Customer Reviews

Sportsman GEN4065 4,000-Watt 6.5 HP Portable Generator

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The generator is everything it was advertised to be. There is no problem with that part. The problem is the booklet that comes with the generator. It keeps the generator from getting 5 stars. It's obvious that it is poorly translated from another language. The booklet states to fill the oil reservoir with oil before starting. There is nothing telling me what type or weight oil to use. There is a service number to call but it is hard to get help. Otherwise this is a good product for emergent use. Overall, an excellent buy. You DO get your moneys worth.

Great value for the money. The only downside is that considering its weight, it really needs a wheel kit. This was for my husband. He is adding wheels, but would have preferred to just buy a kit.

for very low price, a lot of watts... is moe than i need for a pair of computers and a tv...

I haven't actually used this for what I bought it for yet, but will hopefully get the opportunity to soon. I bought this to provide electricity while camping as my son has a medical device that must be plugged in while he sleeps and we needed electricity to operate it while at the campground. This generator is noisy, however, for our purpose, we also have some batteries that will run my sons machine for 8 hours, so during the day we can run the generator to recharge the batteries which can be used a night (Batteries don't make noise) - I really don't have any other generators to compare this one to as far as noise goes, however it seems to me it could be a bit quieter. This is about the same noise level as running a lawnmower. It started up just fine without any problems, and we ran it for about 20 min just to see if the noise level was something we were going to be ok with. I definatly wouldn't call it a sportsman and market it as being for camping due to the lawnmower level of noise, however it was inexpensive compared to other models. I give it a 4 star as I expect price being lower will reduce some quality someplace. The muffler appears to be where costs were cut.

LIKE MOST PEOPLE, I GOT THIS FOR EMERGENCY.--WHEN I GOT IT,- I RAN IT FOR AN HOUR WITH A BIG AIR CONDITIONER, AND IT RAN GREAT,- ABOUT 6-8 MONTHS LATER CAME HURICANE IRENE, I RAN IT FOR ABOUT 20 HOURS. THE BOLTS INSIDE THE GENERATOR HEAD FELL OUT- (THEY WERE NOT TITE AND W/O THREAD LOCK)-- THE ENGINE CONTINUED TO RUN AND THE BOLT CAUGHT IN THE ARMATURE AND SHORTED IT, AND BROKE THE WINDINGS INSIDE.THE GENERATOR ITSELF IS SHOT ! !
THE WHOLE THING IS OF NO USE NOW, AND-- I CAN NOT EVEN USE THE GAS ENGINE, BECAUSE THE CRANK SHAFT IS ONE WITH THE GENERATOR HEAD AND CAN NOT BE DISCONNECTED. I AM BUYING A DIFFERENT GENERATOR TO REPLACE THIS AS SOON AS I CAN CAVE THE MONEY OR IT.

IT'S SAD BECAUSE THE GAS ENGINE RUNS AND STARTS GREAT!

This generator works great! Instructions are very straight forward and easy to follow. If you want to use it with computers make sure you use a surge protector and you have an Active PFC power supply. If you do not you may run to into some nasty problems. My offline APC UPS will not use the power generated since it is so noisy so keep that in mind. Using a volt meter I can see that it puts out exactly 125v consistently so voltage fluctuations shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The generator itself is a bit loud. So far I have built a box around it with treated wood + thick fiber board. I'm waiting on some sound deadening material to quiet it down even more. If you live in the suburbs with lots of neighbors nearby you probably won't be able to run it at night without people waking up. However, while I'm inside (fairly close to the generator) I can barely hear it.

like I said so far so good. 3 minor things 1)tank holds less than 4 gallons 2)is kinda noisy 3) this sucker is heavy. We have only used it 2 weeks thus far if anything changes good or bad, I will update.

Brand new generator out of the box no apparent damage. I filled it with oil and gas, connected the ground terminal with 12awg ground wire to a building ground. Started the unit and my ground detecting surge protection equipment went into alarm and my APC UPS would not charge. Greenlee GT-10 circuit tester indicated open ground. Installed ground rod into earth and connected to unit. Open ground still indicated, but APC UPS proceeded to charge and there were no ground failure alarms.

Called Buffalo Tools customer service (866) 460-9436 as directed in manual and was informed 'you can't use a circuit tester on these generators they have an open ground, that's how the low oil shut off works. The unit is fine.'

I should have known better right then and there, but I proceeded to use the generator. After two days (approximately 10 hours of low load operation) my 26watt fluorescent drop lamp exploded behind my head. I immediately unplugged the lamp and went to the generator and tested the output at each of the outlets. They were both indicating 200 volts so I shut the unit down. I later discovered that three surge protectors with no connected load powered-up smoked and shorted out.

There is no power gauge on the unit and the circuit protectors are a tragic accident waiting to happen. For the few seconds this power surged it was surprising how much smoke filled the house.

I am experienced around this type of equipment and only heavy duty extension cords were used. Restarting the unit briefly I still measured 200 volts with my multimeter.

IN MY OPINION THIS UNIT IS UNSAFE AND I WOULD NOT OPERATE IT LET ALONE RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE!

I received the generator a few days after ordering. It started but did not produce electricity. The Buffalo tools rep refered me to a local hardware store that can repair it. I dropped it off 4 weeks ago today to be repaired and am waiting for the repair. Next time I will avoid products like Buffalo tools and use trusted brand names.

Received as a gift and didn't get around to needing it for a couple of weeks. It started right up after putting oil and gas in; but almost nothing came out. It will not generate more than a few volts - like 5vac and 0.4vdc. The manual sure doesn't address this problem. Don't know where to return or have it fixed at no charge.