After 35 years at the same address and typically dealing with 1 or 2 mostly short outages per year, we experienced an 8 hour outage and a 5 hour outage within 2 months. My wife said we need a generator! We looked at whole house backup but that seemed like overkill and very expensive. After lots of online research we settled on a Generac in the 6500-8000 watt range. Because we have a well, we needed 230v output. The price difference between 6500 and 8000 was so small, we opted for the GP8000e. The installer put a lockout on our electrical panel so we can switch between generator power or electric service but the generator cannot backfeed the incoming electric. Yesterday we experienced a 5 hour outage. After 30 minutes, I rolled the generator out of the garage and onto my patio. It fired up with electric start even though I had not charged the battery since the initial startup 4 months ago. I hooked up the 30amp cable to the receptacle on the house, switched the lockout on the service entrance to generator power and we had power. In addition to the well pump, furnace fan, and fridge, we ran the microwave, an electric cooktop (not at the same time), and all the lights we wanted. My only complaint, though not unexpected, was the volume. It is loud! My phone sound meter app registered 90db at about 10' away. It was about 8' from our family room and even with the windows closed, it was too loud to watch TV comfortably so we retreated to the basement. It's also quite heavy but I had no real trouble wheeling it around the house from the garage to the patio. Overall, I'm very pleased with it and my wife was happy that we had water and a cold refrigerator during our 5 hour outage.

Setup was easy. Starts easily. Plenty of watts for most everything in home. I ordered it during hurricane season but didn’t receive until later. It hasn’t been field tested in the real world. I did have a certified electrician install a whole house manual switch to make things easier. That was very expensive, but will be worth it. It will be easier to operate circuits using my existing breakers. I am sure the generac generator will do its job.

Our family bought 1 of these (as well as a few of other sizes) for back-up power after "Snowtober 2011" left us in the dark for 6 days. Our home has 2 heat pumps w/aux heat, and electric hot water. I wanted a unit that would be able to keep us warm, and this fit the bill. This is a BIG unit, upon delivery, 2 people are needed to assemble. We connected to the whole house through an interlock kit in the main panel and monitored load, we just used it for the first time after Sandy roared through- we ran our critical circuits as well as the hot water heater, TV/DVD, lighting and the stove. We ran each heat pump independantly due to load (10000 watt aux)The unit perforfmed flawlessly except for a resonating heat shield I had to creatively rectify. We put 95 hours on during a 5 day blackout. The sound level is tolerable for overnight use, overall very pleased with the quality, performance, ease of use (love the electric start!) and that they are Made in USA. We are electricians so we did all the work ourselves,

I just picked up this generator under the strong recommendation from an electrician. Fantastic advice. As mentioned above it is easy to use and laid out quite simple. I find it to be built solid and durable. I love the electric start feature as well as the pull start in the event the battery is too weak to crank the engine. Battery came charged when I received it and even though we had temps at -20 to -30 all month she still fired up quite easily. Highly recommend this generator.

This is my third season with this generator and thus far it has worked as it should. I don't have any experience with other generators and brands so I cannot tell how this specific model is relative to the others but thus far, it has not let me down. Some observations though. 1. The battery is on a trickle charger and this keeps the battery fully charged. This is a good thing because it takes a great deal of effort, at least for me, to use the manual start. 2. This one is a gripe. The manual states that old fuel should not be kept in the fuel tank. I get it. However there is no easy way to drain the fuel! I use a hand pump to remove the old fuel at the end of each season. Generac could have easily added a de fueling valve to its gas tank.

I brought this generator prior to relocating to Puerto Rico this year. When Hurricane Irma then Maria hit the island in September, I ran it 24X7 to power my home. I could not be happier. Had refrigerator and lights everyday until the power was restored November 25th. That was 2 plus months. Never a hiccup and on we washed our clothes in the washer. I invested in a transfer panel during the outage and that made the use even easier/ The electric start is a charm and changing the oil is easy. 10 days after the power was restored the lights went out again. Went to my generator, pushed the start button and it went back on line. Went I turned it off after 2 months I kissed it because it helped my wife and I get thru a difficult time. Buy this unit. I am a very careful shopper and only invest in quality products. If I seem enthusiastic, it is because it performed beyond my expectations. THANKS GENERAC!!!

I bought this generator to run sewerage ejector pumps at a townhouse complex in case of a power failure. After un crating it I've decided to purchase another unit for my own house for standby use. For the price you can't beat it. Who cares if it never gets used.

I purchased as a backup to provide power to deep freezer, refrigerator, and home office computers. It was easy to connect and provides ample power for my needs. I looked at various generator manufacturers for some time. I decided on Generac because it had the features I needed; was available thru my local service station and could be delivered to my home in time to save my refrigerated food from defrosting. I only need it for 26 hours before utility power was restored. I changed the oil so I am ready for next outage. I estimated that saving the stored food paid for half of the cost of the Generator. Not missing the days work paid for the other half.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This generator is absolutely amazing! The quality is awsome and holds up great. The best thing I love about this generator is that it automatically monitors the co levels and shuts it down if it's too high. I have small children so this makes me feel so much better knowing that it's safe. Another thing that's great is it comes with the cord that you need for it. A lot of generators you have to buy that separate. Overall this is a really good generator to have. I recieved this as a sample and this is 100% my own opinion!

This unit replaces our 14 year old Generac 4000XL so we knew about product quality and support. This unit is connected to our service panel and can run everything we need in the event of a grid failure! My only complaint is that it does NOT have an idle control like our 4000XL, so it will not use fuel as efficiently. That said, we would still highly recommend this generator.