Ramsond Generators and Invertors

Re: Ramsond Generators and Invertors

just a suggestion from an old fart - you get what you pay for. 1) How long have they been around? especially in this economy, if they go under, 2) where will you go for parts?

Prices seem great, and i'm not electronically literate enough to offer any opinion on the gen side of their product, but prices sure seem to indicate low end chinese assembly, which doesn't necessarily mean bad, it depends on what they spec'd and how well they QC what they receive, but back to the 2nd question above.

personally, i'd stay with a known name that has a rep for quality, ie Milwaukee, Honda or Makita, (for a few examples). I've seen some posts here where folks seemed happy with the Honeywell brand, which kind of surprised me, as i didn't think honeywell did anything in the way of gens.

you'll pay more, but you'll be getting a known quantity & quality. I got lucky - almost bought a junk bucket of a generator at Costco - they had some coleman BlackMax or Powermax (forget which) that had all the bells & whistles for a heckuva price $950 - 7800 surge watts (which was more than i wanted) and a 11 hp honda electric start engine (battery included) - the 11 hp is weak for that much wattage so that was a signal. It had a huge tank (big big plus) and even had the wheel kit, all for under $1000

got home, googled, and found coleman had gone into bankruptcy, and folks on one forum (about 30 of them) were complaining their gen head windings were throwing off between 5 - 11 hours of use. Pramax, the outfit that had bought them at bankruptcy, was taking calls from coleman customers and while they wouldn't honor any coleman warranty, they would sell them a replacment gen head, actually telling folks they were using the same gen head. That told me all i needed to know about PraMax - and i think they've gone under or changed names, as i haven't seen them around recently.

Northern Tool has a great in house line-= their Northstar units are completely assembled here in the US, use Honda engines, and are reasonably priced. I just posted my experience and one of a bud's needing a repair at http://forum.solar-electric.com/showthread.php?t=9774.

i don't know that i'd be too strong about ryobi - i've had some of their tools, and have a tablesaw of theirs i swear by, but for the most part, their cheap construction, IMHO - i do a lot of woodworking as a hobby, and have burnt up some tools, some from overworking em and some not.

I got lucky and found a makita 5800W surge, electric start etc that had very few hours on it, for $1150 on ebay - seller was less than 1 hour away so i was able to inspect in person. They retail for $2200. It just got it's first workout here when IRene came thru - we were without power for 1.5 days so it got it's break in. But point, with the makita, i know it won't give me one more watt than 5800 on surge (that's makita) but it will definitely give me that 5800w and 4800W all day long.

you're going to get what you pay for

One other item - buying now, right after one hurricane blew thru, and another apparently looking like it wants to come thru, on the east coast - is the worst time to look for a deal or good price on a generator - every seller is going to be at retail plus, if they can

FWIW

Re: Ramsond Generators and Invertors

Looks like a private label clone. I wouldn't buy one, unless it was nearly free, and I didn't need to rely on it.

I have a neighbor who had a Kipour that was "just like a Honda", until it went south, and no one would fix it. My hondas chug along just fine, year, after year.

Tony