Disappointed with Champion brand generator!

[300UGUY]

I had a Coleman generator, 6500 watt. It worked fine for over 10 years. Finally it threw a rod when the well pump kicked it. It was seriously undersized for what it was doing. I replaced it with a 15 kW Generac unit, on propane. It has worked flawlessly for about 10 years. And we sometimes lose power for a week or more.

 

[Steve_Miller]

Just because its made in China doesn't make it junk. It's the company that is having it made for them, if they care about reliability then they will have a quality control program in place and that quality control program will dictate what quality will come out in the end product. The old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Honda uses China probably as much as anyone but they control what goes into the product as much as what comes out and it shows, this is why you pay more for a Honda product. I'm not a promotor of Chinese or any other products but the supply chain is only giving its end customers what they want which is dictated by price most times. Yes there are lemons out there as well but take it for what it is, not the name of the country that it is produced in. If the product has no name on it then just maybe you should give it a second thought if you're looking for a reliable product. There are lots junk products produced in North America as well.

Steve

 

[like2wheel]

My dad had his shoulder replaced. So he did opt to get a Champion with electric start.

Champion makes electric start shoulders too?
Bet he can really throw the football now!

 

[John White]

I had a old generator I bought several years ago and used it several years. Very heavy, all copper wound. It was only 3kw and small. I think in was made in Kerny, Nebraska and I am not sure but Coleman may have bought them out. I needed a larger gen so I bought a Coleman with elec start so my wife could start it. I used if for a few years and I seen a few of them tore apart and sold for junk at a flea market. All the ones I seen had a plastic sleeve of some type in the brush end of it and the bearing sat inside of this sleeve and from what they told me, that was the weak link in a Coleman. That eventually it would wollow out. I routinely check mine and it sounded like it was going out. Sold it. Bought one from China and went out in about 20 hours. I then bought a used DeWalt 6kw and used it for about 6 years. Used it during a storm a few years ago. No power for two weeks. Sure went through a lot of fuel. I put it in the back of the barn for back up and now use have a generator light tower with a 4 cyl Kubota diesel, which just sips fuel compared to a gas. I bought another cheap China made one light enough that I could pick up and throw in the truck by self, to use in a emergency. I think is 2k but in 30 days the rope cut through the plastic recoil housing and I had to jury rig it. My son bought a old 1 cyl military gen. I think it had a Winsconsin on it. I think it must have weighed 400 lbs. It ran forever. Decided he wanted a newer one with elec start and not so heavy. Bought one from Lowes 7kw and cost about $700. First time he needed it, I had to tare the carb apart and take out the plastic pieces that plugged it up. Made in China.

 

[kenmac]

ya, it gets real confusing. I wired an off grid home last year using the owner supplied 7500 watt (if i remember) Northstar (Harbor freight) generator. .

Northstar is a northern tool brand. Chicago Electric is Harbor Freight brand. I have no idea if 1 brand is better than the other

 

[MNBobcat]

Champion makes electric start shoulders too?
Bet he can really throw the football now!

That's almost not funny! First time he threw a football he hit the wing of a small plane flying at 500 feet and the pilot nearly had a heart attack. :laughing:

 

[Oaktree]

A tip on that.... If you have a computer Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) you can plug that into your generator and then plug your computer/electronics into the UPS. The UPS will clean up the power before it gets to the electronics. Even a bad UPS with a dead battery can be used to clean up the power.

Not necessarily. Some UPSs don't play nicely with generators that put out ratty power, or if the frequency is a bit off. I've seen them that stay on "battery" when on generator power, or keep cycling back & forth. Also, a lot of the cheapie UPSs just run utility power straight thru with no conditioning.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I have a 17 yr old coleman Powermax ER, 5000 / 6250 surge. I used it full time to build my house, then it sat for many years with little to no use. I shut the gas off and run it dry when I store it. When I tested it a few weeks ago, I did have to give it a shot of carb cleaner, and it started 1st pull after that. I ran it for 14 straight hrs the other day during the power outage, ran fine.
I would like to get a honda 2000i for the camper. I really like Honda products.

 

[BobRip]

Wheras the inverter idea seems like a good one, I see it as one more major area to go wrong when you need it. If I really had to depend on a genset, I would prefer not a single transistor in the mix!

I see too many posts where the chinese implication is automatically one of junk. I am sure in MOST cases that is the truth, but I think you can have the highest quality stuff on the planet made there as well!

My friend who works at a company that also happens to service small engines always tells me that B&S has several lines of engines in the same power class. He tells me the series names but I don't generally pay attention to know what is what. I guess they had to make cheaper version to compete wth all the knockoffs out there. Makes you wonder if that is good business sense, in that the cheap stuff may well ruin their reputation.

The extra complexity worries me too. It is counteracted by saving of fuel in the inverter generator. During Isabel we had only one gas station with power. Of course they ran out of fuel after three days. I kept buying fuel every day until they ran out, and have a lot of cans, so I was OK. However running out of fuel is a major concern. So I have one with inverter and one without.

 

[MNBobcat]

Not necessarily. Some UPSs don't play nicely with generators that put out ratty power, or if the frequency is a bit off. I've seen them that stay on "battery" when on generator power, or keep cycling back & forth. Also, a lot of the cheapie UPSs just run utility power straight thru with no conditioning.

Well, that could be. I don't buy junk so I guess I've never encountered that problem. I do know its worked for me though.