Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After doing extensive research on line I bought the Westinghouse iGen1200 super quiet portable inverter generator. I plan to use it to keep my travel trailer battery charged when camping in the woods or on cloudy days. The generator arrived at my home on the day scheduled. I expected to have to sign for it, but the UPS guy just rang the doorbell and left it on my doorstep. My garage door was open and I'm sure he could tell that someone was at home. The Amazon shipping box appeared to be in good condition. When I opened it I was surprised by how little padding Amazon had placed around the generator box, and that the generator was lying on its side. There were no markings on the Amazon box for "this side up", so I'm not sure in what orientation it was transported. I opened the Westinghouse box and removed the plastic bag containing a large printed manual, an emissions warranty, a one page quick-start guide, and a bonus item card. I removed the top cardboard insert that contained an oil funnel, a spark plug wrench and handle, and a small bottle of 10w-30w engine oil. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the generator itself was in a clear plastic bag and was protected by a foam insert on the sides and bottom. I removed the generator from the box and set it on a table for inspection. The housing, rubber feet, and other exterior components looked good with no breaks, scratches, gouges, etc. The generator looked brand new, as it should. I followed the quick start guide in preparing the generator for the initial start. I removed the side maintenance panel to add engine oil. Having read the other posts about this unit I did not just dump the entire bottle of oil into the engine. I added a little at a time until the level was at the top of the dipstick when it was screwed in. The supplied funnel worked great! See picture for how much oil was left in the oil container after the engine was filled. I liked that the plastic oil dipstick had an o-ring seal. I looked at the carburetor fuel line and fittings. I removed the spark plug access panel and carefully removed the spark plug wire from the plug. I felt the spark plug to make sure it was tight and found no looseness or wobble. I replaced the spark plug and side access panels. Leaving the ignition switch in the OFF position, I pulled on the starter cord about a dozen times to spin the crankshaft and splash lubricating oil around inside the engine. I filled the fuel tank with premium, non-ethanol gasoline (Valero had it) and slid the choke lever to the choke position. The Efficiency Mode Switch was in the off position. I turned the ignition switch / fuel valve to the ON position and waited a minute to allow fuel to reach the carburetor. I pulled on the starter cord a few times with no results. I moved the choke lever a tad to the left to open the choke a little and pulled on the starter cord again. This time the generator started right up. After a few seconds I moved the choke lever slowly to the fully open position. The engine continued running relatively smoothly, although with an occasional misfire. I moved the Efficiency Mode Switch to the ON position and listened as the engine slowed down in speed. Again the idle was fairly smooth, but with an occasional misfire. After the engine ran for a few minutes and seemed to be warmed up I moved the Efficiency Mode Switch to the OFF position and then plugged in an AC electric heater. This heater has three positions; 250 watts, 500 watts, and 1500 watts. I turned the heater dial up to maximum output and then put the heater mode switch into the 250 watt position. The engine changed speed as it picked up the load, and ran much smoother under load than it did at idle. I turned the heater to the 500 watt position and again the engine picked up a little more speed and ran smoothly. I let the generator run with the 500 watt load for a few minutes then turned the heater off. I did not try the 1500 watt heater load since I didn't want to intentionally overload the generator. I have another 3-stage electric heater and I intend to use both heaters so I can test the generator at 750 watts and at 1000 watts. I'll add to this review when I get that done. I really like that this generator has a combination Engine RUN switch and fuel valve. When I was ready to stop the generator I turned the knob to the OFF position but the generator kept running. To turn the generator off immediately I had to turn the knob a little farther. As a test I turned the knob to the ON position and re-started the generator, then turned the knob to the OFF position and waited. It took a minute or so but eventually the engine was starved for fuel and it stopped running. [Update 10/16/2018: I tried this again today and the engine immediately shut off when I moved the large yellow ON/OFF knob to the OFF position. I'm guessing that what happened the first time was just a fluke. However, by removing the electrical connector from the small blue switch near the bottom of the air cleaner (see picture), the engine will stay running until it runs out of fuel even when the ON/OFF knob is turned to the OFF position. This switch looks fragile, so I was very careful not to damage it while sliding the connector off. With the connector removed and the ON/OFF knob turned to OFF I restarted the engine. It takes a few minutes, but the engine will eventually run out of fuel and it will stop.] Inside the garage the generator seemed to be a little on the noisy side. Not so much the engine exhaust, but a general higher-frequency rattling / metal-rubbing-against-metal sound. I moved the generator outside and walked about 30 feet away. Still fairly noisy, IMHO. I'll get a dB meter app for my phone and take some readings. It will probably meet its published noise specs, but if it doesn't I'll post the results here. Of course we all want these things to make power like my travel trailer solar system does - silently!