WEN 2000-Watt Inverter Generator

So I ordered this generator for the specific purpose of powering up my 18 ft. camper batteries (2 deep cycle 6-volt golf cart batteries) during the day so that my lights, water pump and heater would work overnight, so that I could dry camp in the mountains. I took it out for the first time on our 10 day / 9 night family vacation recently. Five of the nine nights we camped without electric and water and the generator operated flawlessly. First, it was easy to get ready. I did have to add oil, but as I change oil in my cars and other smaller equipment regularly this was easy. The oil fill area is easy to get to and well marked. It was easy to learn how to start, and it is easy pull to start it. My 17 year old son easily learned to start and operate it as well. Second, it runs fairly quiet. My in-laws own a Honda and I don't make any claim that this runs as quiet as theirs (but the Hondas are also much more expensive), but it still ran really pretty quiet especially in economy mode, which I used most of the time. Four of the nights we camped in forest service campgrounds with other campers and I was trying to be considerate of them, and for the most part, I do not think they were bothered or even noticed much (I did make sure to run it most of the time during the day). I was running it about 20 ft from our campfire and was still able to have a comfortable conversation with my family. Third, it charged and ran most of my appliances. When it was running all of my camper appliances including our small Microwave worked. The one exception was is the AC unit, but as most of our camping is in the mountains we don't use that unit much, and did not need it at all on this trip. I think it would take 2 of these units hooked up to run our AC. It charged the batteries from about half full to completely charged in under an hour every day. Fourth, it was exceptionally fuel efficient. I filled it before we left on vacation, and I took an extra gallon of gas along. I did not need the extra gallon, because in about 5 hours of running on economy mode it used only 1/4 of the tank of gas! On the whole, I am very pleased with it. As long as I take care of it, I think it will probably last for years to come and make boondock camping much easier. If I run into maintenance problems or if it breaks down in the first few years of use, I will come back and revise this review, but for now it is just what we needed without having to pay the Honda price. Update March 2025: It does more than I expected. I'm not in a power outage lasting more than a day and a half and this little generator has run constantly for over 33 hours. It's been very helpful to have and worked very well. It's now 7 years old and I've used it a number of times when rough camping, and this is now my second power outage. I'd likely buy another Wen product and perhaps get a little bigger one next time. I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth out of this one, and it's still ticking!

I got 2 of these 2000 watt (new style, orange case with the oil fill door on the side) with the parallel kit and covers. So far so good, they both started right up, nice and quiet, on par with the Honda 2000. I first saw this unit in use at an outdoor video screening, it was powering the AV system. The guy also had a Honda 2000 there. I asked him why he didn't have two Honda's, and he replied, I just grab what is at the shop when I leave for an event, and they happened to have the Honda and the Wen. He said he preferred the Wen over the Honda, as the Wen seemed a bit quieter. The noise from this Wen is very muted, more of a dull drone, without any rattly metallic sounds. Doesn't grate on your nerves :) I ran both of them for over an hour as a first test, put a 1550 watt load on each one and they both handled it with no problems. Then put them in parallel mode with the same 1550 watt load, and with ECO on, neither one barely rev'd up at all. Assuming they hold up long term, I am very happy. I confirmed that if you rotate the on/off to the position just before "off" it does shut down the fuel to the carbs, and you can run the carb out of fuel for shorter term storage. The covers are nice and thick with elastic cord at the bottom, looks like they will last a long time. I got the magnetic dip stick replacements to collect any metal particles from engine break in, not sure if this is really necessary, but gives me a sense of protection. The parallel kit, is simply a case to hold the 30 Amp connector with two sets of wires to connect to the two generators. You can use the built in 15 Amp connectors on the generators at the same time the parallel kit is in use, just keep the total load within specs. Next I'll try running my 5th wheel stuff on them, I suspect one generator will have trouble running the microwave, so that is why I got two. That and my battery charger tends to draw around 2000 watts by itself (110 Amp charge rate to the battery banks), so this would also overload just one. It's much easier to load these at 50 lbs a piece into my truck bed, then a single more capable generator at 100+ lbs. Update 9/6/17: I connected up to my 5th wheel and got about the results I was expecting. A single generator would overload after 10 seconds trying to run the microwave, this was a 1650 watt load, just above the sustained rating. Looks like 1600 really is the upper limit for useful work. It had no problem running my small AC unit, this is a 10K BTU, with a 1050 watt load. It did have trouble starting it in ECO mode, but it managed. with ECO off, no issues. Battery charger would overload it almost immediately (as expected, this was a 2000 watt load). Next ran them both in parallel mode, microwave no problem, battery charger no problem, microwave with AC at the same time, no problem. All this was with ECO on. I didn't try the main 15K BTU AC unit, but don't expect any trouble, as I have run this on another 3000 watt generator previously with no issues, and these two together are 3200 watts. I did notice that for a given load between 1000 and 1500 watts, both generators together produced less noise then a single one doing the same work. This was also as expected. If you can afford two, they are quieter, easier to load into a truck, have twice the fuel tank, and more capable than a single one.

