Service areas · City of Johannesburg
Generator Repairs, Servicing and Maintenance Across Johannesburg
We repair, service and maintain generators on site across the City of Johannesburg, from plant rooms under inner-city towers to portable sets in Soweto yards, factories in Industria and estates beyond Fourways. The city is set out below part by part, each with a page of its own, and every area inside those parts has a repairs page and a service & maintenance page. Technicians on site in 1–2 hours, 24/7.
Established 2006
20 years of experience
24/7 operations
Technicians on site in 1–2 hours
Free callouts and quotations
One-year warranty
Qualified and certified technicians
We Service & Repair All Generator Brands
All generator makes and models
1 kVA–20,000 kVA capability
One city, many kinds of site
Why Johannesburg is set out part by part
A generator call in the inner city and one in Orange Farm have almost nothing in common. One is a three-phase set in a basement plant room, feeding lifts and booster pumps through an automatic changeover, reached through building management. The other is a petrol portable in a yard, started by hand and carried indoors at night. Between them sit warehouse sets in City Deep, restaurant sets in Melville and Norwood, medical rooms in Parktown and estate sets beyond Fourways.
So the city is set out the way people describe it: Johannesburg Central, North, East, West and South, and Soweto with the south-west. Each part has a page that compares its areas and says which page to read; each area has a repairs page, with the faults we meet most there, and a service & maintenance page, with intervals and plans for its sites. Sandton, Randburg, Midrand and Roodepoort lie inside the City of Johannesburg but have hubs of their own.
Johannesburg, part by part
| Part of the city | Areas with pages of their own | What the generators do there |
|---|---|---|
| Johannesburg Central | Areas with pages of their ownJohannesburg CBD, Fordsburg and Mayfair | What the generators do thereTower and campus standby in plant rooms, shared sets in blocks of flats, trading sets at wholesalers and the Oriental Plaza |
| Johannesburg North | Areas with pages of their ownParktown and Houghton, Rosebank, Fourways, Chartwell, Lanseria, Cosmo City, Diepsloot | What the generators do thereMedical and office standby, estate and complex sets, house and borehole sets on the Chartwell and Lanseria plots, portables in Cosmo City and Diepsloot |
| Johannesburg East | Areas with pages of their ownKensington and Bruma, Norwood and Orange Grove, Modderfontein | What the generators do thereHome sets in older suburbs, restaurant and shop sets, business-estate standby |
| Johannesburg West | Areas with pages of their ownAuckland Park and Melville, Industria and Crown Mines | What the generators do thereCampus and broadcast standby, restaurant sets, three-phase factory sets under welders and motors |
| Johannesburg South | Areas with pages of their ownCity Deep, Ormonde and Aeroton, Mondeor and Rosettenville, Glenvista and Bassonia | What the generators do thereCold-store and depot sets, venue standby, home and complex sets in the southern suburbs |
| Soweto and the south-west | Areas with pages of their ownSoweto, Lenasia, Eldorado Park, Orange Farm | What the generators do therePortable petrol and small diesel sets at homes, spaza shops, churches and schools; standby at malls and clinics |
Building generators
Generators in a high-rise city
In the towers of the CBD and Braamfontein, the office blocks of Rosebank and the hospitals of Parktown, the generator is seldom out in the open. It sits in a basement, on a parking level or in a rooftop plant room, with a day tank topped up from a bulk tank by a transfer pump, a radiator that breathes through ducts and an exhaust that may climb several floors. The fault is often in that installation rather than the engine: a float switch that lets the day tank run dry in a long outage, hot air drawn back into the radiator, or back pressure in a long exhaust run.
The load is different too. Lifts, booster pumps and air-handling fans come on in steps, and each step asks the governor and the voltage regulator to recover quickly. A tired or under-sized set shows it here first: flickering lights, a lift that stalls between floors, or a controller that trips on under-frequency.
