8 year old never started generator

Back in 2009 we had a couple of power outages and I bought a 5K watt generator that went from the store to where it sits today;

Has never been started or had fuel. Guess it's been the best insurance policy!!

Every now and then I wounder if I should verify it runs but that would then get me into all the issues with fuel, stabilizers etc.

 

Put in just enough to run it for a short while for testing.

I have a small fleet of Honda gennys I rent out. I shut the fuel off to the carb and let it run dry. Have never had a problem carb... ever.

 

Unless it has a manufactures defect, there is no reason it should not work. Do as PJ says and you'll be fine.

 

A couple years ago I started running 100% gasoline in mine (no ethanol) -- it's sold as recreation fuel around here, but availability varies around the country. I have much less carb problems with small engines that run the pure gas compared to when I was using the 10% ethanol blend in automobile gas.

It's not a bad idea to run small engines at least a couple times a year. Sitting for so long can cause some problems. At the very least give it a couple slow pulls on the starter cord to exercise the valves and spread a little oil around the cylinder. There are also a number of products out there for long term engine storage to fog the engine as you shut it down prior to storage. Seafoam makes one for example.