WEN 11,000-Watt 120V/240V Dual Fuel Portable Generator with Wheel Kit and Electric Start (DF1100T)

Nice unit at a reasonable price
Finally unpacked, assembled, and tested this today. I live in Fl and have used a Kubota 6500w diesel generator for the last 21 years. It got me through a lot outages. It quit working and I haven’t been able to find parts to repair it and with freezers full of food and hurricane season approaching, I choose this unit for my power needs..This Wen DF-1100 was delivered by ABF trucking. They communicated well about schedule/time, the machine was in it’s factory box and strapped securely to a pallet in an enclosed semi trailer. Not a dent/tear/mark on the box so hats off to ABF trucking-great job. Finally got the box out of my van today and assembled the unit which consisted of attaching the wheels, handles, pads, adding oil, connecting positive cable to battery, removing the 2 shipping bars, connecting the propane regulator line and the propane tank. Very easy setup. The battery seemed fully charged and within a few spins the engine was purring nicely. I ran it for about 5 minutes and then connected my pool pump to it and let it run about 20 minutes. Everything checked out fine and the meter/monitor functions as it should. The unit is fairly loud but not dramatically louder than any other I’ve heard. It seemed to me it was actually a bit quieter than expected. I’ll be building a dedicated enclosure for this unit near my power pole and that will make a huge difference on the noise level.I haven’t put gasoline in the tank yet and have only run it once on propane. The dual fuel aspect of this genny is great. I have a 1000 gal in ground propane tank and I’m considering running a permanent line to it once I have an enclosure built. It is more expensive to run it on propane but for longevity, the propane burns much cleaner and the engine will have an extended life versus gasoline. I plan to get a magnetic oil dipstick for it to help keep the oil clean as there is no oil filter. Oil changes look like an easy affair and at 1 quart, I plan to change it frequently. I will add an inline fuel filter before I try it in gas mode. I like that it has an on/off gas petcock as I always run the carb dry when shutting down. This is key and here’s an example of why. I have a gas powered pressure washer with a small Honda engine. I always add fuel stabilizers to the gas on all my small engine stuff, mowers, p washers, generators etc. as sometimes a good deal of time goes by between usages. The last time I used the washer was almost 2 years ago. I turned off gas petcock at last use and it ran until all the gas was burned. I just used it and it started on the 2nd pull after 2 years. No gunked up carb because all the gas was burned out of it and the gas in the tank was still fine.So far, this genny seems like great value but only time will tell regarding longevity. The owners manual is pretty good. There is an exploded view of the engine and the generator with a complete list of ALL parts with part numbers. There is also a complete wiring diagram of the electrical components. I just spent an hour looking up parts on the Wen website. Every item I clicked on was readily available. I plan on assembling a good selection of replacement parts as I will have this unit for years and it seems everything can be repaired with current parts availability should the need arise. I think this is a good strategy for anyone purchasing a generator for the long haul. Based on my initial unpacking and test, I would not hesitate to recommend this unit. I will do some follow up reviews on this unit as time passes and usage goes up.

Powers ALMOST all of a 3k sqft home
TL:DR: Best price you’re going to find for this size and it has been reliable for the last 9 months.I installed an inlet for a generator to my panel. The idea is to avoid running extension cords to the generator in an outage. Remember that you have to cut the main breaker before turning on the generator breaker, otherwise you’re powering the grid too. Anyway, I expected to turn off all the breakers and slowly turn on the needed breakers. BUT…I felt like testing it so I just left them all on, flipped the main breaker off, and after the generator warmed up, I flipped the inlet breaker (to power everything on my panel). The generator hiccuped for a second and then hummed. I’m talking everything that you have in a 3k sqft home, this thing powered (2 fridges, internet, furnace, lights, microwave, oven, tvs, etc.). Beautiful.That was winter, though, and the furnace pulls nowhere near what the AC units pull. I tried this same trick in the summer and it killed the generator. So that just means that when power is out, you’ll need to cycle between house power and AC power (you can cool your house and maintain fridge temps this way. I tested it. Best cycle is 1 hour on/off).As far as the generator itself, this is a UNIT. You can’t beat it even at Harbor Freight (Predator). I tried. When you compare the two (same size), they’re the same price, but the WEN comes with the wheel kit and the battery. That’s about $50 each for a total of $100. So you save $100 going with the WEN. I have other WEN tools and they’ve been great (bench grinder, biscuit joiner, and more). It has instructions all over the place so it’s easy to find the choke and other important parts. I start it once a month and it has yet to show any weakness. Nothing on it feels cheap. LOUD. VERY VERY LOUD. But loud is better than freezing so neighbors are going to have to deal with it in an outage. Might build an insulated box. We’ll see.Buy it.

Great unit, performs exactly as stated, Thank you