Recently purchased two units for parallel purposes. After unboxing first unit, opened gas cap, noticed a strong gasoline smell. Thought the unit may be run tested or something similar, still seemed rather odd that residual gasoline would be left in a unit prior to shipment... Took off side panel to look at oil, unit did have some residual oil left, however; this was very clear oil, so I figured it may be a non-issue. Figured they may be run tested at the factory. Second unit had no such gasoline smell and had nearly no residual oil leaving me to doubt my previous assumptions. While I haven't run tested either at this time, I do have a bit of apprehension about receiving a unit with residual gasoline, barring any safety/shipping concerns, the chance of problems down the line related to gasoline evaporation/deposition is troublesome (Carb failure due to residual gas is major source of failure for all carborated generators). Given that these units do not have hour counters, I am unable to tell if the unit I received was returned, the only saving grace being the aforementioned very clear residual oil Upon running the units I will update my review based on performance. Initial Performance update: 5/28/2016 Oil - 10w30 Pennzoil Platinum Synthetic, 1 quart = about 3 generator fills so cost is negligible Aftermarket Yamaha magnetic dipstick installed http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017CXO7AQ?psc=1 Wen parallel kit http://www.amazon.com/WEN-56421-Parallel-Connection-Generators/dp/B0144O1808?psc=1 L5-30P to 2 5-20R Y cable (wanted for full 20 amp down 25 foot 12 gauge extension cord) First unit started was the one with the gas smell, followed instructions, started up second pull. Followed same instructions for second unit, started right up, though there was a significantly different burning smell with the second unit for awhile after start up. Seemed to dissipate (I'm guessing that is new generator smell burning off assorted residual chemicals in motor, which supports the first unit having being ran at some point prior in its existence). Should note that start up pull is very, very light. Both units stabilized, checked outlets with a box fan, no problems. ECO mode is extremely quiet, but even at full speed, it isn't very loud. Shut em' down, installed the parallel kit (took it apart before hand, simple parallel junction box with no internal breakers). Should note that once the engine has been started and gas has been circulated, don't use the choke per instructions, good way to flood the engine. Started first generator, let it stabilize, started second generator, let it stabilize, checked parallel kit with a box fan, had juice. Ran extension cord to room I would power in a an outage, hooked up a 15,000 BTU 120 volt AC (LG Brand). AC started, compressor kicked on, generators powered through. Standing by the generator, you could hear them buck a bit when the AC started, but it responded quickly. Ran a few other odds and ends without issue which would suffice in an extended power outage. Didn't play around with ECO boost and the AC connected, worked great with power tools though. After running AC for about 2 hours (88 F outside), I shut the units down and looked at the magnetic dip stick. Dark metal fines on the dipstick. I believe this is the black dirt that most folks were seeing in the first oil changes. Cleaned the dipstick, put back in, ran for an hour, cleaned dipstick, repeat. The oil itself was immaculate, dark material was all magnetic. Ran fuel out of generator (started with half tank). Will likely change oil after next run assuming dipstick doesn't show clear. Not worried about this issue, this is a known problem for high end Yamaha's as well (hence the aftermarket magnetic dipstick). Overall I am impressed with the generators (assuming initial burning smell on one unit and residual gasoline in the unit's tank aren't red flags, 2 stars off for that for the time being). Lot of clean power and flexibility for the Money. Power outage performance update: 6-13-2016 Lighting struck near home during electrical storm, lost power. Ran generators in parallel, in ECO mode with the following: 15000 btu window unit, Full size refrigerator, 60 watt lamp, Computer speakers, 2 phone chargers and a tablet. Made a parallel extended run system that can use any generic 5 gallon fuel jug. They did shutter a bit when the AC compressor kicked on, but powered through. I give em' 5 stars now.

