Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this through Amazon and couldn't be happier. I looked at many generators and am confident Briggs was the best choice. The Vanguard series motor in these has a bulletproof reputation. This unit comes with a 200A rated transfer switch and it's a well made unit. I had never purchased anything this big from Amazon before, and was a little unsure how the shipping would work out. When you place the order you are told the shipper will contact you to arrange delivery when someone is there. They never did contact me, so I had to make a couple of calls to get the final delivery scheduled. It did delay me getting it by a couple of days, but it gave me time to get a concrete base installed for it to set on, so it worked out fine. I do have to give kudos to Amazon, though because when I placed the order they stated a 2 week wait in shipping the unit. I got shipment notification the next day after I placed the order. Good job, Amazon! The unit arrived packaged very well on a pallet and the shipper dropped it out of his truck using his hydraulic lift gate. If your delivery company doesn't have this capability, and you don't have a fork truck available, it would be impossible to get it delivered, especially since it weighs about 500 lbs. To set the unit in place you have to unbolt it off the pallet and then move it to the chosen spot. Briggs has holes in the bottom of the unit that you can slip 1" pipe through and use this to lift the generator to move it. In my case, I inserted the pipes through the unit base and used slings, attaching them to a loader bucket on a tractor and used this arrangement to move it. I did the installation of everything myself, but unless you're an electrician, which I am, I would recommend getting expert help. There are requirements in the electrical portion of the installation that only an electrician would understand. Also, I recommend you have a person with understanding of all gas company requirements do the piping installation. In my case I am using propane and had my LP supplier do the piping and tie in. One thing he commented on was he was impressed this unit came with a stainless steel flex connection, as other manufacturers supply a rubber flex, which his company is reluctant to connect to due to degradation over time. One tip I will give is, after I completed installation the display was telling me I had an error with the Transfer Switch. I had also installed the optional remote monitor in this unit and it had the "service required" led flashing. After some troubleshooting I determined the issue was the two communication wires needed to be swapped at the transfer switch, as they need to be just opposite how they were connected in the generator, and this is not shown in the installation manual. Oddly, even before I found the source of the problem, the generator and transfer switch worked correctly and transferred to generator power when required. Along with the Remote Monitor option, I also installed the Cold Weather Kit. This is needed if your temperature goes below 30 degrees. It warms the oil and the battery to allow extreme cold weather starting. One thing to keep in mind about the Cold Weather Kit is you have to drain the oil in order to install the oil heaters. You'll have to drain it into a clean container, as you need to put it back in the generator when the install is complete. The other issue with installing the oil heaters is it will go much better if you have a stubby ratcheting wrench for the oil heater on the back side of the engine, otherwise it takes a while due to constantly repositioning the wrench in a very tight spot. I highly recommend this unit. Ironically, the night I finished the installation the power went off. We were eating dinner and the lights went out. It was so reassuring to hear the generator start and about 30 seconds later the transfer switched brought the generator on line. That made it all worth it.