I have a friend who is looking to pickup a genset around the size of 5000 running watts without breaking the bank. I have heard pretty decent things about the cheapo Chinese models made by JD Tech. It looks like a majority of the China models are made by them and are essentially all the same. The only difference is the color of the paint and the name on the sticker, depending on where it is sold.
A buddy of mine work at Aldi, the grocery, and they sometimes sell generators under their house brand of Kingcraft. He indicates a very low compliant/return rate of these and says that most problems he hears about are user error such as not running it often enough and letting the gas go stale and gum stuff up.
I understand that the engines are essentially copycat Hondas or Chondas (Chinese Hondas) as people like to call them. I picked up a little tiny 1200 watt 4 stroke generator from Aldi and it cost a little over $100. I haven't run it much but was impressed by the clean and quiet operation of the unit. It is overhead valve and claims to have a cast iron cylinder bore, which seems like a good feature for a long life.
One thing I notice about most of these is that the continuous and peak rating are usually pretty close. I have been told that this indicates that the windings in the generator head are not real heavy duty. Many people indicate that the peak should be at least 20% higher than the sustained rating if you plan to use it a lot or consider the sustained rating to be slightly less than the published spec if you plan to run it frequently. Is this true?
My other concern would be getting parts for these units. If something breaks or wears out, are these units repairable? Sure, I can do the work but are parts available?
Conor
A buddy of mine work at Aldi, the grocery, and they sometimes sell generators under their house brand of Kingcraft. He indicates a very low compliant/return rate of these and says that most problems he hears about are user error such as not running it often enough and letting the gas go stale and gum stuff up.
I understand that the engines are essentially copycat Hondas or Chondas (Chinese Hondas) as people like to call them. I picked up a little tiny 1200 watt 4 stroke generator from Aldi and it cost a little over $100. I haven't run it much but was impressed by the clean and quiet operation of the unit. It is overhead valve and claims to have a cast iron cylinder bore, which seems like a good feature for a long life.
One thing I notice about most of these is that the continuous and peak rating are usually pretty close. I have been told that this indicates that the windings in the generator head are not real heavy duty. Many people indicate that the peak should be at least 20% higher than the sustained rating if you plan to use it a lot or consider the sustained rating to be slightly less than the published spec if you plan to run it frequently. Is this true?
My other concern would be getting parts for these units. If something breaks or wears out, are these units repairable? Sure, I can do the work but are parts available?
Conor