- Day tanks, transfer pumps and level switches
- Ducted radiators and plant-room ventilation
- Step loads from lifts, pumps and fans
Power cuts in Johannesburg are not all load shedding
City Power supplies most of Johannesburg, while Eskom supplies some areas directly, including much of Soweto. Each publishes its own load-shedding schedule, so two suburbs a few kilometres apart can lose power at different times. Many outages are local rather than scheduled: a cable stolen or dug up, a substation that fails, or lines brought down in a summer thunderstorm.
Local faults are the hardest on a generator because nobody knows how long they will last. A set that copes with a two-hour slot may have to run through the night, which tests fuel, cooling and oil in a way short runs never do, and a diesel that runs for hours on a light load can suffer wet stacking. Generator servicing and a maintenance plan with test runs under load keep a set ready for the long outage as well as the short one. If it has already stopped, generator repairs explains how we find the fault, and emergency generator repair covers a breakdown at any hour.
Diesel, petrol and gas
The generators we work on across the city
Diesel standby sets: Diesel generators
Canopied and open sets in plant rooms, parkades, yards and side passages, on an automatic changeover: batteries, chargers, fuel, cooling, governors and controllers.
Petrol and inverter portables: Petrol generators
The sets homes, spaza shops and market traders start by hand: carburettors gummed by stale petrol, recoil starters, brushes and voltage regulators.
Three-phase industrial sets: Industrial generator services
Factories, cold stores and depots from Industria to City Deep: phase balance, motor starting, filtration and the drum or bulk-tank fuel that feeds them.
Before we visit a Johannesburg building
A few details sent ahead make a visit to an office, block of flats, hospital or factory much quicker:
- Who signs contractors in, and whether a permit to work or an induction is needed
- Where the set is (basement, parking level, roof or yard) and any height limit at the parking entrance
- Whether a test that moves the building onto the generator is allowed, and at what time
- The make, model and kVA rating, the hour-meter reading and a photo of the controller screen
- What else runs from the generator supply: lifts, fire systems, a UPS or a server room
More on getting ready in preparing for a technician visit.
Johannesburg
Every area we cover in Johannesburg
Every area’s service & maintenance page is also listed on one page for the whole of Gauteng.
- Fordsburg and MayfairOriental Plaza traders, the restaurants around Mint Road, mosques, flats and family homes just west of the Johannesburg CBD.RepairsService & maintenance
- Johannesburg CBDOffice and bank towers, high-rise blocks with lifts and pumps, traders, campuses and student housing.RepairsService & maintenance
- ChartwellAgricultural holdings between Fourways and Lanseria: borehole smallholdings, riding yards, guesthouses, conference venues, plant nurseries and large homes on plots.RepairsService & maintenance
- Cosmo CityA planned mixed-income township beside Malibongwe Drive, where homes, spaza shops, churches, crèches and workshops run mostly portable and inverter generators.RepairsService & maintenance
- DiepslootPortables at homes, spaza shops, taverns, churches and crèches in a large far-north township, and standby sets at the Riversands warehouses next door.RepairsService & maintenance
- FourwaysEstate homes, townhouse complexes, shopping centres, a casino, private schools and office parks in Johannesburg’s far north.RepairsService & maintenance
- LanseriaLanseria airport and its business estates, with the plots, lodges and lifestyle estates along the R512 and R114.RepairsService & maintenance
- Kensington and BrumaOlder houses and flats on hilly streets, Cyrildene’s Chinatown, Bruma near the N3 and the shops and workshops of Jules Street in Malvern.RepairsService & maintenance
- ModderfonteinA former dynamite-factory town east of the N3, now secure estates, an over-50s village, office parks and the Longmeadow warehouses.RepairsService & maintenance
- Norwood and Orange GroveOlder homes, Louis Botha Avenue shops, Grant Avenue restaurants, Glenhazel’s kosher food trade, synagogues, schools and care homes.RepairsService & maintenance
- Parktown and HoughtonKillarney’s apartment blocks, Parktown’s medical suites, offices and campuses, and large homes on big stands in Houghton.RepairsService & maintenance
