ETQ TG32P12 4000 Watt 7 HP 207cc 4-Cycle OHV Gas Powered Portable Generator (Non-CARB Compliant)

excellent small inexpensive generator
I bought this generator in late June 2008 while living north of Houston, Texas, just in time to try it out and have it on hand for the hurricane season, and I was so glad I did! I always shopped around very carefully, and this was the least expensive generator for the output, and with several plug options. It has two standard two-prong 110V plugs with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrrupter), a three-prong 110V plug, and also a four-prong 220V plug (I had a heavy duty cord made special with the 220V plug on the generator and used the same style for a new plug I installed to feed directly into my well and house system).

I suppose if you are using a generator for work or all the time, you might buy a more expensive model that MIGHT perform better or last longer, but this generator was perfect for what I needed. Plus, they offered free shipping, and it arrived within five days of ordering. It was really a great deal!

The generator ran perfectly for our needs. I had a new plug installed on our water well and had a heavy duty male-male cord made so I could plug one end into the 220V plug on the generator and one into the 220V electric line to our well. I just kept this generator at our well house, and when the power went off, I could start the generator, plug it in, and cut off the main power breaker at our meter, and the generator would power everything at the well and in the house.

This generator sounded like it was a little rough running when it first started, but we never had a problem. It uses a little oil, as the air filter has an oil drip, but this is common... you just have to have an extra quart or two on hand, and check it once a day if you are running it all the time. Like most generators, it is a little awkward to try to pour into the oil fill hole, and a small funnel is helpful (I added a short piece of clear flexible tubing to a small funnel, and it worked great). I believe it has a low-oil shut-off, so if the oil gets low it will shut down (to prevent running with little or no oil)... at least it did this once, and after I checked and added oil, it ran perfectly.

The 4000W model ran our water well, pressure pump, and everything in the house except the clothes drier or air conditioner. It even ran our computers, wireless modems, and the HughesNet satelite internet system (I also had a small surge-protector & backup power supply that sensitive equipment was plugged into, to prevent any possible surges), so we remained connected to the outside world via the internet, even when all other power, phone and cable land lines (and even cell-phone towers after a few days) went down. When Hurricane Ike went over the top of us and we were without electricity for a week, I would run this generator for two to three hours three or four times a day to keep the refrigerator and freezer cold, did a load of laundry a couple mornings (lucky the weather nice wnough to hang it out to dry) and we would watch a movie during the evening run. Fuel consumption averaged between three and four hours per gallon of gas.

I was very pleased with it. It is light weight, and the wheels and handle made it easy to move. And another thing I like is that it is made in the USA, and the nice people I talked to in Ohio were great to send a new air filter (for a reasonable price) when I lost mine one a year later. It was a great purchase.

-- Nick Sheedy ,
John Day, Oregon

Second time is (hopefully) a charm.
I received my ETQ TG32P12 generator on August 17th. I took it out of the box (the sides of the generator are right up against the sides of the box) and immediately noticed one of the rubber motor mounts was torn. I figured no big deal so I put on the feet and then started on the wheels when I noticed that the metal leg that leads to the motor mount on the side with the control panel was broken into 2 parts. I stopped and went in and called Eastern Tools. I received a message (this was during posted service hours) that said " Hello. Thank you for calling. Goodbye." I thought I had called a wrong number so I called it again and heard the same message. I then e-mailed Eastern and described the broken parts and asked what I should do at this point. As of this writing I have still not heard from them. After the phone calls to Eastern, I called Amazon and got through to a rep who said he would get back to me within 24 hours about getting a new generator/refund. Well after 24 hours, I contacted Amazon again and they finally replied that they were shipping me a new generator and how to send the broken one back. I received the new generator today, August 20th. I put it together and ran it for about an hour and everything seemed fine. As noted in many other reviews, the oil is difficult to add and it does take slightly less than a quart before overflowing. It ran fine and I powered up a couple of small items with no problem. I had to take the old generator back to a UPS store (about an 8 mile trip) with the return label Amazon sent me but that went fine. I bought this generator after reading many of these reviews but I am now skeptical about it lasting very long after seeing it up close. I would like to thank all of you that have written reviews on this product and will update this when my power goes out and I have to use this generator for real.

Rough Start
Ordered the ETQ (TG32P12) 4000 Watt Generator last month, shipment was a few days early, assembly was quick w/easy to follow directions. I added the correct amount of oil and when I attempted to fill the gas tank, that's when the problems started. As I was adding gas, I noticed that it was leaking back out around the pipe fitting that was pressed in on the bottom of the tank. Investigation revealed that the pipe was not properly installed. I called ETQ (Eastern Tools & Equipment), I was prepared for a fight in order to get this tank replaced, but to my surprise all they asked for was copy of the sales receipt, and they would ship a new tank out immediately. I received the new tank in two days, installed it in a matter of minutes, filled it with gas, and started the generator on the second pull. I connected my 8.5 Amp Pool Pump to the generator, started the pump, and did not notice that it loaded down the generator at all. I ran the pump for five (5) hours, change the oil and notice no metal in the used oil as reported by others. Overall I'm satisfied with my purchase.

Damaged - no user manual
The generator arrived damaged. There was no user manual. The hardware (that normally would come in closed plastic bags) was strewn on the bottom of the box outside opened plastic bags. The fuel hose connecting the gas tank and the carburetor was disconnected. Buy this generator only if you are willing to put up with a lot of headache and are mechanically adept.

Complete bait and switch DO NOT BUY!

I bought this generator to power a pop up camper that had an A/C unit.
I was told that I needed at least a 2500 watt generator to power it along with lights and other little power draws, so this generator looked perfect.
What they dont tell you is that the 4000 watt supply they advertise is split between the power outlets so that the breakers will only take about 1350 watts before triggering and powering down. A camper has a single 240 plug that brings all the power to the camper from a single source...this means that even though the ad and box, and EVERY piece of literature that tells you about the generator says it can easily handle 3250 watts with a surge up to 4000 is a flat out lie.

If you have a bunch of different things plugged in and they are all small it might work for you, but this flat out deception is unacceptable, and this generator, and the company that makes it should be boycott for such blatant dishonesty.

I am still trying to get Amazon to let me return it ( I bought it 3 months ago and just found all this out today) so I will have plenty to say about amazon customer service as well, depending on how they decide to handle the situation.

*EDIT: I spoke with Amazon today, and not only did they agree to refund my money, they told me that I could go ahead and just keep the generator since it was non returnable under normal circumstances. I just want to say that all of my complaints above are about the product itself, and the manufacturer.. NOT AMAZON! they dealt with this far better than I could possibly have hoped for.