GENERATOR SUITABILITY FOR THE CARIBBEAN

On my many trips around the Caribbean I have noticed that, when visiting customer’s generators, they routinely have additional fuel tanks, rusted enclosures and OEM panels that had been replaced with Deep Sea Panels. On some, I notice that the back ends had been replaced. Occasionally, I notice that generators inside buildings had obviously once had an enclosure on them. When I question the owners, they tell me that the fuel tank supplied was too small, so they had been forced to purchase an additional tank. The steel enclosure had rusted and so it had been patched many times. In some cases, especially near the sea, they had finally erected a building around it. The panels supplied by the Generator Manufacturer had been complicated, required passcodes and proprietary programs the manufacturer would not share, and had stopped working. So their local mechanic had to replace it with a Deep Sea controller for which they could get free support and troubleshooting advice on. Some back ends had burned out, usually due to the high humidity present throughout the Caribbean. The vast majority of generators on the market were not designed with the Caribbean in mind. The Market for these Manufacturers is major metropolitan areas where there are lots of customers. In such locales, outages are short and seldom exceed 8 hours. So they come with 8- 12 hour fuel tanks. The enclosures are made of low cost powder coated steel. These enclosures will last the lifetime of most generators located miles from the sea. They use proprietary controls that require passcodes and special programs to lock the customer into using the manufacturer’s dealer network. They tend to be complicated to accommodate the many requirements and options available in major metropolitan areas. Due to the lower humidity, they don’t often suffer corrosion related alternator failures. Of course, our Caribbean environment is quite different from most major metropolitan areas. After more than 40 years of dealing with generators in the Caribbean, we have seen all the problems and shortcomings of the products being manufactured. Living in a very active Hurricane Belt, and often having somewhat unreliable Utilities, it makes sense to have at least 72 hour fuel tanks. Enclosures made of marine grade aluminum never rust and will last forever, even near the sea. If customers routinely need to replace their original panels with Deep Sea Controllers, why not just start out with one? And the cost to install an anti-condensation space heater in the alternator is very reasonable, especially when compared to replacing the back end. So why not build a generator with these features? In addition to living longer and having a more trouble free life, it is more user-friendly. The customer is not locked into having to deal with one specific service provider. It that service provider does not supply the service the customer needs or expects, the customer should be able to choose the provider of his or her choice. That’s the way it should be, right? That is not the case with almost all the generators on the Market today. 10 years ago we decided that, if the major manufacturers were not interested in building a Caribbean friendly generator, we would. The Caribbean is a very small Market for the big guys, but it is everything to us. It has taken us many years to get the right combination to make this work, but we have finally come up with the ideal solution. One of our biggest challenges was cost. These features and benefits are a premium, but customers do not want to pay the high price those can cost. Finding the right suppliers with high quality standards, and increasing volume, were the keys to making this work. Having local service throughout the Caribbean to be able to address potential warranty issues was also key. Today Parts & Power are proud to provide a truly unique generator designed for the Caribbean, with long service life, excellent service support that is customer friendly and cost effective. So when considering investing in a diesel generator, whether it be for Standby Power or Prime, off the-grid Power, give our team a call to discuss your needs. We will find a solution that will work for you.