Customer Reviews for Sportsman 1,000-Watt Recoil Start Gasoline Powered Portable Inverter Generator with Parallel Connection - CARB Approved

Please advise? Greatly anticipating the receipt of my "new" Sportsman 1000i, upon carefully opening the box it smelled of gasoline. Further investigation revealed oil in the engine? Nothing looked unusual before opening the box. The unit was sold to me by Home Depot as a new unit and it appears that I was sent a reconditioned or used unit? I will not fill with fuel or oil and hope that I can get a refund or an NEW unit to fulfill the need I have for my purchase? If I will receive a unit in the same "used" condition, please let me know so I can get a refund. Please advise, obviously I am a bit concerned. Thank you for a prompt response, I need to decide what I should do?

Like others...I had high hopes. I have big generators and only wanted this small one for small occasional task. It was very light and very quite running. Very impressed at first. I purchased about 18 months ago and only used it once or twice for a few minutes. So yesterday, I needed to charge my boat battery, so pulled it out, cranked up just fine and ran about 15 minutes. Walked back to check on things and it was not running. Checked gas and oil and all is perfect. Tried to pull the rope and its tighter then Dicks hat band. Engine appears to be totally locked up. Might have been my second tank of gas if that. And of course just out of warranty. I guess it will make a great boat anchor now! So beware, and have a backup plan....you are next! I wish the company had a way to verify how little time I have on this generator ( I still have the box and all) and would offer to assist.

According to the instructions, and all the stickers in the generator, the generator has a surge of 1000 watts and 800 watts continuous. I tried using a small 500-watt space heater during the first snowstorm in El Paso. The generator was not capable of doing such a thing. The space heater has a surge of 800 watts and uses 500 watts continuous, way below what the generator should be able of. Also, the generator is producing white smoke through the exhaust. I emailed the warranty, almost a week ago from the post of this review, with no answer. I will try calling in tomorrow.

Excellent small and quite generator that puts out the power. I added oil and gas, pulled the cord 3 times and it fired right up ! Built well and I really like the features it offers. All this at a great price ! I shopped other brands and the Sportsman won out. Very happy with my purchase.

Bought new from homedepot for $399 3 days ago, received today, checked it and it has drops of new oil and exhaust is burned, looks like refurbished, so immediatley returned.

My wife said to order this for my Father’s day gift so I did. Ordered June 14th received in Hawaii on June 22nd. Bought the oil which it didn’t come with, and got the propane. Started up fine until I found out that the USB port and the 12v battery port wasn’t working right. I was thinking since I had a load on the AC port with a light connected, that the DC ports will not work, so I shut it down checked the DC Protector button to see if it was in a off position, and started it up again, it was a no go on both ports. Checked the 12v battery charging port with a multimeter and it measured an output of 1.6 DC volts(this might kill battery instead), the USB port had zero power, even with different cables. I went to their online support website and guess what, the websites down. After wasting time for money on oil and propane, plus going through the break in process, I was debating if I should returned it. June 24th the next morning, I took one more last shot of looking at, opened the oil drain side panel(which I should not be dong in the first place) to find a connector disconnected right below a QC Passed Sticker! *See Picture* After putting everything back together checked the ports again and success! DC ports work! Maybe that's why Honda is expensive you pay for better quality control.

Seems to be decent quality but died after about 15 minutes. You have to remove the side cover that is screwed in just to check the oil. It started surging then pouring smoke out of the exhaust. I used good oil and fresh non ethanol fuel. Guess you get what you pay for.

Really wanted to love this little generator. Liked the size and weight and seemed to fill a need nicely. Although, after initial One hour run time, first oil change and two hours later it would not stay running. Engine oil turned extremely dark with lots of metal shavings after initial change. The engine appeared to be seizing after one hour under part load @ 200 watts. Even used the recommended NGK spark plug... Took the shot in spite of some of the negative reviews. The little generator that couldn’t! Turns out to be true in my case. Cheap Chinese junk! Fortunately Home Depot has an awesome return policy.

