DuroMax Gas Powered Portable 12000 Watt-Electric Start-Home Back Up & RV Ready, 50 State Approved Generator, Blue, Black

Run my full house with AC Central with no problem

I felt compelled to write a 1st review of the DuroMax XP12000E generato, before I even tried it out as, so far, the instruction manual for the generator is AWESOME. It actually is 'for' the item I purchased and is not for 1 of a possible 3 that you can buy. Directions that have, 'do this-if included' are useless if you don't know what you are looking at. Oh, and by the way, the manual was completely in English without a Spanish or French version (which is surprising since this company is in Canada). I am a woman and I have fairly good 'mechanical skills' when I have good directions to follow. The first thing I do when I get a new 'toy' is read the directions, I know most men would laugh at such frivolity but, I check to make sure all the parts are there and get a general idea of how to approach to DIY project. I feel certain a) the wheels were made in China and b) the instructions were written by a Chinese person. The pictures suck and the hardware list is....well, not great. They list 6-8mm bolts, and 2-12mm bolts along with other miscellanous items. However, upon reading the directions,I could account for the use of all 6 8mm bolts, but there is no mention of where to use the 12mm bolts. After seeking assistance from another party, they concur, I was not missing anything. When I started following the directions, I noticed a step that directed me to use 'washers'. Well, a washer and a bolt are 2 entirely different animals and even I know that. And no 'washers' were in the list of hardware. But, guess what?, the 12mm bolts were the 'washers' they referred to. So, this just wasted about 15 minutes of my precious (everyone's is) time. I plan to post another review after I have installed and operated the generator.

Good unit!! Very heavy. Starts easily. Just what I expected! User friendly

so i bought this whole house generator after the texas freeze in 2021.i've used it a few times here and there since but we just had a major storm in cypress texas.i started this gen 5/16/2024 and only stopped it on 5/20/2024 to change the oil. after that 10 minute oil change i was back up and running. i added a aftermarket Nat Gas regulator. ran it 100 hours. this is a beast.recommending to all fam and friends.can't say enough good things about this gen. it was about $800 when i got it. looks like its over $1200 now. d@mn shame.

