The honest answer is: it depends on eight things, and most sellers only think about one of them. Here's what actually moves the number — and why your unit is probably worth more than you assume.
Skip the reading — get a real numberWe'll tell you what it's worth, free, no obligation.
In roughly the order they matter.
The single biggest factor. A standby unit that only ran weekly tests may have 300 hours after 15 years. That unit is worth dramatically more than a 5-year-old rental machine with 12,000 hours. Low hours = strong money.
Bigger units bring bigger numbers, but the 100–500 kW range is the most liquid market — lots of buyers, fast resale. Voltage matters too: 480V three-phase is the most sellable configuration in the U.S.
Caterpillar and Cummins carry a premium because parts, service and buyers exist everywhere. MTU and Kohler are strong. Off-brand or discontinued engines are still worth something, just less.
Right now natural gas units in the 500 kW–2 MW range are unusually strong because of bridge-power demand. Diesel is the steady, always-liquid baseline.
Runs and holds load: best case. Runs rough or needs work: still sellable, priced accordingly. Doesn't run: valued on engine, alternator and controls. Missing parts, stripped panels or fire damage reduce value but rarely to zero.
Enclosure, sub-base fuel tank, trailer, automatic transfer switch, paralleling switchgear, controls — each adds real money. Sell the package together; it's worth more than the pieces.
Tier 4 diesel and low-emission gas units can redeploy more places, which widens the buyer pool. Older tiers still sell, particularly for export and standby use.
A unit on a trailer in a yard costs us less to move than one in a basement behind a wall. That difference shows up in the offer. We price the logistics in so the number you see is the number you get.
They price it by age. A facilities manager looks at a 2006 generator and thinks "that's 20 years old, it must be nearly worthless." Then they scrap it, or take a lowball from the first person who calls.
But generators don't wear out by the calendar. They wear out by the hour. A 2006 standby unit that ran 30 minutes a week for testing has about 500 hours on it — mechanically, it's a young engine. That unit sells to a buyer who needs reliable standby power at a fraction of new cost, and it commands a real price.
The second mistake is selling the generator and scrapping the switchgear. The transfer switch and paralleling gear that came with it are often worth a meaningful fraction of the genset itself.
The third is waiting. Every month a retired unit sits outside, it loses value to weather, theft and neglect. The best time to get a number is the week the replacement decision is made.
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