UPDATE Feb 12, 2015. This inexpensive generator is doing well. No power outages but to be ready I have: 1. Tested it up to 1500 watts running (space heater). No problem. 2. Tested it with my Samlex battery charger. This is an expensive 50 amp charger and so draws 500 watts max. In the ecomode the generator had no problems supplying that amount of power. I hope to run my furnace and sump pump off my deep cycle storage batteries with an inverter and so avoid having to run the generator all night or get out of bed at 2:00am during a hurricane to set up a generator. The issue is getting an inverter that can play nice with your house circuit wiring (bonded neutral), not simply running appliances directly plugged into it, which seems, so far, difficult for things like your furnace. I really should give this thing 5 stars but I am still bummed I can't get 240 volts to backfeed the house with two running in parallel. They should make that clear. My son in law is an electrical engineer, and he also assumed that could be done (He bought the Honda, and paid 2 1/2 times what I did. "What's the 2nd one for Dad? Spare parts?" Bah. Snarky kids.). So, more accurate advertising, please. Oh, about the noise. My original review stated they were noisier than I expected. It turned out I had the cover improperly attached (open at the base), and that defeated some of the insulation. With the case cover on properly, and in the ecomode, this is really not noisy at all. So, one very pleased customer here. ===================End of Update======================= Bought two when they were on sale. This is my first generator. I was planning on hooking two together and backfeeding into the house. That cannot be done because they produce only 120 volts. A big bummer. However, they arrived promptly and are very nicely made machines. I have only run one machine for a short break in but here is my experience: 1. Customer support: Good. I called about changing the sparkplug, since the manual doesn't discuss their new style of changing the plug via the opening on top of the case. Got a human who was very helpful without waiting. 2. Filling the crank case is a nuisance. Pour the oil in slowly or it will back up. Put tinfoil under the oil filler opening on the floor, and put some paper towels on top of the tin foil to absorb the oil that spills. That will prevent a mess. 3. Being an amateur, I spent most of my time fiddling with the grounding rod. (How do you make one of those?) I finally got it done. I used a green metal fence post from which I ground off the paint to make it conductive. A big nuisance. Then I lost, in the snow, the set screw for the ground connector as I hammered the post into the frozen ground. Good thing I had bought two ground wire connectors. It is now buried in 2 feet of snow under a collapsed bush. I'll find it when I need or next spring. In retrospect, rebar wold work fine. Lowe's sells the ground wire connector, the wire, and the rebar. 4. The generator started on the second pull in 24 degree weather. It powered a 1500 watt space heater without difficulty. 5. It is light enough to be easily carried. 6. It is a bit noisier than I was hoping for, but, not bad. Nowhere near the noise of other, albeit larger, generators. Other advice for amateurs. Be sure you have a gasoline siphon. I was surprised to find after the snow began, that my lawnmower gasoline cans were almost empty.

I bought this several months ago, but only just had a chance to use it this past week while camping, and I couldn't be happier with it. I'll detail my thoughts below in an organized manner. Decision to Buy Before buying, I compared similar units from Honda and Yamaha. All the units are very similar. All support parallel operation (pairing an identical generator for double the effective power), an Eco mode (throttling down to save fuel when the electrical load is low), and have almost identical panels: 2 3-prong 110v, 2-prong DC, and parallel jacks. The only difference being the WEN panel includes a USB port, which I liked. Physically, they are all very similar (again). The Yamaha is the lightest at 44 pounds (dry), followed by the WEN at 48 pounds, and the Honda at 48 pounds (I saw some specs where it listed 50 pounds, but I'm going off Honda's website specifications). All are approximately the same physical size (dimensions are rounded) WEN: 18"x18"x11", Honda: 20"x17"11", Yamaha: 19"x18"x11", making the WEN the smallest overall and the Honda the largest. But honestly, they are so close in size, it didn't matter to me. I found a great video on YouTube where a guy recorded each in identical circumstances and compared the sound. The Honda seemed the most quiet, but both the Yamaha and the WEN were only marginally louder. If they were not being compared side by side, I doubt most people would notice the difference. That leads us to price, where there is a clear winner: WEN. It's almost half the price of either the Honda or the Yamaha, giving it true bargain status. Given