If you want a "new" set-

(1)Honda. Not just a Honda engine.
(2)Anything else.

I've got a Powermate 3500W that uses a Kawasaki engine. Has been flawless over the years. But it's a bit noisy. My brother has a 5000W Honda. It too works perfectly and is even quieter than my 3500W Kawasaki. Tough to beat a Honda. My Honda lawn mower is 10 years old and never failed to start on the first pull. I only wish my Acuras were as good as it was!

How often do you experience outages & on average for how long? And how sensitive are you to noise during those times?

Bottom line is typically you will see better reliability w/ a Honda engine & some brands/engines are quiter than others.

In my case, I've got a Coleman Powermate which has never been out of the box. I also installed a transfer switch so that if & when power goes out for any extended period of time I can run 6 different circuits.

I doubt the Coleman Powermate is the most reliable or the quietest but it only costs about $500. If & when we need to crank it up I expect it to run & if not I'm handy enough to most likely get it running (unless it is a DOA unit). I have not had the time or the need to test everything out plus I don't want to have to continuously drain the gas.

But again we don't typically see many outages & if so they are not for long thus it really depends on your situation.

All I can say is don't buy a Coleman. I bought a 5KW Coleman Powermate back in the Y2K scare. It has a Tecumseh 10HP engine which has been by far the most impossibly troublesome small engine I have ever owned. It wouldn't start right out of the box, and Coleman wouldn't do anything for me except read the warranty terms to me over the phone. The many trips to the small engine repair shops around here while under warranty and afterward hasn't made it a bit better. Nobody at any shop can find the cause of the trouble. The mechanics can get it running, but after I get it home for a week it won't start again. The generator itself works OK when the engine runs, but since the engine usually won't start when I need it to or keep running for long if I do get it started, it doesn't matter much if the generating unit works or not. I'm so disgusted with the piece of junk I don't much care if it never runs again.

I have repaired several Coleman sets. All of them have been loud and seem to be rated at about 130 percent of their actual capacity. They are OK if you want a very inexpensive generator as a convenience or "just in case" option, but I wouldn't want one in any application where its performance or lack thereof was at all critical.

Main point, avoid Tecumseh engines in gensets. Never had undue problems with any make of generator. Brushed alt gensets need occasional brush replacement, tradeoff being they are simply designed and usually easy to work on. Sensitive electronic equipment might require an inverter type genset. The Chinese setups can be difficult to find parts for, but that is getting better.
I don't know where to go for decent reviews. One of my neighbors is a contractor, the guy on the other side of him owns a commercial lawn service, so I get great feedback on small engines and generators. Honda, Robin, and Briggs Vanguard powered gensets seem to be well liked. The contractor has a pair of no-name Robin EX21 powered units that have well over 1000 hours each on them. Total repairs have been a fuel line and cut off valve. His Honda units are bulletproof as well.
IMHO, a cheapie genset will do fine for emergency use. You have to ask yourself how much will you actually use the genset? Consumer Reports had info/ratings on their website, but they charge an arm and a leg to see it.

Hi Chris,

I think the issue that you are trying to solve is to have a generator for backup
power for your house. You mentioned portable was there any particular reason for
that?

I installed a generator for my home in New York about a year ago so have some
experience in home backup systems, at least from the home owner point of view.

The way I see it there are roughly three ways to go:

1) Lower cost. Gasoline powered portable generator. Up to 7,500 Watts.
Exepcted to pay $US 700 to $US 4,000. Instalation wiring setup
from $US 1000 to $US 2000.

2) Mid price. Propane powered. Up to 12kw to 15kw. Genset cost
from $US 2000 to $US 3000. Instalation cost from $US 2000 to $US 4000.
Lawn mower engine based, air cooled. 3,600 rpm.
Auto start on power fail over. Permanent instalation on a gravel base.

3) High Price. Propane powered. from $US 20kw and up.
Genset cost from $US 10,000. Instalation cost from $US 4000 to $US 8000 and over.
Truck / car engine based. Liquid cooled, presssured oil system with spin on filter.
1,800 rpm. Permanent instalation. Concrete pad. Heavy lift required for
instalation, the genset is over 1,000 lbs, and too heavy for even a four man crew
to lift. Auto start on power fail.

The decision as to the best route is really I think family dependent. If you
or a member of your familly are pretty abled bodied and can wheel about a generator
then then option 1 will work. Note generators are heavy even portable ones
in the 7.5 kw capacity. On a power failure you will need to wheel out your
generator and start it up outside. Keep the generator in a sheltered position
away from rain and snow (water and electricity dangers),
but NOT in a garage or basement due to Carbon Monoxide
poisoning dangers, which are serious,fatal and sadly happens alot. This
spot also needs to be away from your house a bit due to fire risk. You
will need to fill your generator about once every five hours or so. A 7.5kw
generator will need about once gallon of fuel an hour.

Gasoline fule storage is usually limited to 20 gallons by town fire codes.
Gasoline should be stored away from your house and will keep up to one year
using a fuel stabilizer like STABIL (Home Depot).

I recommend that you have the installation wriring done too with a transfer
switch. The alternative is to run power extension cords all over your house
for power which can be problamatic

The best portable generator out there IMHO in the 7.5 kw portable range is
the Honda EM 7000 AB. This has inverter electronics that allow the engine
to run at a different speed depending on power demand. So this means
lower noise, less wear and lower fuel consumption. Non inverted generators
in this class usually run at 3,600 rpm to give you 60 Hz power.
Yamaha also make Inverter generators.

Note you will have to run your genset once a month to maintain it.

For most home owners I would recomend the mid price route. The contractor
who installed my genset said most people went that route. The main advantage
is that you have propane for a power source. You can install alot ot it in a tank
near your house I have 400 gallons. Or if you have mains gas you do not
need a tank at all but yo run the risk that you mains gas may fail in a storm.
Propane also will keep indefinately and be fine to use. These genesets
also will auto run twice a week to for maintenance purposes.
The instalation is housed nicely and when the storm hits there is no need
to run about in the dark getting wet and cold.

In the end I ended up going for a 20kw Cummins Onan genset (High Price) because
I wanted some Air Conditioning to work. The car based engines
run typically at 1,800 rpm, lower speed and hence less noise and wear.

Usually there is only a limited number of circuts that can be powered due to the
capacity of the genset. Usually people put on the following:

1) Well pump for water (if you have one)
2) Sewage ejector pumps (if you have one)
3) Furnace blower and furnace electronics (hot water for your house)
4) Air handlers and blowers (heat for your house, no frozen pipes, unless you are in Florida)
5) Fridge / Freezer
6) Lights (some)
7) Television
8) Other stuff, alarms etc. garage doors.
9) Air conditioning compressor units, these require high power and have even higher starting
power requirements. Usually a cheaper solution is to purchase a small "Window"
A/C and use that for one room during blackouts.

Good luck with your installation. Warmest regards, Mike.