloader?

Yes sir, inlet screen is clean. For the unloader, it was originally all the way tightened down, so I loosened it a couple turns. When I started the pressure washer, the pressure was down just under 2k. So I tightened that until I got it back up to around 3000, which is basically back to completely tightened down.

Reading another topic on here, perhaps I could just plug the hole for the unloader and see if it works like that? When I am using it, I only run it when I am pulling the trigger. I rarely have it running more than 15-20 seconds without the trigger pulled. It looks like that would remove all doubt on the unloader being the issue.

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Carb. Clean it. If that didn’t fix it, get new carb

Gotta be the carb

I had a similar issue with my machine, I cleaned the carb (easy to do, look at YouTube) and changed my air filter and all was well.

It actually ended up being mostly associated with the air filter, as it had become oil impregnated from the unit being on it’s wrong side during a pump change. NOTE: do not put unit carb down when tilting the machine, engine oil will flood carb and air filter.

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Thank you everyone for the responses, looks like I have a project for the weekend now to get the carb cleaned up.

Carbs are cheap, just buy a new one.

BTW, I wanted one of those 16v GTI’s so bad back in the 90’s.

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Thanks, yeah after a little looking online, $15 for a new carb is too cheap to mess with trying to clean it. Have one on the way and replacing it will be on the weekend agenda. Thanks again to everyone.

dcbrock: my first 2 cars were an 87 and an 88 GTI 16v, then later had a 20th anniversary GTI with the 1.8 turbo. Loved them, but as I got older, had to get something bigger/more practical for the family.

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First and only was an 85 GTI, had a lot of fun in that car. Being stationed in Omaha I soon realized something with AWD would suit me better so I found an 86 Audi 4kq. Thing would climb a wall.

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Just a quick follow up, got new carb installed this morning and it is running as good as ever. Thanks again for the help. Only dicey point was when it died ~10 minutes in, but it had just run out of gas (didn’t refill after carb change).

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Good deal.

Put non ethanol gas in ot from now on. If you can

Here’s one on gas since it was mentioned with the non ethanol. I rented a hot water PW to experiment with (solidified me wanting one) and the rental place uses marked gas. Is that common, or just because it’s cheaper f for them to do so?
I have never run marked gas in any of my equipment except the boat I had, so was just wondering.

Marked gas?

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@dcbrock @MPS Lol me think he means red dyed diesel which is ummm not gas. Off road fuel does not have road tax added to the cost so it’s way cheaper but when you do your taxes you can get the tax that you paid back so it doesn’t make any sense to use since it’s harder to obtain. Just learn to file correctly or fire your CPA

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I just looked it up and the closest non ethanol gas to me is 30+ miles. Bummer. Maybe I will have to invest in a 5 gallon gas tank and the next time I am in that area, pick some up.

Trufuel may be nice, but what a premium they want for that…I could actually replace the carb and fill it up every time I use it for less than a gallon of Trufuel. :joy: