Unbonding a Westinghouse WGen7500 generator

[@jamesmcmanamy4704]

thanks. The added part where you showed the ground being re-established on the plugs after connecting to the house was very informative. Thanks. I subscribed!!

[@bluesriderDF]

Thanks so much for the comment and the sub!

[@domingosantiago1560]

Thank you for the tutorial and very sorry for what happened to your home

[@bluesriderDF]

Thanks very much. We definitely dodged a missile, it could have been way worse.

[@joshuaobelenusable]

I have seen some people make a short jumper using a 5-15P and a single wire going from the neutral on the plug to the frame bond bolt (under your main breaker). In whole-house transfer switch operation, the plug just dangles, but if they are using it for jobsite applications, they plug it into one of the outlets, bonding back to the frame.

[@bluesriderDF]

I just made one out of an L14 plug, in case I ever need to use it standalone.

[@AlissaGrieves]

Thanks for clear steps. I’ve heard others hook it up to a switch so you can switch easily. Thoughts on that? Also was thinking of throwing a few stickers on the 120 outlets saying neutral unbonded so anyone would at least try to look up what that means before plugging in an extension cord

[@bluesriderDF]

I made a bonding plug which can be plugged into a 120v outlet on the generator, and voila, it's bonded. I've never used mine except when connected to the transfer switch, so it's not something I would need often. I also have a label on the generator indicating it is floating neutral. Just trying to cover all my bases.

[@stardust-rv7mr]

Great job.

[@bluesriderDF]

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback 😊

[@steveed3667]

I recently purchased the same generator you have. After buying it I've heard about the perils of using non inverter generators to power houses because of the "dirty power" . How do you protect your house electronics and appliances from dirty sine wave from the generator?

[@jeffhagberg6796]

I watched the first video first then this one, iF the cord that connected the generator to the transfer switch was ok and not bad. ,if you use a generator that has the internal bond and use the generator what could happen? As far as I know mine is set up like yours and I've never unbounded the generator I've used it a couple of times but its been a while ,lost power once for 6 hours and I started the generator to make coffee and run the freezer and fridge. Nothing happened all worked fine.Now 2024 every thing is all computerized including the fridge and AC . Should I do the floating ground or keep it like it is? Or just not use the generator at all? Someone chime in . Thanks for any replays!

[@bluesriderDF]

Jeff, I used that bad cord with a bonded generator for 20 years, and had no idea the current was using the ground instead of the neutral. But let's say the cord was good, what would happen? You would have 2 paths to ground instead of 1. You might have GFCI's tripping, or maybe not. Otherwise you might think everything is fine. But if you had a fault in the house, my understanding is that the return current would be split between the 2 paths to ground, and not strong enough to trip a circuit breaker on either one. Please watch the video in the description for this video, it explains it better than I can. To be code compliant, you should have only one path to ground, which typically would be in your service panel. Thanks for posting!

[@Antoniocool86]

Great video. Do you think it'll work making a blank L14 plug with the hot prongs removed and just a jumper inside the plug connecting the ground and neutral?

[@bluesriderDF]

They sell ground plugs, but I made my own with an L14 I had lying around. I took a 6" length of 12-2 Romex which comes out & loops back into the plug. I only connected the ground & neutral. I cut the hots at each end and taped them off. If I ever need to use the generator when not connected to the transfer switch, this plug puts it back in bonded configuration. Thanks for watching!

[@Antoniocool86]

@@bluesriderDF that's exactly what I was thinking. Then I'll hang it with a cable or zip tie or something so it'll always be there and I'll be able to plug it in. Thank you for the great videos.

[@Zues64]

My understanding is if your transfer switch switches the neutral, then your bonded generator would be ok as is but then considered a seperately derived system. I think then you'd need a grounding connection to a new ground round.

[@bluesriderDF]

@@Zues64 My understanding as well.

[@Treyk901]

I need help. Looking at my duromax XP13000HX i see the 4 lug bus and the ground like shown in the video… i see in order top to bottom on the bus red, white, white, black. The neutrals not tied together but there is a yellow/green jumper that goes from just one of the neutrals to the ground on the stator. Duromax claims this is a floating neutral generator stating the stator isn’t connected to the frame and is separated by rubber mounts. So my question is why are the two neutrals separated yet one is connected to ground. What does that mean? Its like its halfway bonded.

[@bluesriderDF]

Not sure if this will help: www.reddit.com/r/Generator/comments/zpwax1/duromax_xp13000hxt_floatingbonded_neutral/

[@bluesriderDF]

Have you tested the generator at a front outlet with a multimeter?

[@Treyk901]

@@bluesriderDFyes, I checked continuity and shows to be bonded like I see at the stator… but the manufacturer insists that it’s unbonded simply because it’s on rubber mounts. I want to remove the jumper and float it. But my question now is do I need to physically tie all the neutrals together? Here’s how it’s configured- There’s 2 neutrals that come out of the stator and there’s two that leave going to the generator panel outlets. They are both isolated but one has the jumper going to ground. One of the neutrals goes to the 30 amp 120v and to the 30 amp 120/240v outlet, the other neutral goes to the 2 GFCI 120v outlets and the 50amp 240v outlet.

[@bluesriderDF]

​@Treyk901 Disclaimer: I am not an electrician. There is only supposed to be one neutral to ground bond in a system. Whether it's rubber mounted or not seems irrelevant. That aside, in your current configuration, can you test continuity on the front between the neutrals of all the different outlets, including the 30amp? I would expect all of the neutrals would be tied together already, whether it is bonded to ground or not. Once you've determined that, the jumper you are talking about should be bonding the whole system, and if you remove it, then it is floating. This is my understanding, but again, I am no expert. I would think the instruction manual would explain very simply how to bond an unbond. Maybe ask a question on an electrical forum where they have a generator section.

[@bluesriderDF]

All I can say is that I have not had a problem in almost 22 years using these lowdown, dirty generators. 😮