I purchased a GP8000E and paid extra for the electric start. I started it when it first arrived to ensure all was OK. It started right up. 8 weeks later I went to exercise it and the electric start would not work. I took it to a factory authorized service center where they discovered the battery was defective. It would not charge nor hold a charge. They replaced it and it started immediately and now runs fine. THE PROBLEM....This generator cost over a thousand dollars, is brand new with 12 minutes run time on it, YES 12 MINUTES. The generator was delivered to me with that defective battery and Generac WILL NOT COVER IT UNDER WARRANTY!! I cannot say enough good about ELECTRIC GENERATORS DIRECT which is who I purchased it from as they are a Generac Distributor. They stepped up BIG TIME once they were told what happened and THEY took care of this repair. Fabulous customer understanding and support by ELECTRIC GENERATORS DIRECT. Generac..not so much. This is a major purchase for most. Hope it runs and lasts longer than the factory supplied battery!

WORTHLESS. Unit will not start, presumably due to dead battery (as many others have said) that will not take/hold a charge. Generac said they would replace the battery under warranty but after 6 months and numerous phone calls, the replacement battery has yet to be shipped out from the manufacturer.

The generator was very easy to setup out of the box, with clear & concise instructions. Filling was easy as was connecting the ground wire. This is no small generator and has a lot of power, The pull start was easy to operate. It is not a quiet generator, by any means. So, it's not for going camping. We bought it to have as backup for the major appliances in our house. It has useful 220V connections as well as 110V.

I bought this generator to power the home during those temporary power outages due to thunder storms. Then Hurricane IAN devastated our part of SW Florida. It was September 30, and I couldn't even go outside to set up and start the generator until 11 PM, when the winds dropped to 50 MPH. I bought the General GP-17500 to make sure, "IF", I ever ran the generator for a couple of days, it would have power capacity to spare. This generator powered the entire home for 7 1/2 days. I shut it down during the afternoon to cool it off, check the oil, and fuel it up for the overnight operation. And yes, I changed the oil and oil filter two times within the 7 1/2 days. Me being me, I even placed/positioned two floor fans to move air across the unit to ensure full cooling of the engine and generator. Like in tornado areas, once IAN caused its damage, the weather in SWFL was incredibility perfect. Low humidity, Low Dew-point, cooler than normal hovering around 75 all day, and cooler at night, for the next 12 days. I had wired this generator to back feed the electrical panel though a mechanical interlock and a 50 amp breaker. The main breaker must be moved to the off position, then the mechanical interlock plate is moved up, allowing the 50 amp breaker to be turned on. And when we needed hot water, we would turn off the home AC, then switch on the electric hot water heater for about 45 minutes, then the hot water heater was switched off again. We did not want to test the full power capacity of the generator, but it powered the two home AC units, the well pump, and when needed, the clothes washer and electric clothes dryer. Here too, we always powered down other high current devices like the AC units, and hot water heater, when washing and drying our clothes. For a "portable generator" bought to power the home for a few hours when a thunderstorm and winds temporarily knocked out the local power company feed, this generator performed well beyond expectations. Our next purchase will be a Generac backup Home standby generator. We now want this style unit so when there is a power disruption, the generator will taker over automatically, and I don't need to send my wife outside with the flashlight, instructions on how to position, connect and start up this unit. (Yea, listen to my big talk here. I do all of this, moving, connection and starting, but now see the wisdom of a built in home standby generator, since we recently moved to SW Florida I will start by getting a propane tank sunk into the ground, our HOA rules require this, and once in, we'll order the Generac unit with transfer switch. And "NO" we will keep the portable generator for a bit as a portable back-up generator to next to be installed backup home generator. I figured it was time to give feedback to those still on the fence.

We have extended a tailpipe 5 feet up from generator exhaust, it still senses the Co2 and shuts off, no help from Generac other than taking it to a mechanic and I know the problem is the sensor. This has only been started to test, sadly, we were past the 90 days to get a full refund, we bought in case of a storm related power outage. Very disappointed. Now I will unhook the CoSense and this will void the warranty. Hard to go out and restart every 10 minutes if being used post storm. It was advertised as built in US with 2 year warranty, tag states made in China.

I bought this electric start Generac Portable generator for its Electric Start Feature. I have owned a Generac Non Electric Start Model for approximately 10 years and have been very satisfied with it. I bought this model for the Electric Start feature. I wish Generac kept the previous style handles which were separate and could be easily locked into position with the spring loaded pins. The new model uses a pin on a cable which is harder to use and flimsy. Also I do not know why Generac placed the Sticker with the Serial and Model number just below the generator motor with about 2 inches of clearance with the frame making it very difficult if not impossible to see and photograph. I had to lay on my garage floor in the cold with a digital SLR camera to photo the serial and model number and did not get the quality photo I would have liked. The Serial and Model Numbers could have been easily seen and photographed if the sticker was placed on the opposite bar of the frame which has plenty of space to be photographed which I do in the event of theft. Other than the handles and the sticker I am very pleased with the unit.

Use caution when purchasing a GP17500E. I own 1 of these units and one GP15000E. After purchasing my 2nd GP17500E the electrical output panel did not work out of the box, the battery needed replaced after a couple hours, stator went out and I spent over $1,500.00 in travel and employees time solving these issues with the help of a certified Generac service center.

I purchased this generator after purchasing and returning 3 Westinghouse generators. 2 generator was defective and the other 1 would not power what I needed. Purchased the generac and am very satisfied with its performance. No issues with this generator. Provides all the power I need for my camping needs.

Assembly took less than 30-minutes and it started effortlessly right out of the box. A “field test” of the new generator was conducted two days later. After a two hour test run, with all the transfer panel breakers turned on, and nearly every component of a “normal load” placed on the generator--from the well pump to the dishwasher, and from the furnace to the refrigerator & water heater--the GP7500E generator handled the load effortlessly. However, I've recently discovered one issue that remains distressing. In the owner's manual, Generac DOES NOT recommend running the generator in rain or snow. This is equivalent to a "Catch 22" in back-up, emergency power! After all, inclement weather--blizzards, hurricanes, tornados, ice storms, etc--are the causes of power outages in the first place creating the need for back-up generators! So the food in your refrigerator must spoil because it's raining outside? Really?

Owned it 2 years. Refused to start on one of regular start up dates. Took to small engine repair. He got it started after changing spark plugs. Got it home and battery was dead. Refuses to start. Can't count on it when we have a power outage. Waste of money. Now having to look at getting a Honda.