Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a review of a Generac iQ2000 6866 portable inverter generator. I received the generator at no charge in exchange for an honest review of it. Coincidentally, I've been shopping in this market for at least a couple of years, having previously owned a gigantic, incredibly loud 7KW (13KW starting) monster that was more of a maintenance hassle than it was worth. I've also tinkered with generator alternatives such as inverters powered by a car battery or by dedicated battery banks. I'm by no means an expert but am not a complete novice either. This is marketed at a 2000 watt generator. I consider it a 1600 watt generator because it will power stuff that draws up to 1600 watts when running. Some items require some extra mojo when they start up (like an air conditioner) so you need a little headroom to allow the item to start up, and then settle back down to its normal wattage draw. This generator has about 400 watts of headroom. It will handle something that draws up to 2000 watts momentarily at startup, and then settles back down to no more than 1600 watts. Generac isn't alone here. The famous Honda EU2000i is also a 1600 watt generator with 2000 peak watts, and it's marketed as a 2000 watt generator as well. It gets confusing when comparing different pieces of equipment. I have an inverter that runs off of batteries that's marketed as a 2000 watt inverter. It actually produces 2000 watts of power continuously, and has approximately 2000 additional watts of headroom. So it will power multiple devices that have pretty large startup surge demands, yet it's described as a 2000 watt device just like this Generac. The point of all this is to caution you to understand how much power you're going to need to produce to run the goodies you want to run. My 2000 watt battery-backed inverter will run my refrigerator and my portable air conditioner without complaint. This Generac 2000 watt inverter generator shut down due to overload when I tried to run the same two appliances. Don't buy any generator until you understand starting watts vs. running watts and have learned how many starting/running watts are required by the devices you want to run. OK, on to the Generac. This item is made in the USA and is targeted specifically at the Honda EU2000i, which is legendary for having a long, trouble-free life, being relatively lightweight and being relatively quiet (generators are notoriously noisy). It arrived well packaged and fully assembled and even came with a bottle of oil. The one page quick start guide doesn't take you very far. Step 2 is "fill with oil as indicated in manual" so you have to stop there and read the manual, which is just as well. Dealing with oil is almost always a messy job that Generac has done a decent job with. The oil port is very easy to get to and doesn't require any tools other than your fingers to open or close. There's an angled funnel that screws into the oil port for adding oil and I suppose it could be useful for draining oil as well (see photos). How much to add is mostly guesswork; I overdid it and had to pour some back out. If you can see some oil pooling about halfway up the threaded part of the port you're pretty much there. A small plastic tray is molded into the cabinet to catch small spills or drips which is a thoughtful idea. While you're under the hood you might want to note a couple of other things (see photos). The air filter cover easy to get to and is secured by one Phillips head screw, just behind what I call the Tube to Nowhere, a clear plastic tube that hangs inside the access door. I have no idea what it's for and haven't been able to find out yet, but the generator works fine so I've left it hanging. Just flip it out of the way to get to the air filter. After getting the right amount of oil installed and adding a tank of gas (I used 93 octane with fuel stabilizer already added because that's what I had), I fired it up per the instructions and it started on the first pull. Weather was fine so it required virtually no time on choke, and we were up and running. The first thing I noticed was that the engine purred. I had already watched a video online comparing this Generac to the Honda EU2000i and thought that the Honda sounded smooth, purring like a cat, where the Generac sounded "valve-y," with a more harsh metallic sound. Not so this one. Very smooth and, for a generator, so quiet I actually said "wow." (Emphasis on "for a generator".) Now the fun part: what can I run with this thing? My portable AC (about 900 starting watts, 700 running) was no problem. My fairly recent refrigerator (about 850/600) was no problem. Both at the same time? Overload. Oh well. The point is that each of them was happy with the power level and the sine wave quality. The two of them together was a little too much for the Generac, but that's not unexpected. Speaking of which, the true-sine-wave-or-not question came up in the questions section and the answer was sidestepped (pretty clumsily IMHO) by someone who may be been a vendor rep, or maybe not. So, being a professional jerk, I asked it in a different way and rather than evading the question again, it was just ignored. I don't have the definitive answer but I can say that the UPS that I use to power my modem, router, printer, desktop and VOIP phone would click like a madman and refuse to charge when I attempted to power it with either my old giant monster generator or my battery-backed inverter. This Generac makes it as happy as if it were plugged into the grid. And in fairness, even Honda's marketing refuses to come right out and explicitly claim pure sine wave. So I'm going to guess it's not pure, but it's close enough to make my stuff happy, which makes me happy. Odds and Ends There's no 12V or USB or 220V output. Build quality looks and feels very good. Even the access door is finished with insulation. The gee-whiz displays are actually helpful. I'm looking out my closed glass door and can easily see the remaining estimated runtime, fuel level and output percentage being used on the generator a goodly ways away on the patio. I'd love to see watts and amps being consumed in realtime; maybe in a later version. The owner's manual talks about spark plug and muffler/spark arrestor maintenance but doesn't show you how to get your hands on them to do the maintenance. So I called the toll free number on the Quick Start Guide to ask about that and also about the Tube to Nowhere. 10 minutes on hold, then got the encouraging sound of ringing...after about 10 or so rings back to hold, then in about 10 more minutes fast busy (disconnected). Not a stellar day at the old call center. So I decided to play around (see photos). The spark plug is underneath that wired thing where you probably think it is anyway - if you give it a good tug it will come off and reveal the plug. You can see the muffler and spark arrestor but it quickly becomes clear that you're not going to get the arrestor out with your fingers. You have to take off the black trim/grill that covers the rear of the unit using an Allen wrench on the four bolts at the corners. Then you can have at it with a Phillips. So the only mystery remaining for me is the Tube to Nowhere. That could stand explaining, as could accessing the spark plug and spark arrestor since they're described as routine mainenance items in the manual. And there was that call center problem, never a good thing but unfortunately not a very rare thing. If you're considering the higher-end portable inverter generators (Honda, Champion, Yahama) you need to put this guy in the mix. This is a nice piece of work at a reasonable price point. If you have any questions please post a comment and I'll try to answer as best I can. Final note: I'd planned to add captions to the photos but it's not clear to me how to do that within the Vine review submission interface. If I can add captions later I will.