they are so similar, and the WEN includes a USB port, it was an easy decision for me. Criticisms / Negatives The most common criticism/negative comments is around the filling of the oil. In my opinion, it could be easier, but it's not as big of a deal as some reviewers have stated. The panel comes off fairly easily after removing 3 bolts (they are nice bolts, not cheap ones). I put a rag around the fill port (just in case) and used a funnel with a flexible neck (rather than the included one). It went fine. I did spill a bit, but the rag contained the small mess easily. By the way, there is a reason the oil fill port is positioned like it is: It protects against overfilling (because the excess just runs out). If you follow the instructions, you will be fine. Some reviewers commented on shipping damage.packaging. I had no issues with shipping and/or packaging. Mine arrived in an intact box with absolutely no damage to the unit whatsoever. Other negative reviews involved claims the unit did not output the rated power. I did not place the unit under any significant load, so I can't comment on that (sorry!). What I'm Happy About I bought the unit mostly for camping and such, and to have on hand at the house in case of emergency. For the camping aspect, it worked flawlessly. It charged several phones and a tablet simultaneously, in addition to running a small music amplifier (~25 watts), and charging an RV battery. I ran the generator for at least 4 hours a day for 4 days, mostly charging the RV battery and small electronics - all on the single gallon of gas in the tank! I estimate the run time at 16-20 hours with the very minimal load I had on it. This is most excellent and exceeded my expectations. In fact, I may not replace my RV battery, and just use the generator instead. I found the unit to be very quiet overall. If I was within 100 feet or so, I could hear it, but it was not bothersome at all and ran very smoothly with minimal vibration. I also found the unit incredibly easy to start. Open the vent on the gas cap, turn the switch to choke, and it started within 2-3 VERY easy pulls every time. The only exception was the very first time I started it after adding oil, which took several pulls (probably to get the gas into the carb). Conclusion I love this unit and very heartily recommend it. My suggestion is that if you truly need a lot of power, either buy 2 and run them in parallel (which is about the same price as the Honda or Yamaha), or buy a larger generator. I say this NOT because I think the unit can't put out the rated power, but rather because running any generator close to the rated limit is just not a smart idea.

In a recent break-in, my Honda 2000i generator was stolen (along with a lot of other items). I needed to replace it. While searching for its replacement, I came across this WEN generator. For the price, I thought I would give it a try. I've now had it for several weeks and ran it through its paces. As I've used my Honda a number of times and am accustomed to its characteristics and the WEN has nearly identical specs, I'll provide a comparison. The WEN is as quiet as the Honda. It is slightly taller but not as wide. The WEN is as easy to start. After adding oil (not included) and filling up the gas tank, it took two pulls for it to start for the first time. The Honda was easy to start too so on this point, they're both equal. I have a heat gun that pulls 1,500 watts on the high setting which I used for load testing. The WEN was slower to go from idle (unloaded) to full RPM as compared to the Honda. However, it did ramp up to speed and had no trouble handling the heat gun. While a heat gun doesn't care about power lag, I think there may be some scenarios where the Honda would have scored higher points transitioning from no load to full load. The WEN is about the same weight as the Honda - maybe one or two pounds difference. I really can't tell as it feels the same weight to me. There's two features I like in the WEN that are absent in the Honda. There is no fuel gauge on the Honda, whereas there is one on the WEN. It's a bit hard to read under lower lighting conditions but, nonetheless, it gives you a reasonable idea of how much gas is left in the tank. Another feature I really like with the WEN is the ability to shut off gas flow to the carburetor and let it run out to let the carburetor empty before storing the generator. This feature is especially useful if you plan to store the generator for several months. It prevents gas in the carburetor from going stale and fouling the carburetor jets, requiring a disassembly and cleaning (which I've needed to do twice to the Honda). So, the big question is the value proposition... will the WEN last as long as my Honda? At this point, I don't know. However, if it lasts half as long then it was worth the purchase price as it is half the price of the Honda. If it lasts as long then it's a better deal in my estimation. I will be sure to update my review from time to time.

