Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Great service from Amazon; poor performance from the product. After searching for reviews of this particular generator, and not finding any, I decided to take a chance and try one. Sounded like a good buy for the price. I use a generator several times a year hunting, camping, fishing, etc. so I needed something I could depend on. My older Coleman Powermate was beginning to show signs of wear and was very noisy.
When this arrived (and sooner than expected) , I removed it from the box, put 10W-30W oil in it, put just a small amount of gas in it as I intended to run it dry for transport, and pulled the starter rope. It fired right up on the third pull and I thought "OK. Maybe this was a good deal". The outside was all molded plastic but felt very solid for plastic. Then I noticed that the green "pilot" lite was not lit so I searched in the owners manual to see what the problem might be. Nowhere is the pilot lite mentioned so I have no idea if it is supposed to be on when generating electricity or not but it is green so I assume it should be on to tell the user that "all is working as it should". I plugged in a trouble lite with a 100 watt bulb. Nothing. I used the other plug. Nothing. I pushed the circuit breaker. Nothing. I put a volt meter on it and found, you guessed it, nothing. I tried the 12 volt output with a voltmeter. Nothing. Now I was 6 days away from leaving on a three week hunting trip and needed a generator. I called Amazon on a Saturday evening and was told that I would need to call a different department on Sunday morning. I called and was immediately given a credit refund including the shipping. That was the bright spot in this transaction.
I have ordered another one to see if it I just got a lemon and will update this when I get it. There was some evidence that I may not have been the first owner of this unit and it may have been re-furbished. The top of the box had a lot of extra tape on it, one of the tools included was separated inside the box and the plastic bag the generator was wrapped in was torn as if it had been removed and then put back inside.
UPDATE: 09/22/2010 - I received the second one today, took it out of the box, filled it with gas and oil. Took several pulls to get it started but once it started, it ran and did what is was designed to do - provide electricity. Now, we will see how long it runs.
Hope this helps any of you looking for a portable generator. Thanks Amazon for the quick response. A+ for customer service.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Steele Products SP-GG120 1,200 Watt 4-Cycle Gas Powered Portable Generator
1200 watt 4-Cycle engine, 2.8 HP gasoline powered generator. Runs 7 hours, 1.24 gallon tank @ 59 dB with recoil start
