Generac 5797 XG7000 8,750 Watt 410cc OHV Gas Powered Portable Generator With Wheel Kit

What customers say about Generac 5797 XG7000 8,750 Watt 410cc OHV Gas Powered Portable Generator With Wheel Kit?

1. 28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

   
   Leaks oil, November 1, 2011

   By 

   Pinkhat –
   
     

   This review is from: Generac 5797 XG7000 8,750 Watt 410cc OHV Gas Powered Portable Generator With Wheel Kit (Lawn & Patio)

   

   Customer Video Review Length:: 0:37 Mins

   We bought this generator from a warehouse ten months ago (December 2010). Back then we used it for 12 hours without any problems, except for a small oil stain on the driveway, right below the generator, which we only noticed once we moved the machine to store it. For the most part we were quite happy with it and thought that we had made a great choice. The generator starts right away, it’s not as noisy as some others we had considered (but much noisier than it appears to be in the video), very easy to move in and out of storage and very easy to operate.

   For the past ten months, my husband ran the generator every couple of months for 15 minutes or so just to make sure everything was in working order. We are the type of people who take the time to maintain equipment.

   Now, this week, thanks to the tree carnage the autumn snowstorm of 2011 has caused, it’s taking the utility crews days to restore the power so we have been running this generator for about 50 hours (giving it three or four hours break per day) – it’s purring away as I write – with no problems except that now it leaks quite a bit more oil.

   We placed large pieces of flattened cardboard box under the generator (from the box it came in, actually) but, after six or so hours, the oil had began to soak through, as you can see in the video, so we placed a foam tray right under the spot where we could see the oil leaking from. I think you’ll be able to see oil dripping from under that silver piece of metal above the oil filter.

   We’ve also changed the oil after the first 30 hours of usage, as per manual instructions, and have kept adding more oil every eight hours or so. I can’t tell for sure how much oil has leaked so far, but I would say at the very least a good cup or so, judging by how much it’s been absorbed by the cardboard and, if you look closely, you’ll see quite a bit of oil pooling around the generator’s legs. That foam tray had collected about 1/3 cup of oil the day before, which I had already dumped; the oil you see in the tray had been collecting for about 10 hours.

   My husband had to tighten all the nuts that had become loose (about eight of them, which are within reach; one of them cannot be reached without taking the whole thing apart, which we will not attempt). The generator continues to leak oil although not as much. We don’t know how tight those nuts were originally, but I’m pretty sure they’ll become loose again.

   This machine is still under warranty, but we have decided to return it to the warehouse once the power has been restored.

   Not looking forward to researching generators again. This is the second one we are returning, the first one (a BlackMax with a Honda motor) had a faulty gas gauge but, other than that, it worked beautifully and reliably; they had sold out, that’s why we ended up getting this Generac). So back to the drawing board, it seems.

   UPDATE (December 4, 2011):

   I’m writing this update because there are a couple of very important issues that you need to know about this particular generator and we just found out about this today.

   OK, we wanted to return this Generac to the warehouse right after the storm, but not wanting to be left without a generator even for a week during this crazy weather season, we had to wait until the stores had restocked, which took over two weeks. In the meantime my husband did a lot of research on generators and concluded that the Ridgid (made in Japan) with a Subaru engine would be the best choice.

   The new generator was delivered five days ago. That night my husband assembled it (wheels and handle) and ran it for 20 minutes, without a load. Everything worked fine, no oil leaks, no loose nuts/bolts.

   This afternoon my husband decided to run the Ridgid again, this time under a typical load for us -heater, water, fridge/freezer, a tv and house lights, all compact fluorescent- (same as with the Generac after the storm, which is about half of either generator’s capacity) and right there we realized what a piece of garbage the Generac really was. The Generac, from the very first hour, made this whirring noise, BRRRMMMM, BRRRMMMMM, a few times as we first ran it under a load and again every time the heater or the fridge would run (again, we always ran the generator at 50% capacity or less). At first we thought this was normal, but at around the 50 hour mark this was happening more often and even the garage door opener would cause it to strain, when it wouldn’t during the first 30-40 hours.

   Today we run the Ridgid for a half hour under load at 35% and later at over 50% capacity and the engine purred at a constant pace with no signs of strain.

   In closing, this is what we have learned about generators from our experiences with three different brands:

   1. A generator is something that, normally, you might have to…

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