- RosebankOffice blocks, the mall and Gautrain precinct, hotels, apartment blocks and older homes on large stands in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs.RepairsService & maintenance
- City DeepCold stores, container and transport yards, produce traders and factories around the inland container terminal and the Joburg Market.RepairsService & maintenance
- Glenvista and BassoniaLarge homes, estates and security complexes south of the N12, with Netcare Mulbarton Hospital, The Glen and smallholdings on the southern edge.RepairsService & maintenance
- Mondeor and RosettenvilleMondeor’s complexes, Southgate Mall, Kibler Park’s plots and Rosettenville’s older houses, flats and shops.RepairsService & maintenance
- Ormonde and AerotonThe industrial belt south and south-west of the CBD, from Selby, Ophirton and Booysens near town out to Ormonde, Nasrec and Aeroton.RepairsService & maintenance
- Auckland Park and MelvilleCampuses, studios, hospitals, 7th Street restaurants and guesthouses, and older houses on small stands.RepairsService & maintenance
- Industria and Crown MinesFactories, engineering works, fabricators, warehouses and transport yards in Johannesburg West, from Industria North and West to Crown Mines, Langlaagte and Amalgam.RepairsService & maintenance
Soweto and the south-west
- Eldorado ParkOlder houses and council flats on Soweto’s southern boundary, with two small industrial nodes and the Klipspruit West shops.RepairsService & maintenance
- LenasiaHomes, places of worship, schools and shops in Lenasia and Lehae, and agricultural holdings around Ennerdale, south-west of Soweto.RepairsService & maintenance
- Orange FarmHomes, spaza shops, taverns, churches, schools and clinics in the City of Johannesburg’s southernmost area, towards the Vaal.RepairsService & maintenance
- SowetoHomes, spaza shops, taverns, churches, clinics and malls, from Orlando and Diepkloof to Protea Glen and Tshepisong.RepairsService & maintenance
Coverage
Places we cover across Johannesburg
- Johannesburg CentralThe CBD towers, Braamfontein’s campuses, Hillbrow and Berea’s blocks of flats, Fordsburg’s traders
- Johannesburg NorthParktown’s medical suites, Rosebank’s offices, Fourways’ estates, Lanseria and Diepsloot
- Johannesburg EastKensington, Bruma, Norwood, Orange Grove and the Modderfontein business estates
- Johannesburg WestMelville, Auckland Park, Brixton, Crown Mines and the Industria factories
- Johannesburg SouthCity Deep and Ormonde depots, Rosettenville, Turffontein, Mondeor and Glenvista
- Soweto and the south-westSoweto, Lenasia, Eldorado Park and Orange Farm
Neighbouring regions
Service areas
Other areas we cover
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Which page should I read for my suburb?
Find the part of the city in the table above and open its page, or go straight to your area in the directory. Rosettenville and Turffontein are on the Mondeor and Rosettenville pages, Braamfontein and Hillbrow on the Johannesburg CBD pages, and Melville on the Auckland Park and Melville pages. Anywhere not listed is covered from here.
Is Sandton covered from the Johannesburg page?
No. Sandton, Randburg, Midrand and Roodepoort are in the City of Johannesburg but have hubs and pages of their own: start at Sandton, Randburg, Midrand or Roodepoort.
Does it matter whether our building is on City Power or Eskom supply?
Not to the generator: the changeover only senses whether a healthy mains supply is present. What differs is when outages happen, because City Power and Eskom publish separate load-shedding schedules and repair their own faults. Plan for the longest outage you are likely to see, not the shortest.
Our building’s generator has not run in months. What should we do?
Have it serviced and tested before the next outage. Batteries go flat, chargers fail, diesel collects water and the changeover can stick while a set stands. A service with a test run under load shows whether it will take over when it is needed. See generator maintenance.
Can you look after generators at several sites across the city?
Yes. Property managers, schools, churches and businesses often have sets in more than one part of Johannesburg. A maintenance plan puts them on one schedule of services and test runs, with a record kept for each set.
Is the callout free, and do you work outside Johannesburg?
Free callouts and quotations, and work starts only once you accept the quotation. We cover all of Gauteng, including Pretoria, Centurion, Ekurhuleni, the West Rand and the Vaal Triangle.
Related pages
Generator types
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