Portable Gas Generators

Portable Gas Generators

I purchased this gas powered generator as a replacement for an older 5KW Coleman. I have a backup inverter arrangement to run our house during power outages (10 select circuits) and use the generator to charge the batteries. This system was installed 10 years ago because of regular outages (sometimes 6 days) in our rural community. We are on well water so it became a necessity to have power backup.

A couple months ago we had a branch transformer fault. I did not anticipate that we would have a surge on the neutral/ground leg and lost my battery monitoring system and also later would find out that I had suffered battery damage to one of the eight in my system. Two weeks ago we had an outage and I found that the damaged battery had pulled all of the batteries down. I started up the generator and it failed after a couple of minutes. I maintained the generator every other month but had not noticed the hoses were beginning to rot from age. After repairs I did get it to run.


I decided to get a new home gas generators (mothball the old one) and began searching for something that could handle the inrush on my 3/4hp water well in case of battery problems.


Highly recommended--> ETQ TG72K12 8,250 Watt 13 HP 420cc 4-Cycle OHV Gas Powered Portable Generator with Electric Start

The reviews here were very helpful. I never heard of the model before, but the specs were excellent for the price. I ordered the ETQ 8250 watt generator and used the super saver shipping. I was called by the shipper to set up delivery after the holiday weekend. The driver was unable to take his rig up our driveway (350ft 17 degree grade), but helped me load and unload the box in the back of my Forester. The two of us had no problems.


I followed what others had suggested and cut the box down in the driveway. The box provided adequate padding while I assembled the unit. All the parts were present including most of the tools. I found that my own metric socket set was better for the job. As others commented I was surprised to find the "conveyance suspend" tool for hoisting the unit. Finally, there was about 30 minutes of assembly time. The battery (purchased previously from the reviews) took a little longer. The unit was in pristine condition with no problems when delivered.

I filled the fluids and let it sit for five minutes. The gas generator started up by battery in about five seconds and ran very smoothly. The idle control is a nice addition and will come in handy when charging the batteries, however the voltage is too low (85/170) to really cold start any loads. The pull start is in a very bad position. As others suggested I may move it one screw round.

The noise is 85 Decibels on idle control adjacent to the generator and 93 under load. At 20 feet under load it measured 85. This generator is much quieter than the previous one and should not disturb any of our distant neighbors. As others suggested you could carry on a conversation at about ten feet.

The voltages on the 240 plug measured 123 each for a total of 246 volts. For my purposes, my charging circuit to the transfer switch is about 95 feet away. This should adequately cover any voltage drop in that long circuit. I have not yet measured it under load.

So far I am very happy with the unit and appears to be the best generator for the price available at this time. The battery start will come in useful for my family if there is an extended outage while I'm away. The pull start is the only negative I can see at this time and is something that ETQ should address. I would recommend this portable gas generators for those that need backup emergency power.


I do intend to install a whole house service entrance transfer switch in the near future (these things cost more than the generator), and will maintain the battery configuration for the ten critical circuits. It will be interesting to see if the ETQ can handle the inrush on the 30A/240V central air circuit while the batteries power the furnace blower. I will report my findings later.



Let's take a look at this gas power generator's features: