I suggest that you have some assistance on hand to get the VERY heavy box into your garage to set it up. Assembly took me about an hour or so, so you should be up and running in a short time. The only problem I had were the holes in the frame for mounting the rear legs were not tapped and the supplied bolts were not self-tapping (or at least to say that they were not very good at it- ther tips being quite large with no relief slot in them to cut the metal), so I had to use a 1/4 x 20 tap to create the threads before inserting the bolts. If you don't have a tap you could easily replace the bolts with some better self-tapping bolts- they are 1/4 x 20 x 1" I think.

The Vanguard motor is made in Japan and seems to be a very high quality item. Once filled with oil and fueled up it started the first time on the second or third pull adnran smoothly after about a five minute warm up in cold weather (mid- 40's F.). Pulling on the starter rope seemed quite easy and I suspect that this motor has some sort of compression relief. For anyone of average strength, I think that the starting battery would only be needed in very cold weather.

Although I would not want it running next to my bedroom all night, it does run quite a bit quieter than a lot of other generators I have heard.

Be aware that most localities require a special set up if you want to power an entire home with a generator. This special switch box is not included and it needs to be wired by a qualified electrician. If you just run some heavy extension cords to the generator, then this is not necessary. This means that to power a water well or other 220 equipment like central air conditioners the box will be necessary.

To test it, once it had warmed up, I had the idle control on (low idle speed engaged) and plugged in my portable circular saw. I hit the trigger on the saw and the generator immediately came up in RPM and the saw went to full power as if it were plugged into the wall.

Be aware that when using voltage sensitive devices and light loads like an incandescent light or two, the idle control has to be off as the generator cannot sense these small loads and will not come up to a power-prodicing RPM. My trouble light would not do anything but glow dimly at the low idle speed.

This thing is large and has a huge alternator in it. With a 10,500 watt surge rating it should handle most all your needs- maybe not all at once, but for most households this is going to be a real handy tool to have around when the lights go out.

BTW- The motor and the alternator section each have a 2 year warranty! At this price I found nothing to compare to the BS750.

19 of 19 found the following review helpful:

If you are looking for value...  May 03, 2002
By John Harrison
This is your generator. Noise signature is more than tolerable although I agree with the previous poster - I wouldn't want any of these things outside my bedroom window. The compression release makes for a very easy pull if you don't have electric starter connected.

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:

Watch Porter Cables product descriptions for Generators  Sep 20, 2003

Even though it doesn't have all the features that they advertise, it is a good generator. They advertised it as having an hour meter and full power switch. It has neither. I did a lot of research, (weeks) on different generator features before purchasing this one. So when I did get it and it didn't have all the features that it was supposed to, I was disappointed.
But, If you're looking for using primarily 120 volts, this is the one for you. It has (2) 20 amp GFCI duplexes- (four grounded plug-ins) Plus it has a Nema L5-30 amp 120 volt plug-in. I purchased a 10 gauge extension cord that plugs in to the L5-30 Nema and on the other end it has 2 duplexes. This gives me 8 grounded plug-ins. total. Of course you still can't go over the 62.5 maximum constant rated amps while doing so. It does have a large surge rating of 10,750 watts, 89 amps for motor starting power
The engine started on the first pull as it should, and ran great. The Vanguard engine is supposed to be Briggs & Stratton's best engine. The Idle control works great too.
I would recommend downloading the PDF manual on any generator before purchasing. And then carefully compare all the features to their advertisement. I noticed many advertising mistakes on a lot of different generators out there.
Comparing power to price, this generator is hard to beat!

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:

does not survive shipping  Jul 27, 2005
By BD
Poor process or quality control. The unit I received did not have the shipping blocks installed. As a result, the vibration isolators on the generator were broken in shipping. Since the unit cannot be returned to Amazon, you have to call the manufacturer to obtain parts that you must install yourself. Those parts happen to be on backorder. This may be a good generator based on the other reviews, but I suggest you buy it locally instead of relying on getting an operational unit shipped to you. That way, you can verify the operation of the unit before taking it home. By the way, Amazon's performance on shipping items has taken a nosedive. They used to ship items in stock within 24 hours. When I called 6 business days to inquire on the status of my order, I was told that it was to be shipped out that day. Later I found out it didn't go out for another 3 days. It was a total of 16 days for shipping an instock item. Between the shipping delays and the two-to-three weeks I was told I would have to wait for replacement parts, I'm facing a 1 1/2 month delay.

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

Great Generator...but can be Hit or Miss  Jul 21, 2006
By Butch Simoneau "whatevva"
I have bought several of these generators, as part of a generator package that I install for residential customers. The last one that I bought just didn't seem to run as smooth as the others.

See all 10 customer reviews on Amazon.com