 Great whole house portable gasoline generator | | Review Date: October 18, 2008 | | Reviewer: H. Nguyen, New Albany, IN | Amazon has this generator for the lowest price on the internet and much better than locally (once factoring in free shipping which normally costs $170 and tax free which is generally $70 or 7% in Indiana).
Shipping is awesome although it was out of stock for a while. ABF shipping is great. Item arrived intact via smaller truck after 1 week. ABF called my cell phone and arrange for convenient delivery time (signature required). Driver called day of delivery for 30 min. warning that item is coming. Driver hand-trucked 278# generator which is in original Honeywell box without any crating down a 100 foot long driveway into my garage for my wife. This is not the norm as free shipping generally means curb-side drop off and it's up to me to dolly this baby into my garage. My wife gave the driver a nice tip and I called him personally to thank him.
I ended up cutting the box to get the generator out due to heavy weight. I used a dolly padded with a thick towel to lift generator on its side to put on the wheel kit and 2 back legs with enclosed nuts/bolts (no washer needed or included due to specially designed bolts and nuts with washer flare). The tires are solid rubber so nothing to inflate or to go flat (nicely design), and are held on the shaft via washers and cotter pins. The handles fold nicely and bolted on with same type of nuts/bolts. Nuts and bolts are metric so get out you metric wrenches or sockets.
Honeywell HW7500E generator is a beauty. Red, metal fuel tank holds 6.5 gallons with fuel gage and metal gas cap. Black accents and red engine are easy on the eyes. I used Stabil fuel stabilizer from Walmart (1 oz per 2.5 gallons) to allow storage of gas in the tank so it's ready to go with less gunk build up and easier start later. Generator shipped without oil. I did not use the enclosed free 1 liter of 10W30 oil or free tiny funnel, and used instead full synthetic 10W30 oil (5 liter jug) with long neck funnel from Walmart. I recommend pouring the oil into a clean disposable plastic cup and then using this cup to pour the oil into the funnel to reduce drips, waste, and mess. It took a full quart of oil.
I installed a Reliance 30216BRK manual transfer switch kit (bought on Epay for $_1_8_0 shipped--more at Lowes) and used the included 20 foot 14-30 cable from the 30216BRK kit to hook up the generator to the switch (generator is placed outside the garage of course to avoid carbon monox. posoining) when generator is needed. This switch and generator provide power to 50 gallon electric hot water heater (3000 watts), 2 fridges (1600 watts), 2 freezers (1600 watts), 6 ceiling spot lights, and 2 ceiling fans to family room. Obviously, the water heater will be switched on and off just for showers (once existing water in the tank cools) to reduce the load otherwise. The generator does have an idle control, stutters now and then when the water heater kicks on, and does not get any louder than a 20" push gas lawn mower. I can hear the generator barely in the house at night but not during the day. Generator is 10 feet from the house's brick wall, outside the garage door which is closed on top of the generator cable.
Starting is easy with plastic cheat sheet numbering 1 through 7 steps with electric start. 12v/14Ah sealed lead, tractor type battery started the generator with first push of the switch. This battery can be charged with a "smart" car battery charger if set to 2A mode for 6-8 hours. It can be replaced at Walmart or Lowes in the lawn tractor section. Stopping the generator is as easy as 1) unplug, 2) let run 3 more minutes, 3) push the button off, and 4) turn the fuel switch to off (also clearly stated, step by step, on the attached plastic poster).
Overall, this is an excellent generator for the price of $999.99 due to 1) 3 year warranty (1 year parts and labor, other 2 years parts only), 2) Honeywell brand (not the cheap Chinese junk like Powermax, Pro-Grade, Buffalo Tools, Blue Max, Chicago Tools, Eastern Tools, and numerous other aliases--best clue is the chincy 1 year warranty with them sending you the parts and you do the repair yourself or locally at any lawn mower/motor repair shop whose cost may or may not be covered by them), 3) 7500W continuous, 9375W peak watts (Chinese generators have exaggerated wattage ratings so beware), 4) included free accesories (25 foot L14-30 cable to 4 outlets which costs around $60-100 on Epay and even more locally), 1 quart of oil, cheapy funnel, 12v battery, step by step start/stop cheat sheet, toll-free help line with fast pickup by real Americans, and flat-free wheel kit.
I do wish that the fuel tank can be 10 gallons instead of 6.5 gallons, included funnel has a longer neck, easier access to fill oil, less noise is always a plus, included cable is standard 14-30 male to 14-30 female to allow easier hookup to transfer switches--it already has 4 outlets on the generator so why do we need 4 more on the generator cable?, outlet covers to keep them dry in the rain (I plugged them up with baby-proofing outlet covers at Walmart), and actual bumper to bumper 3 year warranty.