This is a solidly made product; an excellent buy and it performs extremely well. I purchased this generator over a year ago but only fired it up as hurricane Mathew was approaching. Following the directions it was simple to set up for running beginning with filling the crank case with oil - one need only remove three screws. You will need a small funnel with a long neck - add the oil in increments so that you don't overfill. Screw the dipstick cap back on and follow the directions for start up. The generator started with one or two pulls of the coil and ran beautifully. While we never lost power during the storm thankfully we have powered blowers and power washers for cleanup. Not only is the generator really quiet and smooth but it still reads three quarters full after about five hours of combined use. I know that two stroke engines will generate a bit more particulates in the oil so just make sure you change the oil on schedule. The eco switch is really handy too - as power drain goes down such as lowering the leaf blower to idle, the generator will power down not only saving gas but getting very quiet. And you can empty the carberator of gas by simply shutting off the air intake valve on the gas tank and letting the engine run dry (it is in the instructions - something so many of the reviewers fail to READ). Please do yourself a favor and read the short booklet all the way through before using. It is also fairly easy to move around. My wife and I are very pleased with it and will be looking for additional uses going forward. If you want a fairly quiet, reliable and well made portable generator ala Honda and don't want to spend the grand the Honda costs, this is for you.

I hope my experience will help you in making a better decision. In other words, never buy this product! My experience was as follows: 1) The unit arrived. I was happy. Unboxed it. Happy. I liked the color and style. A little heavy for my liking but I could deal. 2) Not so happy that oil did not come with it but understood the reason why not. Went to the store, purchased the correct oil. 3) Upon arriving home I consulted the manual on how to add oil for the first time. The manual clearly states put the generator on a level surface and fill the oil fill port with oil. This seemed alright. But to do this you need to REMOVE the side panel? Alright. I unscrewed the 3 screws and took the side panel off. No biggy, I guess I could deal but would make checking the oil before every run difficult. I am a patient individual. Then I noticed the fill port for the oil was basically 2 - 5 degree tilt from horizontal and the dip stick was tiny, basically the "max" fill level is at the point the oil would be dripping out all over the place. Not happy. Not having a funnel that would work for this, I had to go back to the store to buy a long neck funnel. 1 dollar, whatever. Back to home, made sure the gen was level, starting the fill process, but every time you take the funnel out to check the level the oil leaks out.... wow. An absolutely awful design flaw. 4) After filling it to half way to max, I decided any more would leak out anyways. So I cleaned up the mess, and went about putting the oil plug back in place. Well, that proves difficult as the threads were not exact. I am used to threading things in for work, but this was very frustrating. I didn't want to thread that plastic threads on the plug, so was very careful in trying to get it back in place. Eventually, after about 5 minutes or so of messing with it, I was able to find the perfect way of putting it back in place. Don't ask me to repeat that process though. Will probably take 5 minutes again. 5) The side panel doesn't go on very easily. The 3 little plastic slats that are suppose to hold the bottom of the panel are difficult to position correctly to slide back in. The "clips" at the bottom on the gen prevent you from getting the optimal angle to make this ergonomically feasible. 5) So, 3 design flaws so far, and I am ready to start the little guy. Well, that didn't turn out as planned. I followed the directions. It started after about 7 pulls. I turned the knob to the "on" position and after running for a minute.... "sputter".... "sputter"..... off. Hummmm. Alright, so I restarted it again.... nope. I pulled and pulled. No starting it. I let it sit over night and it started right up the next day. Great! I let it run for 10 minutes thinking that was the end of the frustrations. Nope. I turned it off, took it to my job site. I unloaded, let it sit for a few minutes. Tried to start it..... wouldn't start! Wow. Ok maybe it was flooded or whatever. I waited 20 minutes. Tried to start it.... nothing. 4th try attempting to start the bugger, THE HANDLE BROKE OFF on the pull cord! WHAT?! Only 30 pulls and it breaks right off? 6) I was done. Returned for a full refund. Had to pay for the boxing of this unit, no fault of the product or Amazon, but yet another expense attributed to bad engineering and testing. Another brand on my radar that wont have these incredible failures. And if I ever see this brand name again I will be sure to run very fast and very far away from it! Complete waste of your time, even for calm well mannered mechanically inclined individuals such as myself.

