Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

We had a power outage here a few days ago. It was out for several hours which is unusual. During the outage, it was raining pretty hard and that had me concerned about the sump in our basement. I'm certain that it would take a couple of days of heavy rain for the sump to flood but not having an operative pump caused me concern. Accordingly, I bought an inexpensive Chinese Champion CSA40032 generator. It has 3000W continuous and 4000W surge power. I tested it out today with a 1500 watt continuous load then plugged in and actuated the sump pump. The generator worked just fine. Overall, I'm impressed with the machine. The engine is a Honda GX200 clone. From what I've read, this 196cc engine is produced for Honda in China and, Champion Power Equipment supposedly have a license to manufacture the same engines under their name. According to their advertising, they claim that their engines are built to the same quality and specifications as the Honda GX200, cast iron cylinder, ball bearings and all. After adding fuel and oil, it started on the first pull. A bit of white smoke originally puffed from the exhaust then absolutely clear exhaust after two or three seconds. The engine is very quiet and smooth. I ran it under 50 percent load for an hour and a half on a liter of fuel. I hate to say it but this little generator has impressed me. I think I'll have to take back some of the bad mouthing I've done in the past about Chinese engines. In addition to my initial impressions, my research has revealed that owners of these generators have put many hours on them with very few mechanical issues. One person reported that he has been using one for up to seven hours a day for almost a year with no problems at all. That's encouraging.

Oh, and did I mention the price? I paid $450.00 taxes included, out the door at Chinadian Tire. I checked out a comparable Honda EG3500XK1A (not exactly the same specs but close enough) and it's priced at $1789.95 plus taxes, which comes to 2022.64. Now, I'm not so gullible as to believe that these machines are on the same level. However, I'm also realistic enough to know that the machine I bought will only be used in emergency situations for brief periods of time. Considering that I could buy 4.5 of these machines for the price of one Honda, it truly does make one wonder why a person would shell out that kind of bucks for an iconic brand name and a bit more quality.

Does anyone out there have any comments on these machines?

electricgeneratorsdirect.com (GP3250) running watts 3250.....3750 surge watts....$469.99 free freight&tax free....and I'd rather buy from a company known for its generators and has been in business longer than 7yrs and has a track record.But hey thats me.

mikiewest wrote:
Thanks for the information on the price. Did you happen to find out where the components are made on the GP series? Considering Generac's failure to provide much information on these smaller units, I would not be surprised if the entire machine is being built in China with Generac's name on it. Wouldn't it be ironic if all of the smaller generators being sold by the domestics were actually being built in China and even possibly on the same assembly lines as the Champion units? It's hard to be a brand loyalist these days when you don't know where the product comes from.

While I was in Chinadian Tire the other day, I noticed that every one of their Yardman OPE products had a no-name engine on it. All snow throwers, lawn mowers, tillers and everything else had no-name engines. There wasn't one Briggs, Honda or any other brand of engine on anything. Signs of the times I guess. I think we have to face reality. As much as I don't like to say so, 90 percent of just about everything I buy comes from China. Fishing rods/reels, tackle, tools, tarps, appliances, electrical components, accessories and power tools just to mention some of it. All from China and all of it seems to hold up just fine. We're fooling ourselves to think that we're buying domestic just because it has a familiar name on it. There's a very high probability that product was built in China.

Called Generac and the engine is made in China and the rest of the generator is made in Wisconsin.

Borat if thats the case why pay an extra $200 for a compact ariens when the sno tek made by ariens is an identical model except for a plastic chute and its painted black?The sno tek has a chinese engine and the compact has a B&S engine.But like I said part of the B&S is assembled in China.So is the extra price justifiable because B&S does the final assembly on the engine and u get a metal chute?

Thanks for the update Mikie.

With the proliferation of Chinese components infiltrating almost everything we buy nowadays it's hard to avoid buying Chinese. I've been raising the concern of the Chinese invasion for ten years now. I haven't seen any sign of Chinese built import products slowing down. Actually, it's more prevalent now than ever. So, to answer your question, if our domestic brands are being built in China and they charge extra for the name, I say no. Why pay more for the same product just because it has a familiar name on it? If that same product is still being built on this continent, be it USA or Canada and we are keeping jobs here, I'll pay somewhat of a premium for that but not an arm and a leg either. However, if a domestic brand manufacturer is doing all of it's manufacturing off shore, I will have no problem buying a Chinese brand of comparable specs. Particularly if it's less money. It's gotten to point now that Chinese branded products are as good as many domestic brand names. The more I see domestic manufacturers increasing Chinese built content in their products, the less resistance I have to buying Chinese.

I ran the little generator for a few hours under various loads. Fuel consumption is impressive. At half load it will burn between .5 to .75 liter per hour. I just finished doing an oil change. With three to four hours on the oil, it had some discolouration but still clear. While hot, I ran it through a coffee filter in a funnel and was surprised to see that there was no glitter left behind. If there was, it was beyond my vision to see it out in the sunshine. That's pretty clean manufacturing. I'll still have to do some long term testing but so far, I'm very much impressed.

I say give it a real workout Borat.Get it up to 90% of its max and see how stable it is.I watched some guy on youtube put his generator under heavy load and insert a V.O.M. in the other 120v outlet to see if it would remain at 120v and it stayed was pretty stable.

mikiewest wrote:

I ran a 1500 watt constant load then plugged in a 1/2 h.p. sump pump. The generator barked a bit initially then settled down nicely powering both loads with no problem. Hard to say how long it could keep it up. Only time will tell. So far, I'm impressed.

l know this is off topic a little but thought l would mention it... on my sump pump l have a back up battery system that in the case of a power outage it would still turn the pump on, u can get them for about $100 and up plus a deep cycle battery which is about $100 give or take. its good insurance if your basement is finished... like even if u go away for a weekend good piece of mind.

One nice way to check a unit under load is to see if it puts out about 60 hertz at full load, put a good meter on the unit and see if the voltage and hertz are within opertating limits for the unit, (bad hertz+ noisy power).... you can adjust the top end throttle stop or gov. to meet the Hertz range.

I always had few of those little shop heaters 1500/2500 watts to plug-in for full load.( yah- know the ones that go on sale in summer)


Also, check the GFI on the unit while you are at it, the little plug in tester at Lowes and HomeDepot works good for that, Better safe than sorry.


Good Luck,

Friiy