Baumr-AG 1.0kW Inverter Generator GV3000

Buy this if you have a low budget and you are fairly adept at maintenance – EDIT: 16/12/24 Doesn't work. Pull start malfunctions and has to be disassembled and reassembled. Electronics don't work anymore, it'll run the ignition and the motor, but won't generate 240V. In hindsight therefore, this was a useless heap of rubbish. Terrible for the planet and ten of these is not worth even one honda in my opinion. Avoid like… Read more

the plague. Useless after about 20 hours use.

Here's my original optimistic review shortly after I purchased this:

I paid $202 for this generator including delivery. That is a mighty fine price for a continuous 800w 240V generator. It's light-weight, economical and fairly easy on the eye. It also starts up easily. So that's all of the good.

Now, for $202 for something relatively complex with many moving parts and electrical components, this is obviously going to be produced using the cheapest of components. So don't expect too much.

The savings seem to have been made in the initial factory set up, because, my model out of the box was hopeless until I dialled in a) the engine speed b) tightened up visible nuts and bolts c) set up the governor d) Identified a faulty label.

The faultly label was for the choke position. ON was actually OFF and OFF was actually ON. So immediatelly it ran for 15 minutes badly and then stalled out with a fouled up spark plug. Therefore, if you find yours runs for 15 minutes and then won't start ever again - DO NOT DESPAIR! perhaps the label is wrong on the choke. Just remove the air filter and look into the air intake. The choke when ON should close up a butterfly valve to reduce air intake, and when OFF it should open the butterfly valve allowing air to flow more freely in. Clean up your spark plug with a wire brush, potentially ignore the faulty label on the choke, and you should find it runs great.

Step two I had to adjust the governor (engine speed) so that at 800w I had about 216V to 220V. Otherwise, I found that if the engine speed was high enough to deliver 230-240V when fully loaded, the invertor would shut down when unladed due to over-voltage. So you have to set the engine speed (and thus voltage) quite low to about 216V - 220V when fully loaded. Anyhow, this setting is optimum for fuel economy and within specification for for '220-240V' rated products.

The manual is hopeless, an absolute waste of space. Check the oil level too, mine said it was empty, but actually it had oil in it of unknown type, and actually far too low, so you need to change/ or top up the oil before first use.

It's actually okay now considering the money. This is probably not a product for somebody who isn't confident with using a multimeter and other mechanical tools.

It's gets 3 star basically because of the amazingly low price despite having a faulty/ambiguous choke label, and cutting out not running right out of the box. You can't possibly expect to get a four or five star product at this price.. yet... how can you possibly give it only one or two stars when it was so cheap but works? Three stars is a fair price, and if you are not confident tuning it up out of the box, I recommend you don't buy it only to complain later. take this review as a warning. If you buy this with the mindset that it's essentially a disposable item that you will hopefully get plenty of use from it first with a lot of tinkering, an you may even be lucky enough to prolong it's life with a bit of maintenance and care - I expect you should be satisfied when you consider what you paid compared to the guy next door with the Honda.