Engine Manufacturer: Chongqing Rato Technology Co., Ltd Engine Family: GCRPS.0805GA EPA Evap Family: GCRPPHHEQDDD Rebadged by NAPA Auto (BE2000), Harbor Freight (Predator 2000) and Mi-T-M (GEN-2000-ODMO). I’m fairly certain the Powerhorse 2000 is the same as well but the case does look slightly different. Unsure on that one but the other three are obvious re-badges. There might be more out there, who knows. Some notes from the engine manufacturer below. I suspect they make the generator windings, inverter and board as well but not 100% sure. "RATO was founded in June, 2007 with total investment of 3.6 billion RMB, and covers an area of 460,000m2. With the philosophy of lean-manufacturing, professional general-purposed engine and All-Terrain vehicle assembly factory, key parts pressing-welding and coating factory, plastic injection and molding factory, and machining factory were built which produce 300 million units of engines and terminals, 300,000 units of motorcycles and ATVs, as well as 1,200,000 vehicle engines annually." Elusive Specs?? Mi-T-M indicate that the alternator is made of brass windings. It is possible each of these rebadged versions are made to different spec but I highly doubt it. So, I suppose the alternator windings on the WEN are brass? Mi-T-M also claim THD of 3% but WEN claim “total harmonic distortion to under 0.3 percent at no load and under 1.2 percent at full load”. Perhaps an electrical engineer or similarly qualified person could chime in on the difference? Perhaps one of the manufactures are confused on their description? Operation The sound on this gen is reasonable. No rattles or other annoying sounds. Photos attached on sound level from a phone app. The sound levels may or may not be accurate as it is a simple sound meter app but it gives you an idea. The sound level was recorded from 8ft away and 5ft high with the gen sitting on the ground. Pics attached: Eco Idle muffler pointing away, Eco Idle muffler facing and running 1540w/1250w load with muffler facing. The Yamaha Sidewinder parallel cable would not fit the parallel ports on this generator. The cable bungs were slightly too large of diameter. I think others have stated the Honda cable works but I’ve never tried one. I'm not a huge fan of the bulky, cable-box style parallel kits for pairing up inverter generators. I ended up settling on the Westinghouse cable as I didn’t want to Frankenstein a cable together. Also, I like that the Westinghouse cable has the TT30 plug, two standard 20 amp plugs and could be extended with cords if desired (10ga would be safe). Westinghouse Cable: Westinghouse WHPC Inverter Generator Parallel Cord - Compatible with Westinghoues WH2000i, WH2000iXLT, and WH2400i Inverter Generators Yamaha Claims of Comparison I am unable to find any definitive proof that this motor is a “Yamaha clone” as is perpetuated in a lot of the reviews. There are some differences to note: the spark plug on this motor is the “Honda” plug. Yes, the drain/fill plug has the same thread as the Yamaha but the Yamaha holds an extra 47mL of oil in the crank case. I am unable to find bore/stroke info on the WEN/RATO motor but Yamaha indicate their displacement at 79cc in the manual but 80cc in the EPA test. WEN/RATO describe their motor as 79.7cc which aligns with the EPA test data. Does anyone have some real proof these motors “are made in the same factory assembly line” as the Yamaha? It’s not that big a deal if it isn’t a “Yamaha clone” so long as the motor is reliable. Personally, I think it is a bit disingenuous to attach Yamaha’s name to the motor if it truly isn’t a “clone”. Same steel, crank, bearings, valves, piston, rings, etc. as the Yamaha? I’m dubious. I’d love to be proved wrong. EPA comparison data attached. This gen seems to be very close or better than the Yamaha in all sections. I am unsure why the Yamaha is listed as "Alternative Useful Life". These EPA tests intrigue me but I wonder how much correlation should/could be attached to longevity or reliability from the results? Maybe someone else who knows more could chime in but it seems the RATO motor is a very capable motor based on the EPA tests. Alternator/Inverter No idea on the comparison to Yamaha. I was unable to find any real data on how they are built. I am unable to find Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) data in the Yamaha manual. As mentioned earlier the winding on the WEN are most likely brass. The "guts" of the inverter inside the generator are not shielded or encased in any way. Maybe that's good? Unsure. Perhaps someone could test the Yamaha and WEN to compare? I wonder if the THD figures are different on the Ver2 of the Yamaha? Unsure. Conclusion The generator appears to work great. I hit the gen with a 1540w/1250w load from eco and the gen throttled up just fine to support the load. I haven’t done any “time trials” but it ran that load for about 10 min before I switched off the heater. I’ll try to find something I can test right at 2000w/1600w at some point in the future but this heater is the closest I could get to the gen’s power rating. Sound is very reasonable and appears in-line with manufacturer statements. There were no rattles or errant sounds from the gen, just engine/muffler hum. Overall, first impressions are good with this gen. I have my fingers crossed with longevity but others seem to be having good luck with them. I hope that is the case for me. Compared to the more expensive Honda and Yamaha units, the hope is that I get at least 5 years of use out of this. I anticipate ~50hrs of use per season. On that calculation, I would average ~$84/year on this gen (not accounting for fuel). The Yamaha would be ~$186/yr and the Honda would be ~$200/yr. I have heard of people getting 10+ years on their Honda units. I don’t think the Yamaha has been around quite as long but the quality is certainly there on Yamaha. If this gen were to go 10 years it would be an absolute diamond in the rough. Regardless, this is a gen worth considering. Buy with confidence. 6/14/17 - Update Both of my units developed fuel leaks. At first, I thought the fuel leak was my fault because I overfilled or something but the other one had leaked ~1/4 of its filled tank when I checked the unit in the morning. I was very disappointed that I had an issue with leaking fuel on two different units. It is still strange they both developed the leaks within such short time from each other. Weird. Sometimes you gamble and lose. Hats off to Amazon for accommodating the returns. Amazon absolutely rocks. I bit the bullet and went with a Yamaha setup. YMMV.