Was in the market for a dual fuel inverter generator and was zeroing in on some larger models (primarily the Champion 3100/3400) which would have been overkill for me because my primary use would be with 120v and not 240v. When using those larger generators on 120v, they are limited to the same 15amp as this smaller unit, although are less efficient due to the size of the motor. I found the Sportsman brand and after researching, waited patiently until a great memorial day sale came around for HD. I picked up a solo unit, and a package unit (2 generators and a parallel kit) for slightly more than I would have paid for the Champion 3100/3400 (now Champion sells a 2000w version). I picked up and unboxed all 3 at the same time for observation and breakdown. Upon initial comparison, each generator had varying levels of tolerances between the chasis/frame and side panels, none of them looked identical upon extremely close inspection. One unit had a fairly damaged box and there was a gash in the side panel fairing but nothing major. One note, I have only run these on propane and only plan to use propane unless in an emergency situation. Propane burns cleanly and does not gum up the engine. Starting the engine with propane will take anywhere from 8-10 pulls to clear the air from the propane line and "prime" the engine. The choke is unnecessary for propane but will not inhibit starting the unit. To reduce the number of pulls, you can start the threads of the propane line and then open the tank up to fill the line with propane and push out most of the air. That being said, the unit has a feather light pull and recoil. A gentle and patient 8-10 pulls with fire it up every time with propane. I purchased a magnetic dipstick and ran a fairly rigorous break in for each unit. I started with conventional oil and ran the generator for 20 minutes with no load, varying between economy and standard. At the 20 minute mark, I brought on approximately 200w on standard mode for 5 minutes, cycled off for 5 minutes, cycled on for 5 in economy/cycled off. At the 40 minute mark, I repeated this step but brought the wattage up to nearly 800w. For minutes 50-60 I let it run on econ/standard with no load. I changed the oil after 1 hour. The oil was black, and there were significant metal shavings accumulated on the dipstick. I switched to synthetic oil and used an additive (magic marvel oil) to aid in cleaning the engine. For 1-2 I repeated the above process but increased the wattage up to 1500w. I repeated this process for a total of 4 oil changes, for each unit. The final oil change was once the oil was no longer tinting black after 1 hour of use, and only full synthetic was put back in (no additive). Was this overkill? Probably. However, it is proper engine break in to perform and I wanted to eliminate any concerns down the line with issues engine interference or failure. THE BAD (let's get it out of the way first): Much like the appearance of all 3 units not being the same; none of the units sound identical. Each unit has their own unique sound, or rather, rattle. I attribute this to the side panels not fitting perfectly and rattling in some form or fashion. I took the side panels completely off one unit and the rattles were lessened, but the engine noise was also not muffled and could have masked some of the rattles as well. At some point, I will take the panels off all units and tighten all screws and connections between engine and chassis/frame. Also, the plastic faring on the side panels and front of the unit is very soft. If you are someone who cares that your tools look like they just came out of the box, these units will drive you crazy. For me, I don't mind that my tools look used. THE GOOD: PERFORMANCE - These units handled 1900w on propane without the overload sensor coming on. I threw everything from shop vacuums, air compressor, a rug doctor, space heaters, and the surge was not strong enough to overpower the unit (I did not hook these all up at once, obviously). The light did come on when starting the rug doctor but only briefly while the unit spun up to handle the load. EFFICIENCY - Using a 20lb propane tank, I am continually amazed at just how efficient these units are. A 20 lb tank should easily cover you for a weekend of outdoor activities, or easily a days worth of heavy use at a job site. NOISE - Even with the random rattles, the units are nearly as quiet as a Honda or Yamaha. That does not mean, "refined" as a Honda motor purrs, but as far as decibels are concerned - they are not much louder. DUAL FUEL/PROPANE - Again, I cannot recommend propane enough. It is a solid feature to have the on-board fuel tank in case of an extreme emergency but I do not plan to ever use it. I understand why they do not, but it would be nice to see a straight propane offering in a compact design that eliminates the on-board fuel tank. OVERALL - If you're enamored with name brands, or you're dead set on a Honda generator, skip the Sportsman as you will find fault in the fit and finish tolerances, rattles, and soft plastics. BUT, if you're in the market for a 15A/120V inverter generator for less than half of a Honda or Yamaha - you simply cannot beat the Sportsman.

After purchasing several other small (cheap) generators, I finally decided shell out the cash for an inverter generator. When I saw this model was capable of running on gasoline or LPG, I had to buy it - especially at the sub $500 price point. It came out of the box in good shape and it was very easy to add the oil and fuel. It started right up without any hassles on both gasoline and LPG. I tried them both, just to see how they worked. I plugged in my meter scope and sure enough, it makes a really nice pure sign wave, even when under load. I tried a 15 amp saw - it took it but I believe it pushed the little generator to its limit. Here is a video showing the experiment: https://youtu.be/Ng5g_xZ69RQ