63cc, 900 Watts Max/800 Watts Rated Portable Generator - Certified for California

Comments about Chicago Electric Generators 800 Rated Watts/900 Max Watts Portable Generator:

The plastic cover crack and break off at several locations.

Comments about Chicago Electric Generators 800 Rated Watts/900 Max Watts Portable Generator:

Is there such a thing as an OHV(overhead valve ) 2 stroke ? Lol

Comments about Chicago Electric Generators 800 Rated Watts/900 Max Watts Portable Generator:

Dear Harbor Freight, I would like to express my dissapointement in the generator that I recently purchased. As you know new england was hit with quite a storm that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people a while back. I had an older generator rated at 1000 watts. It served me well. During times of Peril such as this I have my boyfriends mother stay at my home. She actually lives in a trailer community for senior citizens less than a mile from the Vernon, Ct HF store. I bring her to my home in Manchester, Ct when there are power outages, etc. She has COPD and is on oxygen twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. While she has a machine that plugs in, a small generator will not run it. This is when we go through the daunting task of dragging a very heavy, very large oxygen tank (as well as several smaller ones) to my home. The generator that I was using burned up towards the end of this last outage as I found out my neighbor had a hot plate and a refridgerator plugged in to the extension cord I sent his way. (a little too much for a 1000 watt generator) Long story short it was no big loss as I bought it on [@] for 75.00 some time before. I had been eying the 800/900 watt Chicago Electric gen set to run a few lights, and a television for future storms. I read the directions, bought a case of 2 stroke oil for 11$, and mixed it 50:1 per the instructions. The instructions said that the generator should be run at no more than I believe 60 % load for the initial 25 hrs of use to break it in. I placed the unit outdoors, out of the elements, and ran a 150 watt halogen light for a few hours a day for three days. TO MY HORROR, on day four my neighbor was pounding on my door and yelling. I had a good portion of the fuel that I had poured into the tank now in a puddle on the sidewalk and ground around the generator and the engine was still running. Further, the engine and generator head itself were covered in fuel. I shut the unit down, let it cool, drained the last bit of fuel that was in the tank by dumping it into a 5 gallon container, and into the trash the generator went. Lots of frustration, a headache, a hassle, a big mess, and LOTS of speedy dry. I called the store numerous times asking when and if the gen would go back on sale before I finally got it the first time. When I got it at full price of course the generator was one of the items that went on sale the FOLLOWING DAY in a weekend blowout sale. The store was kind enough to refund the difference on my second trip back to the store. The fuel leak and the dangers associated with it and the cleanup were the last straw. It wasnt worth the gas or frustration to go back to the store a third time. Thankfully there was no fire, no explosion, and there were no children or pets around this thing. While your bigger gensets look to be of better quality, I would take this unit off of the shelves. For those of us on a tight budget that this unit might appeal to, I think it is unsafe.

Comments about Chicago Electric Generators 800 Rated Watts/900 Max Watts Portable Generator:

I really like this little gen set, but it requires some one-time effort to start with.

You need to get the paint flakes and crud out of the gas tank.
You need to replace the poorly made spark plug with a decent one, I used an Autolite #64 plug.
After it has warmed up, you need to adjust the engine speed to get the voltage right, out of the box mine was at 153 volts! There is a philips screw on the front that you turn to adjust engine speed and therefore voltage.
I also added a fuel filter.

Cranks easily. Will run my 1/2 hp bench grinder.

I haven't tried the garage fridge yet, I need to get past break-in period before I try a load that big.

I will re-review after I get past the 25 hour break-in period.

Comments about Chicago Electric Generators 800 Rated Watts/900 Max Watts Portable Generator:

This little generator is awesome! Got mine last summer for [$] at Harbor Freight. Didn't think it would last 2 weeks so I bought the 2 yr store replacement warranty. The little thing is tough. Use it for my business. During the summer I put it through hell every day. Running a 3/8 hammer drill and a 4-1/2" grinder. Its perfect for mobile jobs. Ive bought 8 more since. The first one is still working!!! Even got a spare spark plug but have not needed it yet.

Comments about Chicago Electric Generators 800 Rated Watts/900 Max Watts Portable Generator:

I bought this little generator a few months ago after reading the good reviews.
I have used it to charge the batteries on my RV for the last seven weeks.
I've run it for about 2 hours a day till yesterday when it self destructed.
After taking it apart I observed that the end of the engine crankshaft which is bolted directly to the generator actually broke off.
I know this is hard to imagine so for the record, I never pulled more than 4 amps as I know it is a light duty unit. I never abused it and gave it the full break in period.
I also noticed the air cleaner is all but worthless.

Comments about Chicago Electric Generators 800 Rated Watts/900 Max Watts Portable Generator:

Got two, one for me one for family member. No issues out of the box. Put on handle, checked tank, everything looked good. Pulled spk plug and put in teaspoon of 2 cycl oil. Turned eng. over a few times. Put in new NGK BPR5ES plug, Filled'r up. Choke on for one pull, choke 1/2 one more pull and started up on third pull. Tiny bit of smoke for about 1 minute. Oil I put in to pre lube the cycl no doubt. Ran for 10-15 minutes to warm up good. Then plugged in about 400 watts of lights and a fan. Smoothed out fine. Running for about 4 hours w/no issues. Will run for 4-5 hours a day til 25hr break in period over. So far so good...

Comments about Chicago Electric Generators 800 Rated Watts/900 Max Watts Portable Generator:

Works great for around the house for powering tools,lights, battery chargers,ect out in the open it's not to loud and starts easy. it's small easy to trip over remember where put it when using it. cant beat the price

Comments about Chicago Electric Generators 800 Rated Watts/900 Max Watts Portable Generator:

I love this generator so much I purchased 3. I have two primed and handy and the 3rd I left in box and stored in a dry place for extreme back-up. I have used dependably for emergencies and everything in between. Having 2 units ready to go means that I can allow for continuous running it through a UPS/power conditioner. I just swap one unit for the other and the battery back up runs in between (for a minute or two). I have also used many times instead of running for an extension cord (saws, grinder shop vac). By finding multiple uses I keep them running strong and they start easily. Invest in upgraded spark plug read the owners manual and break in as directed and you are good to go. Used for emergency home power, working around the house, camping and tailgating.

Comments about Chicago Electric Generators 800 Rated Watts/900 Max Watts Portable Generator:

I love this little generator, it is built like a tank without the weight! I have used it on my property to power electric tools from weed eaters to drills and saws. I have used it when camping to provide power for lights, electric fans and powering up game consoles. It has been left out in the rain, it has been in a supremely sawdust laden shop environment, and yet with a little priming and just a few pulls it starts up every single time without any real effort. The little mixing cup inside the fuel tank makes measuring/mixing your fuel really easy, though I usually just have a gas can with fuel premixed handy and this thing runs foooorever as it is really fuel efficient. While it is a bit noisy compared to the whisper quiet Honda generator of about this size, that this costs 10x less and even though it is a 2 stroke, it isn't overly smokey at all.

I cannot say enough good things about this little generator, it is small, fuel efficient and dependable. I would recommend one to anyone without a second thought.