I currently have a Yamaha EF2000is. I saw the WEN on hot deals recently and couldn't pass it up for the price. I could have bought two of these and had change for what I paid for the Yamaha. The reason that I purchased the WEN is that the engine is a Yamaha clone, it's very similar inside, and the wiring diagrams are virtually the same so that I believe I can parallel the two generators. It's made in China, but the Yamaha has a label inside that it's made in China also. Smarter tools also has the Yamaha engine but they lablel theirs "Powered By Yamaha". I don't know if WEN licenses this engine or if it's a knockoff. I'm betting that both units might be made side by side in the same Chinese factory. I've received it and have run it a couple of days and really like it. First of all it's very attractive. Inside it seems to have nearly the quality level of the Yamaha although there are differences. The engine is the same design but it has a dipstick whereas the Yamaha only has a plug. The spark plugs use different size wrenches. The inverter on the Yamaha is cased but the circuit board components are open on the WEN. One thing I like about the Yamaha that's missing on the WEN is the little door that allows you to access the oil fill hole without removing the entire side cover. I oiled it and gassed it and then pulled the starter rope a couple of times slowly. Then I pulled twice and it started. I ran it through several short cycles with varying load and then cooldown to break it in. Then I ran it side by side with the Yamaha testing it with the same loads. I believe the Yamaha is marginally quieter but not by much. When on autothrotte the Yamaha responds to load faster whereas the WEN would blink it's overload lamp for a few seconds while catching up to a 1,500 watt load from idle. But really there seems to be very little difference in the performance or noise levels of the two units. Also the WEN is a couple of pounds heavier. Update 04/01/2017 - A couple of years ago I gave away my Onan generator in my class C motorhome and replaced it with more batteries, a charger/inverter, and solar panels. I boondock always and never hook up. I don't want to start a generator every time I want to use the microwave or make a pot of coffee. I carry the WEN56200 in the coach for when solar isn't enough and I'm not driving enough to charge the battery bank from the vehicle generator. I fire up the WEN and run it at 90% load (I've added a tachometer) for a couple of hours. I never carry extra gas for it as I've never come back from a camping trip where I had used half of it's tank. After a year, the WEN still works great and starts right up every time. My Yamaha EF2000is has been gathering dust in my shop. I ran it several hours yesterday powering a 40 amp battery charger charging the two 12 volt batteries on my big truck. It purred away on 1/4 throttle and you could hardly hear it from 50 feet away. I just received the WEN parallel kit and spent yesterday parallel testing the WEN56200i with my Yamaha EF2000is. Both gensets paralleled with no problems. They shared the load well with almost identical RPMS. Both gensets held a nice steady 60cps standalone or paired. The max that I could load the paralleled gensets was 3,000 watts before the overload light came on the WEN. The Yamaha is just a bit stronger. See the attached picture. Ran them with two 1,500 watt heater at various settings as well as my air compressor. The little known secret is that any brand inverter generator that is parallel capable can be paralleled with any other brand. Honda, Yamaha, WEN, Smarter Tools, Etc.