Customer Reviews

Briggs & Stratton 40302 12,000 Watt IntelliGen Natural Gas/Liquid Propane Powered Air Cooled Home Standby Generator (CARB Compliant)

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I purchased a Briggs and Stratton 12000 standby home generator less than a year ago. It "exercises" once per week for 15-30 min and in the winter, I noticed that the engine was laboring badly. Upon inspection, I found that the air intake, which is only 6 inches off the ground and faces down, was covered by snow. I am told that the engine could be damaged if it ran beyond the short exercise period. I called B&S to ask about a solution. They were aware of the problem and recommended that I clear the snow after every storm. I explained that I will be away from the house and they suggested that I have my neighbors do it--I live in the country. Clearly, this is a design-flaw on their part that could be remedied by some retro-fitting. In addition, I found two of the plastic air exhaust and circulation covers lying on the ground this spring allowing small animals to access the engine. I tried to replace them but the plastic snap pins no longer held tight. B&S service said that they were aware of this problem and that I should cut away the plastic pins and replace them with small stainless steel bolts. I would do this except the area is wholly inaccessible unless the top is removed which is a major undertaking and one that could potentially invalidate warranty. Again, I was very surprised to see that B&S took no responsibility for these problems which are both clearly design flaws. Bottom-line, if you live in an area that encounters cold and snow like we do, I would stay away from this generator. In addition, consider the complete lack of responsibility by B&S for their faulty product design.

After the northeast ice storm of December 2008, my family was without power for five days. Our neighbors lost their home after a problem with their wood stove. With my extended family living within close proximity, and knowing that the next ice storm could be two days or two years, I started investigating a standby generator. The beauty of the Briggs and Stratton 12kw is that when you couple it with an full-house automatic transfer switch with AC Module (made exlusively for Briggs & Stratton models) you end up being able to keep the lights on just as if you were on the grid.
It was far more affordable than models that power entire homes, and whether it's brown-out conditions due to 100 degree heat or 20 below and blizzard-like conditions outside, we're safe inside with the generator. When the power goes out, it fires up within a minute. We lost power last month for about 4 1/2 hours. It wasn't as cold as december, but it was nice hearing the generator get going (although it doesn't sound any louder than a lawn mower, and is hardly noticeable after a couple minutes). We often get 10-15 minute power outages throughout the year and I was thinking at first that this was probably the case, so I was momentarily concerned that the generator was malfunctioning. But sure enough, I go outside and everyone had lost power. Four hours later the power comes back on and the generator goes off.
The 12kw even had enough power to run my electric dryer, which had been running before the power outage. I turned it off anyway because there's still no need to go overboard with the thing, but the generator itself, when coupled with the transfer switch, checks load levels so as not to turn on high-energy items unless the load is low enough. That's how the AC module works. As long as power consumption is below 85%, it will run the AC, if it goes above that, it waits until you draw less power before running the unit.
With lots of family members in the area we all know there's a warm place to stay if there's ever an outage, and we can keep the entertainment going, cook if we need to inside, and keep the kids safe. Add the fact that it runs directly off of our natural gas, I don't have to go out and fill the thing up every six hours like my brother-in-law's unit.
Spend the few extra bucks to get the whole-house transfer switch and you won't be disappointed. It doesn't hurt resale value, either.