Briggs & Stratton 30470 8,750 Watt 420cc Gas Powered Portable Generator With Wheel Kit

by Briggs & Stratton

Product Features

• 8,750 Watts Surge/7,000 Watts Continuous
• Four 120 volt AC outlets, one 120 volt 30 amp locking outlet
• 7 gallon fuel tank with gauge provides up to 8 hour run time at 1/2 load.
• Non-CARB compliant/Not for sale in California

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 34.8 x 22.8 x 25.9 inches ; 255 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 545 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00372TPCC
• Item model number: 30470
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,188 in Patio, Lawn & Garden (See Top 100 in Patio, Lawn & Garden)

Product Description

Briggs & Stratton manufactures small engines and outdoor power equipment. For 100 years, we've been building the engines that power the equipment people use to get the job done. That's the reason consumers look for the Briggs & Stratton brand when they shop for power equipment. Hurricanes. Ice storms. Wind storms. You've seen the after-effects, entire communities without power. A generator will ensure your family has the power needed when faced with unexpected outages. Two types of generators are available: portable generators and permanently installed home generator systems. Briggs & Stratton Elite Series products have heavy-duty components and features with a longer warranty to back them up. They perform tirelessly around the home, farm or on the job.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good choice, March 19, 2011

By 

Deltasmith - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Briggs & Stratton 30470 8,750 Watt 420cc Gas Powered Portable Generator With Wheel Kit (Lawn & Patio)

I considered many of the alternatives before purchasing the B&S 30470, and I'm happy with my decision.

I was hoping to find a model that was not manufactured in China because there have been a lot of quality control problems with hardware (and food products) that come out of China and when you are purchasing a 200 pound product, you really don't want to take a chance on having something go wrong that will require you to bring it/ship it somewhere because of a problem. Unfortunately, it seems that virtually all of the generators in this price range are manufactured in China, including this one. B&S is a US company, but as others have noted in nearby reviews: much of their manufacturing is in China. But since they are a US company and they do have a brand name to protect, that was slightly reassuring. Also, if something ever does go wrong with it, there are plenty of small engine shops around that should be able to work on it.

The Honeywell models also seemed interesting, but I got cold feet when I found where one person had published a lot of false information about them on Amazon, Home Depot, and one or two other web sites. Investigating further, I found that they are made by a small company in the Midwest that licenses the Honeywell brand name and, like B&S, does their manufacturing in China.

It's loud, but quieter than I expected. For a neighborhood where the houses tend to be at least 50 yards apart, this is not an intolerable noise level in my judgment. It seems to be no louder, and might actually be quieter, then the generators that my neighbors run. If you are really worried about noise, spend an extra $3000 and purchase a Honda inverter generator.

It starts right up and smooths out pretty quickly. It hardly skips a beat when you throw a load on it.

A nice touch is the recessed well around the gas tank filler spout - any spills will tend to stay right near the filler neck and can easily be wiped up.

Some things could be better:
1) The ignition switch and key are so cheesy that I decided it would be smartest to leave the key in the switch permanently. This is my biggest complaint and Briggs and Stratton need to do better.

2) It's good that it comes with a low-oil cutoff system, but the manual indicates that the only way you know if that system is working is if it won't run. Since a lot of other things might cause it to not run, it would be nice if there was an indicator of some sort telling you that the low-oil protection system had disabled it.

3) Since I'm using this to power my service entrance panel (I have an interlock in the panel that prevents backfeeding), and since the neutral and ground are bonded in the panel, I need to modify the generator to have a "floating neutral", instead of the "bonded neutral" that it came with. The majority of portable generators have this same issue: very few are shipped with a floating neutral. That's fine if you want to use it standalone to run extension cords, power tools, etc, but it's wrong for powering a house when there's a service interruption. All of the manufacturers need to do a better job of documenting this requirement and making the configuration change easy to accomplish. Briggs and Stratton doesn't even talk about it in the manual, but they did respond when I e-mailed them and they did assure me that this modification would not void the warranty.