Despite these mentioned weaknesses, this generator is still a great buy at Amazon for this price. |
This is a great generator for the money! Highly recommended! | | Review Date: January 10, 2009 | | Reviewer: HistoryTeach, | First off, let me say that I purchased this generator on Dec. 22 and it arrived on Jan. 6 (not bad, considering that when I purchased it, I was told it wouldn't even ship until the end of January!). Plus, Amazon shipped it to my doorstep FOR FREE, a savings of $166.00.
Now, let's get down to the generator itself. It arrived in perfect condition, very well packaged inside its cardboard box. I carefully read the instruction manual FIRST, before doing anything else, just to familiarize myself with the generator, the accessories, and the assembly instructions. I then began installing the feet and the wheels, a process that took a couple hours, only because I was trying to be extra careful and to fully inspect the generator for any apparent damage as I went (hey, it is a $1,000 investment!). The only problem worth mentioning here is that only two wheel washers were included, but the manual says four. However, an extra set of washers would've made it impossible to install the cotter pins, so in the long run, it was OK.
Next I was ready to add the engine oil. As was previously suggested by another buyer of this generator, I added full-synthetic 10W30 oil instead of the oil that came with it (the sticker on the included oil, by the way, states that it is only for use above 32 degrees F, and it's colder than that right now here in Maine!) As everyone else has pointed out, the included funnel is worthless; however, I picked up a GREAT long-neck funnel at Wal-Mart for a mere 97 cents. Once I added the oil, I went to attach the battery. Here's where I had my second minor problem. The instruction manual said the negative battery lead would be attached to the alternator for shipping, but it wasn't attached to anything; it was carefully wrapped in plastic and left free-floating. Not a problem at all.
Speaking of the battery, while I was attaching it, I also attached the leads for an automatic battery charger/tender. Once I finished this step, I plugged the charger in, and was told that the battery was already fully charged! This was a real plus, as I didn't have to wait to test the electric-start feature of generator. I put in a couple gallons of stabilized gas, double-checked the oil level, turned on the fuel valve and the choke (the choke is on when the lever is to the LEFT -- it's not clearly marked on the generator itself), and hit the start button. It started up IMMEDIATELY! I gradually moved the choke to the off position and gave the generator a few minutes to warm up. Then I pulled out my trusty multimeter to see what kind of juice I was getting. The 120V outlets were providing exactly 123V, and the 240V outlet was providing exactly 246V. Very stable readings, too! No major fluctuations at all!
Next it was time to plug the generator into my transfer switch. I did so, flipped the switch, and the next thing I knew, it was like NOTHING had happened. In other words, the voltage being fed into the house by the generator was so good, so stable, that everything in the house operated just like I was on utility power. I didn't try running everything at once, of course -- it's only a 7500W generator, not a 15000W or more -- but everything that I did run operated perfectly. My wife did a load of laundry in the front-loader washing machine, we turned on lots of lights, a space heater, the fridge, ran lots of hot water so the furnace would kick in to provide more, watched a DVD on our big-screen TV, surfed the Internet on our desktop PC, etc. We ran this full test of the generator for one hour! When we had multiple things running, I conducted another test with my multimeter. I'm happy to report that the house outlets were providing 122.5 to 122.9V, even with a decent load on the generator!
I can't think of a single bad thing to say about this item. The minor little issues I had are really nothing, when you get right down to it. What really matters is whether a generator will start reliably and provide good-quality electricity, and this baby DOES! If you want a generator to help you weather a short- or long-term power outage, I don't think you could go wrong buying this Honeywell. It's a real HONEY! And don't forget, it's got a three-year warranty, longer than every other generator I looked at. And you can't beat the price, considering the size of this machine! |
Wonderful piece of machinery | | Review Date: November 22, 2008 | | Reviewer: D. Bleiweiss, | | This item is awesome. I have purchased "cheap" generators in the past only to have them sold off as parts at the garage sale. Others would spit oil and heave gas. This Honeywell unit is a gem. Its quality, which is exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a unit to run the things I need it to run, easty to start and no brainer setup guide. This was the perfect item. I expect many years of use out of this on the jobsite as well as at home. Would recommend to others. |
AWESOME GENERATOR | | Review Date: February 10, 2009 | | Reviewer: Robert Miller, Cincinnati, OH | | Received generator 2 days earlier than expected. Driver had a semi with a liftgate which made it easy to unload. Assembly was quick and easy, great manual, no parts were missing. Filled the oil tank & gas tank, push the electric starter, it immediately started up. I live in a rural area and the power goes out quite often and sometimes it is days before it is restored. For $999 total delivery cost, it is a bargain. I have shopped and researched a lot of generators, this is a good buy. As others have said, the oil funnel is junk, in fact, the one included with this generator was broken in half, no real loss. |
Super deal on a super machine | | Review Date: February 3, 2009 | | Reviewer: Robert L. Petersen, | | Received the generator a day earlier than expected. Very easy to assemble, slight problem getting it started, had to open the drain on the carburetor to get gas to flow. The engine started right up and there has not been a problem since. I will suggest this generator to all my friends. |
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I’ve liked reading these types of blogs. Intriguing stuff! Solar energy has always been a fascination with me.