We have been thinking of a whole house backup but waited a little long, Irma hit. I ended up picking up a generator as I traveled back to FL as all the ones in town were gone. I was looking for a large enough one to run our well and refrigerators as long as needed to get power back. I arrived back to the house the day after the storm there was no power. So I opened the box and added the oil provided in the box, added gas and connected the battery, also provided in the box, turned on the fuel and slid the chock lever and hit the start button. the generator fired right up and we had power again. It was a good experience and easy to set up. We have had no problem so far.

GOT MY GENERATOR, HAD NOT BEEN FOR HAVING A CHAIN HOIST , DOUBT THAT I WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PUT WHEELS AND FOOT ASSEMBLY ON. SOME PARTS WERE MISSING SUCH AS WASHERS, NOT A BIG THING, ONE SPACER FOR THE WHEELS HAD TOO BE GRIND DOWN TO FIT. THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN? ALL OTHERS THING WORKED , START UP ETC. HAVE NOT YET A CHANCE TO PUT IT TOO THE TEST UNTIL NEXT POWER OUTAGE. SO PERFORMANCE CANNOT BE COMMENTED ON. GENERATOR QUITE HEAVY BUT WAS ABLE TO PUSH AROUND IN SPITE OF MY AGE OF 65. UP HILL GRADES A DIFFERENT STORY.

I use this generator for 2 months every yr on weekends at deer lease and run fuel dry when I leave till following weekend Iv used the 6500 for 1st year no problem except oil consumption 2 nd yr had to have carb rebuild and and 3rd yr now needs a valve job junk I'm not putting any more money in it. also friend (same deer lease )has a generac 5000 3 yrs old has had to replace push rods

One reason I purchased this generator was for the ease of starting it with the electric starter when the power goes out. The first week I had it, it started right up, but once I removed the trickle charger that came with it for a couple days it wouldn't start. I figured it had a bad battery or a short in the system, so I took it to a Generac authorized repair shop to have it checked out and they said the battery was bad and replaced it. Sad to say the new battery was also dead after sitting a couple of days. I did some research on the internet and discovered that this Generac Model had issues of shorting out and causing the battery to drain and die. I installed an on/off toggle switch to isolate the battery when not in use and that fixed the shorting out issue. One other issue that I've ran into, is that this CO sensor is almost too sensitive, if the wind blows the exhaust back towards the generators CO sensor it will shut down unexpectedly, so I have to position the exhaust pipe towards the same direction as the wind is blowing. Now that I know what it takes to get this generator started and keep it going it's actually a really good generator and it performs well, it's just not user friendly.

Ran generator for approx. 50 hrs. straight, except for re-fueling, during Hurricane Irene. It provided reliable power and saved us quite a bit of money by not having to replace food. Also provided comfort as it powered my central air conditioning with no trouble. Easy to set up and start. Acceptable noise level for size of unit. Does like gas!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] It arrived in excellent condition, assembling was very easy less than 10mins and worked amazing. I love that it has many functions and can power just about anything. Very useful now that the winter weather is coming and electricity tends to go out.

Unit purchased 4.5 yrs ago. Ran great till used this yr. Followed all required maintenance and unit stopped during power outage. Shop Arlo has replaces magnetos and now telling me needs new carb. $728 in repairs and still don't know if will run. I can not recommend this $3000+ generator when i am spending 30% cost of unit after only 37hrs. This is ridiculous and Generac has told Arco they won't do anything to help. Very disappointing for a company to treat customers this way.

Got the generator the eve of the 2015 blizzard. Setup was a snap and starting was even easier. This was a replacement for a older generator I had and between the two units genarac wins hands down, would recommend it to anyone even if your not handy with mechanical things. my grandma could put this together.

I bought my Generac RS8000E because a friend of mine said if you want a quality lasting Generator. Then Generac is the one you want. He said the quality goes in before the name goes on. I liked that, & I like the electric starter, large fuel capacity & long run time. At 8,000 watts It has more than enough wattage to run our home. It's easy to move around and it's nice to know it's there when I need it. Our power went off for 4 days this Aug 11th, 2020 from the big storm that went threw the Midwest. That's not going to happen to my family again. Thanks Roger

I just bought a GP8000E, so I'm just getting familiar with it. I did buy it through a support company that will be maintaining it for me. So far, my one suggestion would be to clearly mark the gas on/off switch. It's not clearly marked on the machine. The company did add a green marker for "on," but none for "off." The sticker you have on it does not help at all. I had to call my support company to find out that when the switch is set to noon and 6, the gas is on, and when set to 9 and 3, the gas is off. The manual does not illustrate this very well, either.