Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I just received my generator. The box was undamaged, no apparent damage to the unit. Setup to add oil, install the wheels, support feet and handle took about 10 minutes. Hooked up the battery and my LP tank, started right up. I am not a fan of the grounding terminal on the front of the unit. There are two nuts. One you remove to add your ground lug, the other, if it comes loose causes the ground screw to freely turn. Re-tightening that second nut was not fun. I also have not been able to get as good of a ground as i would like. I would like around 0.4 ohms or less, i am getting around 1.2 ohms from the ground pin on the outlets. I can live with this, but prefer better grounding. Along the lines of grounding, be aware that this generator has what is called an unbonded neutral which means the neutral is floating with respect to ground. I knew this unit does this from the circuit schematic supplied in the online user manual. This is not something I like as it can cause issues running some items, especially home central furnaces. I corrected this issue by getting a plug and wiring with 12 awg wire from neutral to ground Before I did this, using one of the amber-amber-red outlet testers the tester showed an open ground. After I connected the plug I made, the tester indicated a properly wired outlet. The unit while unloaded runs (for me) at around 62.5 Hz at 124 volts. I proceeded to load the generator to 900 watts. The output voltage was measured to be 119 VAC and the generator was running at 61.87 Hz per the scope and 61.9 per the front of the generator. I then loaded the generator to 1600 watts (i have been using my toaster oven. on broil, only the top two elements work and on full bake, all four elements work). The voltage was measured to be 120 VAC. at 1600 watts the frequency was at 60.78 Hz. Now, pertaining to the frequency and the harmonics, there will be next to zero risk running any of my electronics off the generator. I have my entire home theater system running off APC battery backups and have not had issues. Those output square waves, with total harmonic distortion (THD) in the 30-40% range. Update: 7/19/2016: i just measured the harmonics on the unit when running a resistive load (the toaster oven) of 800 watts. The THD was measured at 11.53%. The main culprits there the 3rd and 5th harmonics which were measured at 11% and 2.7% of the fundamental respectively. For electronics it is “recommended” that THD be below 5% and no one harmonic be greater than 3% of the fundamental. I am going to be doing some testing but this will not be an issue for anything with a switching power supply as they can handle these levels of harmonics without issue as they simply convert the AC to DC. Remember what i said above about the square wave battery backups with 30-40% THD. almost all people who have a battery backup for their computer or other equipment also output square waves (unless your battery backup was marketed as a true sign wave it will output a "modified sign wave" which is just another term for square wave) and have zero issues with the computer or other equipment operating. Also, the operating frequency of this generator being higher than 60 Hz will also not be a problem for any switch mode power supply as almost all power supplies are designed to operate within the operating range of 47Hz to 63Hz. Some items that do not have switch mode power supplies like many home furnaces may have issues with 11% THD (possible additional heating of motor windings, timing circuitry based on the voltage frequency etc) or a non-60 Hz signal but i cannot say for certain. for those who are not sure what a switch mode power supply is, basically all computers, TV's, DVD/Blue ray, game consoles etc. all use switch mode power supplies to convert the 120 VAC to DC voltages. What people need to worry about when operating electronics off generators is not the harmonics or frequency (as long as it is between 47 and 63 Hz). People hear about "dirty power" and assume it is the frequency or harmonics. That really is not true. What will damage electronics are voltage fluctuations. If the voltage goes higher than 140 or lower than 80-85 volts then you begin to have possible damage. quite often the voltage dips are actually more damaging to the equipment as it is forced to draw more current to keep the power constant and this can overheat components. This champion generator has the volt guard which is related to the automatic voltage regular (AVR). I did step load changed from 0 to 1600 watts and back several times in quick succession and the voltage only fluctuated by around 5-7 volts which is well within the safety levels of power supplies.