uRater.info

excellent so far

I was apprehensive about buying this generator because they don’t have a network of service centers… they tell you to take it to any small engine shop near you and contact them about charges under warranty. I called their cust svc and talked with them about the need for third party verification regarding parts needed and they assured me none was required.. I could fix it myself if I wanted.. just call them and tell them what I needed and they’d send it out. That seemed fair enough. It took a little over a week to get mine and it was delivered by USF Holland freight and arrived in pristine condition.. hats off to Holland. I got the liftgate delivery and he backed that big semi right up to my garage door…took his hand truck and set the small skid it was banded to in the center of my garage.. he required no help.. I never touched it until he was gone. These come packed in a cardboard carton and the packaging is well engineered.. thick foam all sides.. top and bottom.. all loose parts.. wheel kit.. etc.. in their own little nook in the foam. It is very heavy but you can get it assembled and off the skid working alone.. I did and I’m 62 yrs old. I pulled the front until it overhung the skid about 10″ and assembled the wheel kit then pivoted one side of the rear until it overhung and assembled that strut then blocked the rear strut up with a 4×4 and pulled the skid out of the way and assembled the other strut. I filled it with good synthetic blend oil and put about a gallon of gas in it. I turned the fuel valve on.. it’s located a few inches to the right of the choke handle. I pulled the choke handle all the way out and tried to start it with the key… the battery was totally dead. I pulled it out and put it on the charger and stuck the battery outa my lawn tractor in it and tried to start it. It was running almost before I could let go of the key. These Powermax units all have an idle control on them so there’s no speed adjustments of any kind possible and none needed. It idles very fast.. all generators do.. they have to to produce current. It ran smooth with no fluctuating noticeable in engine speed. Next I took my voltmeter and checked the output on all the current-carrying poles on all the receptacles. I got a steady 119 volts everywhere. With a target of 120 I considered this to be excellent.. my house current won’t hold that. The reason I bought this big unit in the first place was I had hoped it would start and run my big window air conditioner… it is huge.. 30k btu’s. I plugged the extension cord I had bought into the L14-30 240v receptacle on the generator and ran it inside the house and plugged up the conversion cord I’d made going to the 6-30 plug on the air conditioner and turned it on. It fired right up with no bogging down and I never noticed the engine on the genny pick up at all. I let it run about a half hour… let the compressor on the air conditioner cycle off and on many times and watched the voltmeter on the genny. It never moved.. engine really never picked up speed either so this generator runs that big air conditioner without any strain on it at all.. I was VERY relieved. The other things I plan to run during an outage won’t even approach the surge requirements of that big air conditioner so that issue was put to rest. It turned out that the battery in mine was no good.. wouldn’t hold a charge even a half hour. I called MaxTool and told them and true to their word there was no hassle.. they sent me a brand new battery and shipped it FexEx at no charge. I wondered if maybe I had been sent a generator that had been sitting in inventory a year or so but no.. the data tag on it shows a MFG date of May 2007.. I bought it in late August so I got a brand new one.. just had a bad battery. I tried the pull start several times and it always starts on one pull. I go out about once every two weeks and start it and let it run awhile to get oil thru it good.. keep a maintenance trickle charger on it all the time. I can’t speak to what it will do over time but outa the box it’s everything it was promised to be.. I love it so far. I almost bought a Coleman but those units got horrible reviews.. rampant with quality issues.. leaking gas all over.. horrible vibration issues.. etc.. also they have no idle control and most no electric start and are overpriced terribly. I’m glad I bought this Powermax… couldn’t be happier at this point.. good luck to you.

Update (5/19/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen.

The featured review for this product, DuroMax XP10000E 10,000 Watt 16 HP OHV 4-Cycle Gas Powered Portable Generator With Wheel Kit And Electric Start CARB Compliant Lawn & Patio, was written by A. Alford.

The average rating for this item is 4.7 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.