How Long Is My Generator's Weekly Run Time?

Guardian-series standby generators have a non-adjustable 5-minute exercise period. This can be adjusted to run weekly, biweekly, or monthly. NextGen models can adjust the exercise between 5-20 minutes using Mobile Link with a Premium subscription.

  • Sep 11, 2025
  • Knowledge

Title
How Long Is My Generator's Weekly Run Time?
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How-Long-Is-My-Generator-s-Weekyl-Run-Time

Public Answer

Adjusting generator exercise run time for standby generators

  • For Next Generation air-cooled standby generators with a Power Zone 200 controller, the exercise period can be modified between 5 and 20 minutes. Note that this a Premium Mobile Link feature. The default exercise time is 5 minutes.
  • Guardian-series air-cooled home standby generators have a non-adjustable 5-minute exercise period. While the exercise duration cannot be adjusted, the exercise schedule can be adjusted to run weekly, biweekly, or monthly. See What Is a Generator Exercise? article for more information.
     

Note: Some older models had a 12-minute exercise time. To confirm the exercise time for a specific generator model, reference the generator's user manual. See the Where can I download a user manual for my Generac portable generator? article for more information.


Tip: If you're using Mobile Link, you can use the start time of a new event (such as a return to "Ready to run" status) to determine the duration for a given event: Does Mobile Link show how long my generator ran during an exercise or outage?
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