Multiple electrical failures....related?

[jt11791]

Over the past six months or so I've had multiple failures of electrical equipment and I'm starting to wonder if the causes are related. The affected appliances were all powered by my Kohler generator at the time they died and I'm starting to wonder if it could be the generator, as I see no other commonality.



1) A battery charger for my power tool battery packs. Had this charger many years, smoke poured out one day, so I chucked it and bought a replacement.


2) The replacement charger was used once or twice successfully but then died the same death. I did an autopsy and found one or more capacitors had ruptured and spilled out their electrolyte.


3) My Splendide washing machine let out a bunch of smoke but kept running. I shut it down and haven't done anything with it since, so I don't know what smoked or how badly, but letting the magic smoke out of electrical appliances is never good.


4) My air conditioner just died. Opening the electrical box, I found black soot and swollen capacitors on the circuit board (little caps, not the big start cap).



During this same time period many other appliances have been working fine, e.g. battery chargers, microwave, TV, ice maker, etc.


My Kohler diesel generator has seemingly been running fine. My electric panel has monitors for voltage and current, which have always been normal. I don't have a meter for frequency, but the diesel sounds normal with steady RPM.


Does this sound familiar to anyone? Could a generator fault be responsible or are these failures unconnected? What tests can I make to diagnose the situation?