4) It would be really nice to have a gauge that showed me what my current load is, or at least what my peak load has been. I calculated that this model would be big enough to run the refrigerator, the well pump, the furnace, and a few other things, but it would be reassuring to have a gauge tell me that I am/am not approaching the maximum load that this model was rated for.

I had contemplated that I would manage concerns about stale gas by adding fuel stabilizer to the gas and also by shutting off the fuel valve and then letting it burn up the gas that remained in the carburetor, but the fuel valve trick is not a good idea. In order to produce the correct 60 Hz electrical frequency, the engine needs to run at constant speed. If you start to starve the engine for fuel, it spends a couple of minutes revving up and down as the fuel mixture becomes leaner and leaner, before it finally uses up everything in the float bowl. I concluded that it was better to just shut it off with the key, leave fuel in the carburetor, and go with the fuel stabilizer.

My garage doesn't really have room to store a generator, and even if it did: I don't like the idea of dragging this out into the driveway or over a snow bank when I need to use it. I wound up building a small shed to store it in. I designed it so that the roof tips up and all four sides can come off when I want to run it. That allows for plenty of ventilation and cooling, but provides a stable place, out of the way, to store it. And since the roof tips up but stays on the shed, it has some amount of protection from rain and snow that it wouldn't have if I was just wheeling it out into the driveway.

So far, I've only used it a couple of times but I've been very happy with it and it seems to provide ample power to run the things I need the most when the power goes out: submersible pump, oil furnace, refrigerator, a few lights and etc.

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Briggs and Stratton 30470, October 14, 2010

By 

Ex_4wd (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Briggs & Stratton 30470 8,750 Watt 420cc Gas Powered Portable Generator With Wheel Kit (Lawn & Patio)

I am a Consumer Reports subscriber (magazine and online), this generator is brand new for 2010 and it has not yet been reviewed by Consumer Reports. The last ratings they have for generators was in June of 2009, one of the top ranked then was Briggs and Stratton model#30242. I purchased model#30470 from Ace Hardware because at the time it was cheaper than Amazon(same price now).
This generator comes almost fully assembled, all I had to do was put on the wheels and add oil, (provided) gas and connect the negative battery terminal. It started with the key on the first try and I don't think it is loud at all, my neighbors even commented on how quiet it is for a generator (my Echo Backpack leaf blower (74 dB(A) is almost as loud as this generator). I have run this generator at half-load 3,500 running watts using 30 and 20 amp extension cords and have had no problems. I fully expect this generator to handle the brutal New England winters without a problem.

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unexpected Damage, April 15, 2011

By 

Mike - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Briggs & Stratton 30470 8,750 Watt 420cc Gas Powered Portable Generator With Wheel Kit (Lawn & Patio)

I purchased this generator after researching for quite awhile. The reviews on all websites were overwhelmingly positive, and I have always been well pleased with Briggs and Stratton products. However, after receiving this shipment I found that the choke was broken off the carburetor, two rear engine mount bolts were sheared off at the heads, and the negative battery terminal had one end broken off. None off these pieces were located anywhere near each other that would suggest damage from being dropped. I inspected the box as I received it and there was absolutely no damage to the container. So this generator must have left the factory in this condition.
After fixing the battery cable, the engine mount bolts, rigging the choke, and completing all necessary preparation procedures - I stared the generator up by electric start and immediately heard a loud screeching from the manual pull rewind. I shut it down and found that the rewind was broken off at the head on the inside. I then left the head off and started the generator. It ran fine and smooth. I hooked up a well pump to it since this draws a tremendous amount off surge watts, and it handled it with no problem. Overall, I like this product, but am very wary of buying another B&G product. In my opinion, this kind of quality control is unacceptable. I wonder if it is now going to be their policy of displaying shoddy workmanship.