-Update 8/1/2020-We have now used this generator for just about two years to power our 1.5hp 520ft deep water well. Our property (working on it to be a homestead) does not have electricity, so our only option was to use a generator to power our well. Solar well pumps are ok if the well is shallow, but we wanted a deep well and honestly spent most of our money on the well so the generator was the more affordable option when compared to a solar option. This generator does wonderful to power our well, we’ve run it for up to 8hours a day using the well to fill an above ground pool, a water tank on a trailer we use, and other power tools etc. as long as you do on time maintenance and use good fuel (ethanol free), replace the spark plug occasionally, I think we can make this genny last us a good while. Very pleased.The only con is this genny can be loud when compared to other units, but you can’t beat it for roughly $1000... I know other brands might be quieter by a few decibels, they are either double or triple in price. This one is priced well and performs well.-Update 8/12/2019-This bad boy still runs great and is used nearly everyday for about 10-20min at a time, with a few days of more heavy use of 6+hours when using certain power tools. Good genny for the price and so far so good.-Update 4/9/2018-I finally got my generator back from Northern Tool. It turns out the governor was out of whack, cylinders and a spring needed retuning. $25 total repair costs. Now why was it so difficult for Duromax tech support to even identify such a simple problem from the beginning? Generator now runs fine and is back to normal operation. Raising my review back to 4 stars ONLY FOR THE PRODUCT. Duromax tech support was horrible. 20+ minute wait every time I call, direct extensions for the support techs only leads to their voicemails and they never ever called me back. I spoke to the same two peopleevery time, leading me to believe they have a two man show for customer service.Also be aware, I called 3 small engine shops to have them take a look at this generator, all of then turned me down because they didn't work on and couldn't acquire parts for small Japanese generator engines (which this Duromax generator has). Northern Tool was even skeptical of accepting the generator but took it after I asked repeatedly. So be aware you may not be able to find help incase this generator breaks on you.Update 3/19/2018-So I ran into quite the problem with this generator. About 3 months ago, I started noticing the generator was running much louder than usual. Considerably louder than usual. After further inspecting, online searches etc my brother and I came to the conclusion that the generator was and still is revving itself to run at 110%.. as in, it's trying to overwork itself without any need to do so. After further troubleshooting.. We noticed a small (but developing) leak from the cylinder head... which is not good. I am an intermediate mechanic and am familiar with standard generator use.. changing the oil every 20hrs (per manual), cleaning the air filter regularly, using non-ethanol fuel, etc.We reached out to customer service @ Duromax.. they were difficult to get a hold of by phone (always a 20min hold time every single time we call) and very slow to respond to emails. We provided video and photos of the generator acting up and they eventually (2 weeks after initially opening the ticket) sent us a replacement relay which they believed had failed. Upon going to install it, it was the wrong part... it was much smaller than the existing relay. Called customer support again, left voicemails and emails for the reps, finally got a hold of them and they needed photo proof that the part was wrong. I provided the proof.. they realized the factory switched parts on them without notifying them, so another week later they finally sent me a whole replacement panel for the generator because they couldn't track down just the relay. I don't mind extra parts so long as my problem is resolved.. I installed the new panel and it seemed to be fine. But the generator was still noticeably loud. We continued to use it and have once again reached out to them in early March to get this same problem addressed again because we noticed the exhaust was glowing red at night after only 15min of use, with nothing plugged in. So this again meant the generator had a failing system such as a voltage regulator or relay or whatever mechanism keeps track of power output. For a week now I am yet again struggling to get in contact with the representative assigned to my ticket. In the past I have made it repeatedly clear to the tech support that this generator currently powers our new deep water well... without it we can't get water. But my calls for help continue to fall on deaf ears. I've spoken to multiple reps at the support office but they all transfer me back to the same tech guy that has been assigned to my ticket..This is just ridiculous. I am beyond upset that it is so difficult to get simple support for a problem that should have been resolved 3 months ago. I will update this review after I hear from them, but until then, I have lowered my review of this generator from my initial five stars to one star. A good quality product and customer support are two aspects that Duromax should focus on but have failed to do so.-Original review-3/5 stars for the generator's instruction manual4/5 stars for the included accessories (wheels, bolts, pins)5/5 stars for the generatorBought 26 acres in East Texas and am now living out here full time to turn it into a working homestead farm, we are completely off-grid. We use this generator to power our 12x24ft cabin wonderfully -- a small fridge, A/C, computer, tv, phone chargers and other accessories. There are some things you should know about this generator, pros and cons so to speak:Pros:-Fuel efficient (lasts about 10hrs on a full tank at half-wattage usage)-Large capacity fuel tank (close to 10 gallons, I use 89octane and it works well)-Power is fairly steady, does not fluctuate, but we still use a surge protector on our expensive electronic equipment (fridge, computer and tv)-Good engine (runs good, no issues so far and it doesn't use much oil)-Electric start with key, also has manual rope start (electric start is awesome, especially on days when you are sore from work the previous day. The electric start on this genny works well, and is a key start. You get two keys, and so I like to leave one in the genny and one on my own key ring)Cons:-Heavy (this thing is a beast, both literally and it's also written on the generator's top cover. This weighs in over 250lbs, requiring two people to lift it if it needs to be lifted, and if one person is to move it on wheels it can be difficult for smaller size folks.)-Loud (comparing this to a 2nd generator I have, a smaller 4000watt peak, this generator is slightly louder, but that can be expected because it's twice the size of my 2nd gen)-Included accessories are absolutely garbage (the wheels are no-flats, meaning they don't have air valves, but they are cheapy tires. if the generator is left in one spot for over a few hours, the tires are "dented" flat and don't reform for hours, which makes it very difficult to move the generator on wheels because the tires are dented -- see pictures. it's absolutely ridiculous.-The included instruction book is very outdated -- it still refers to the wheels as inflatable with valves, and it has directions that are incomplete and lacking, which will confuse novice generator users that don't have working knowledge of an engine.-Did I mention this thing is heavy? It's very difficult to move on unleveled land (ie a farm, or in the woods, or mountains). But if you were to just keep it in one place permanently, this generator would be fine for that.Things you'll need to do once you receive this generator:-Add engine oil (the genny ships without oil, so have some on hand (it takes close to 2 quarts))-Connect the negative battery terminal (it ships with it disconnected) (you also may need to charge the battery before you use the generator, as it could be near-dead or dead)-Add fuel (I use 89octane, 87 would work, but I use 89 in all of my machines and equipment because it tends to run better)If you're planning on using this generator to power a travel trailer, know that it will work very well for that purpose. We used this with a 33ft 2010 travel trailer that we lived in on our farm for a few months and it worked very well. Powers all of the goodies (ac, microwave, general electric etc) without tripping any breakers or blowing any fuses. Our much smaller generator was not able to run all of the goodies at one time, so it was great to be able to use this generator to power the trailer. You'll just need a few 30amp extension cords so that you can put the generator further away from the trailer, and you'll also need a 30amp female to 15amp male adapter in order to plug the travel trailer into the generator. (there is no 30amp outlet on the generator, which is why you need the adapter). We are now selling our trailer because we need the $$ for other things and have moved into a wood cabin which is more simple and energy efficient for our needs.Once our home is built, this generator will be converted to a back-up generator for our future solar powered system - we expect it will be sufficient for that use. Overall, I recommend this generator for the price -- just know that the wheels are garbage and will likely need to be replaced if you plan on moving the generator, and that this genny is fairly loud. They claim 68db for loudness, but I think it's much louder than that (I play guitar and have some experience with sound/recording/volume etc) -- not sure where they got 68db from.

I bought this in 2018 and it's sat since. I never put oil or fuel in it, never even connected the battery for electric start.Then Hurricane Ian hit. Once I added gas and oil, and found the key, it started right up. I figured the electric start wouldn't work because it had sat for 4 years. So, pull the starter rope a couple times, fired right up. Handled our fridges and freezer easily, plus whatever else I threw at it. Best hot shower ever! Electric start wouldn't work until I connected the battery (my fault entirely!) but once I did, it made starting even easier.my only complaint? The tires. Sat for so long they went flat - they're filled with something solid (sand?), but there's a flat spot that makes the generator a bit harder to move. Not impossible, just mildly inconvenient.Once hurricane season ends, it'll be time to put the generator back into storage. I'm glad I had it, though I hope I never have to use it again because of a hurricane.