A standby generator is a machine that sits outside in Florida weather and is expected to start, on the worst night of the year, after months of doing nothing. It will do that — if it has been maintained. This page explains what an annual service visit actually involves, what a service plan costs and covers in Palm Beach County, and whether a plan is worth it for the way your house is used.
The short answer
A generator needs one service visit a year. A one-off visit runs about $350–$500. A published Palm Beach County-area service plan runs $499–$695 a year for an air-cooled unit. The plan buys you the visit, a battery check, and priority when you call — and the difference between the two prices is the difference between calling when you remember and having somebody call you.
Figures last reviewed November 2026 · Sources: Palm Beach County-area service plan pricing; manufacturer service guidance — see “How we get our numbers” on the About page.
If your generator has not been serviced in the last year, that is the first thing to fix.
What an annual service visit includes
A proper annual service is not a glance and a wipe. It is a checklist, and a technician who does it properly will work through it in about an hour:
- Oil and filter. The oil is drained and replaced, and the filter with it. Oil degrades with time as well as with use — a generator that has not run still needs its oil changed, because the oil has been sitting in a hot engine compartment for a year.
- Air filter. Checked, and replaced if it is dirty. A clogged air filter is a generator that cannot breathe, and a generator that cannot breathe will fault under load.
- Spark plugs. Inspected and replaced on schedule. Worn plugs are a hard start — and a hard start is a failure to start, on the night it matters.
- Battery. Tested under load, not just looked at. A battery can show a healthy voltage and still fail when the starter motor asks for current. A load test is the only honest reading. Batteries are replaced about every three years, as a matter of schedule, not when they fail.
- Exercise and transfer test. The generator is run, and the transfer switch is tested — power cut, generator starts, load carried, power restored, generator shuts down. A service visit that does not test the transfer switch has not tested the system.
- Fuel system. On a propane unit, the regulator and lines are checked for leaks. On a natural gas unit, the connection and the pressure are checked.
- Coolant and belts, where they apply. Air-cooled units have neither, which is one reason they are the common choice here. Liquid-cooled units have both, and both need attention.
- The enclosure and the pad. Checked for corrosion, for insect nests, for vegetation growing into the intake. A generator that has been sitting in Florida weather for a year has had a year of Florida weather.
After the visit, you should have a written record: what was done, what was replaced, what the battery test showed, and what, if anything, needs attention before the next season. Keep it with the permit and the installer’s invoice. It is part of the paperwork that makes the generator worth something when the house is sold.
What a service plan covers — and what it does not
A service plan is the annual visit, bought in advance, with two things added: priority scheduling and a discount on parts and labour if something breaks. What the published Palm Beach County-area plans cover, in the $499–$695 a year range:
- One scheduled annual service visit, with oil, filter, and spark plugs.
- A battery test, and a battery replacement at the scheduled interval — some plans include the battery, some charge for it separately. Ask.
- Priority response when you call. In the week after a hurricane, a plan customer is answered before a one-off caller. That is the single most valuable part of the plan, and it is the part no one-off visit can buy.
- A discount on repairs — commonly 10–15% on parts and labour, depending on the plan.
What a plan does not cover:
- It does not cover a generator that has been neglected. A plan is not a substitute for the annual visit; it is the annual visit, bought in advance.
- It does not cover damage from a flood or a fallen tree. That is an insurance claim.
- It does not cover the fuel. Propane is yours to buy; natural gas is the utility’s to bill.
- It does not make the generator start if the battery is dead and nobody has checked it. The plan schedules the check. Somebody still has to do it.
One-off or plan: which is right for you?
The arithmetic is simple. A one-off visit is about $350–$500. A plan is $499–$695 a year. The difference is roughly $150–$200 a year. For that difference, you get priority scheduling and the repair discount. Whether that is worth it depends on one thing: how much you value being answered first in the week after a storm. For a house that sits empty for months, where a fault can go unnoticed for weeks, the plan is worth it — because the plan is what makes sure the visit happens at all, on a schedule, whether you remembered to call or not. For a house that is occupied year-round, where you will notice a missed exercise and call yourself, a one-off visit is a reasonable choice — as long as you actually book it, every year, before storm season.
The wrong choice is neither. The wrong choice is no visit at all. A generator that has not been serviced in two years is a generator you are betting on — and the stakes are a house full of humidity and a refrigerator full of food, on the worst night of the year.
For the house that sits empty
A seasonal house is the case for a plan, not against it. The generator sits for months, in heat and humidity, and is expected to start when a storm takes the power out. The plan is the mechanism that makes sure somebody looks at it before the season, not after the failure. If you leave for the summer, book the service visit for the week before you leave — or the week you return, and put it on the calendar before you go. The snowbird’s checklist covers the departure and arrival routine in full.
Questions owners ask us
How often should a generator be serviced? Once a year, at minimum. After any run of more than a day — a long outage — it should be checked as well: oil level, and whether the oil change interval has been reached.
How long does a service visit take? About an hour for an air-cooled unit. Longer for a liquid-cooled unit, because there is more to check.
Can I service it myself? You can change the oil and the filter, if you know what you are doing and you keep a record. What you cannot do yourself is the load test on the battery, or the transfer-switch test, or the fault-code reading — and those are the parts that matter. A DIY oil change is fine. A DIY service, with no record and no test, is not.
What if my generator has not been serviced in years? Book a visit, and tell the technician. They will work through the checklist, replace what needs replacing, and tell you honestly whether the unit is sound. A generator that has been neglected is not necessarily a generator that is broken — but it is a generator that needs a professional’s eyes before the next storm.
Does the plan cover the battery? Some do, some do not. Ask before you sign. A battery runs about $200 or more, and a plan that includes it is worth more than a plan that does not — if the battery is due.
Related: Why generators fail to start · The snowbird’s checklist · Generac or Kohler: which standby generator fits a Florida home?
Do the research first.
The free Palm Beach County Generator Cost Guide puts the county numbers — the $11,000–$17,000 range, the permit fees, the fuel maths — in one PDF. We email it to you; we do not call you about it unless you ask us to.
Palm Beach Backup Power is an information and matching service — we do not install generators. We do not take a fee from you. Our installer partner pays us when a consultation they receive through us becomes an installed generator. The price you pay is the installer’s price either way.