Bazza replied:

G'Day Wizard1,
It's the old story mate ... you get what you pay for. Did you get your $250 - $300 worth out of it befor it died? Some people do'nt even get that!
Get the Honda, I'll be good to you.
Regards,
Bazza.

mungunya replied:

Wiz, my generator shat itself at cobourg last october, fortunately a couple of blokes lent us an eu10. Needless to say the first thing i bought when we got home was an eu10. After 8 months of use i reckon i need a floggin for beeing to lousey to not get one years ago. Yes you can get 6 or 7 of those little 2 stroke fullas for the same money , bu try to cart em all at once.

Peter Guy replied:

I have had an excellent run from my 4 stroke Robin generator. It would be a good 10 years old now and has never let us down even when running all day for 2-3 days in 40'+ tempetures and the fuel economy is brilliant.

Blackie replied:

Are all the experiences with these generators (whatever brand is attached to them) negative. They've been about awhile now so we should be able to get an informed opinion. From those comments above it doesn't appear too flash.

Member - Ken replied:

About 5 weeks ago I'm breezing through the local $50 shop (Bunnings) when I spot a pallet of GMC Generators as descibed above.

Bought one more as an experiment than anything else, as I have some excellent GMC electrical gear (Rough, but ready) which I have had a great run out of.

Get it home and the first time I try to fuel it, when the fuel level reaches the seam of the tank, fuel piiiiiiises out everywhere. Damn tank hasn't been sealed/welded on one side.

No problems, back to the $50 shop (always end up spending $50 there) and the guy on exchanges says ( I really can't repeat it here) and go help yourself to another off of the pallet. So I do.

Home again (only a kilometer) fuel up, one pull on the starter and away it goes. Never had a problem with it since.

Use it to run drills, angle grinders etc at a max. 600 watts draw. It will take a start up of 850watts draw, however only continuous at 600.

Also I mixed the fuel at 30-1 rather than 50-1 recommended (to lean).

I have since seen this exact same generator in a number of 'livery's' with prices to match. There was one in the Piranha shop last week. All the same, just the colour, name and PRICE different.

Bunnings GMC at around the $190 mark seems to be the cheapest.

Once again it is a personal thing as to what you choose to buy and what you use it for.

I know that I recently bought a $450 deep cycle battery that lasted one full day of travelling and carked it.

Thats life in a nutshell though.

Regards

Ken Robinson

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Zapper replied:

Between myself, dad and 3 mates we have 5 of them in different brand names. All been good. No probs. One used on the farm lives on the back of the ute and runs a lot, have had it driving a 900 watt drill and 600 watt grinder at same time. I reckon they are great. Each to their own

They are on special at Colli Hardware now for $149 with same 2 year warranty

Jimbo replied:

I bought one from Bunnings with the intention of using it as a cost effective method of charging up the battery rather than fitting a dual battery system. It tended to hunt, which made it loud and it would not charge on 12v, kept throwing the breaker. I took it back and got another one. The second one ran smoothly and quietly but it also threw the breaker. NOTE: when they are charging on 12 V they are actually putting around 16 V into your battery, and register around 19 V at the clips with no load. I resigned myself to using it on 240 volt with a battery charger. This of course meant taking up a lot of space with the gennie, a jerry of fuel and the charger. Then the bloody thing started leaking an oily substance from somewhere underneath it.

I finally said enough is enough and took it back and got a refund (Bunnings were great, no questions asked). I then did what I should have in the first place and have arranged a dual batttery system.

I know a lot of people have had a trouble free run from these, but a lot have also had issues.

Just my experience, but two out of two means either I was really unlucky or these things aren't too flash.

Jim.

G.T. replied:

Sorry I`m a bit late coming in on this debate on generators -- shift work does not let me get onto this forum as much as I would like.
Trade Tools Direct --- www.tradetools.com.au are advertising a 2.5 K.V.A. generator for $598.00. This is on the Gold Coast Sunday Mail 6.06.04 page 49.
Looking at the posts it seems that if you buy a Honda you have to part with something like $2000.00. for 2.0 K.V.A.
I can possibly see some drawbacks with the Trade Tools unit eg. weight and size, but would this matter to someone who needs to carry a generator?
Advt says that it has 12v outlets & delivers clean regulated power for sensitive electrical equipment , and of course exclusive to to them!
Other units are available -- 5.5 , 6.5 K.V.A. plus diesel units as well, in
No , I don`t work for them , or have a friend , neighbour, or relation etc etc working for them as well.
I`ts just that I spotted the advt in the local paper & thought it might be of interest to some people .
Regards G.T.