XG-SF2000 Review - XG-SF3000 Review

Inverter Generator Review

Thinking of buying an inverter generator?  Do yourself a favor and buy something else. Honda or Yamaha is a great choice and worth the extra cost.  We purchased two of these cheap generators and it ended up costing us more then it would cost to buy a Honda for example and I’m sure we would not have so many problems with it if we did. Now it is time for our Review on the Inverter Generator models XG-SF2000 and XG-SF3000.

We used to be a Kipor Inverter Generator dealer so we are very familiar with these types of generators. Two of us where involved in the test. One of us has a mechanical, electrical and technical background and the other an automotive, parts, generator and hands on experience who is involved in hands on generator repairs and service.

We noticed many companies all selling the same looking thing. We looked further in to it and found out  they are all from the same China company. Just a different sticker on them.

There are two ways to check who it really comes from. One is the sticker on the engine. The EPA certificate often tells you the name of the engine manufacture and the model number.   We found they all say Yongkang Xingguang Electrical Manufacture. The second is from the CSA. CSA will let you put any name on it but the model number must stay the same so we searched the model number and found it.   call comes from the same company. We even got a copy of the certificates.

We also wanted to sell them so we contacted the manufacture and started the purchase process.  They where very quick to respond and produce an invoice for us but they refused to include spare parts to fix them if they fail.  This is almost unheard of.  No parts kits.

The final agreement is we would buy spare parts.  We gave in.   Suspecting no other company would do this we contacted many other dealers looking for spare parts for common things that fail and non of them had any and most would not respond. Not even the company we where about to spend tens of thousands of dollars with would supply parts not even defective ones.   Since asking over a week ago before completing or order even, they have not responded and offered horrible technical support to date.

We went ahead anyway because we have the ability to service them but we would just require parts.  We purchased 2 sample units and this is what happened.

When it fist arrived we where impressed with the packaging but it all went down hill from there.

Like most products from China the manual and stickers on the generator are hard to understand.   English documents should be left to someone who understands the language when you manufacture a product for sale in North America. Clearly customers would have problems with it. The print quality was also poor.

The first generator was the XG-SF2000 2000 Watt Inverter Generator.  Following the poor instructions we learned whe had to prime it by pumping it 50 times. That is what the instructions said to do.

And you guessed it, we flooded the engine.   OK so we removed the park plug and let it dry out then started again. Closed the choke and pulled the recoil starter some 15 times before it started and stalled again.  The choke is very sensitive and requires a LOT of adjustments during the starting process to get it working.  Finally we found the magic position and ran the generator for 10 minutes.  Turned it off and have have not really be able to get it started ever again.    OK perhaps it was just me…….   Maybe I got a lemon so I took the second one the XG-SF3000 to my partner and had him open the box and set it up.

XG-SF3000 Review

Same problem, prime it 50 times as per the instructions. Get it started and it stalled.  It has never ran again since.  This time we did all the normal checks.  Check for fuel, we had it, checked all valves open, they where.   Check for spark there was none !!   We thought perhaps being out of the engine it may just be to weak to see so we put it back in and tried starting again.  No luck.

Be warned.  The cover over the  engine is a very poor design in our opinion .  If you are not careful the spark plug will fall and land between the engine and the enclosure and require extensive disassemblly  to get it out.

Virtually all screws, nuts and bolts removed had to be replaced. They are of such poor quality and soft metals they ALL strip. (photos to follow)  Some stripped just trying to open the case and had to be broken off to open it up.  It gets worse.

(We have a lot more photos to add here and some other interesting findings. Will continue edit and update here with it later today.)

Note that the brains of the generator, the part that controls the engine speed and the output power can never be serviced. It is filled with epoxy. If you have an electrical problem, toss the generator way. You can’t service it.

At the end the problem was this ignition control board that not one single dealer, supplier or even the manufacture  has responded to any calls, emails or requests for us to PURCHASE the defective part.

Right now ALL the hardware that was used or disassembled has had to be replaced. ALL screws and threads are stripped.  VERY very cheap quality metals are used.  Horrible quality.   Thankfully there is a local hardware store around so most parts we could replace but still stuck with two generators that don’t work.

Remember we have 2 of these. All brand new and we are experts in generator sales and service. We even designed many of our own products we sell today.  So far we have had 100% failure rate with these.  What are the chances that you will get one that works?

After two weeks of trouble on these brand new generators we finally fixed it with no support from anyone. We feel it is a product defect and design issue.

If you have a low oil pressure condition it signals the ignition control board to send a signal to the ignition coil and disable it so you get no spark and the engine stalls. It is for safety.   BUT, the oil pressure sensor and wiring is fine. We can even disable the oil pressure sensor but the control board does not care.  It still acts like there is no oil pressure and sends a signal to the ignition coil to stop working.  We modified it and disabled it and it now works again.

To date it is a 100% failure rate with all the ones we tested. Provided you can get used to the tricky choke settings, don’t over prime and flood the engine, starting is easier now and we kind of have a working generator now.

We do not feel any customer will accept having to open it up and butcher it to make it do what it should have done right out of the box.
In closing, it is scary that no one can support it, not a single company returned any calls or e-mails and no parts availability.  The hardware is made of soft metals and easily stripped.  The enclosure is soft plastic that will never close correctly again.   Very disappointed in this product and it does not matter what company wants to put their name on it it is all the same junk.

This entry was posted on 22. June 2009 at 06:57 and is filed under Generator Reviews, Gas Generators, USA News, Canada News, News, Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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