I suggest that you have some assistance on hand to get the VERY heavy box into your garage to set it up. Assembly took me about an hour or so, so you should be up and running in a short time. The only problem I had were the holes in the frame for mounting the rear legs were not tapped and the supplied bolts were not self-tapping (or at least to say that they were not very good at it- ther tips being quite large with no relief slot in them to cut the metal), so I had to use a 1/4 x 20 tap to create the threads before inserting the bolts. If you don't have a tap you could easily replace the bolts with some better self-tapping bolts- they are 1/4 x 20 x 1" I think.

The Vanguard motor is made in Japan and seems to be a very high quality item. Once filled with oil and fueled up it started the first time on the second or third pull adnran smoothly after about a five minute warm up in cold weather (mid- 40's F.). Pulling on the starter rope seemed quite easy and I suspect that this motor has some sort of compression relief. For anyone of average strength, I think that the starting battery would only be needed in very cold weather.

Although I would not want it running next to my bedroom all night, it does run quite a bit quieter than a lot of other generators I have heard.

Be aware that most localities require a special set up if you want to power an entire home with a generator. This special switch box is not included and it needs to be wired by a qualified electrician. If you just run some heavy extension cords to the generator, then this is not necessary. This means that to power a water well or other 220 equipment like central air conditioners the box will be necessary.

To test it, once it had warmed up, I had the idle control on (low idle speed engaged) and plugged in my portable circular saw. I hit the trigger on the saw and the generator immediately came up in RPM and the saw went to full power as if it were plugged into the wall.

Be aware that when using voltage sensitive devices and light loads like an incandescent light or two, the idle control has to be off as the generator cannot sense these small loads and will not come up to a power-prodicing RPM. My trouble light would not do anything but glow dimly at the low idle speed.

This thing is large and has a huge alternator in it. With a 10,500 watt surge rating it should handle most all your needs- maybe not all at once, but for most households this is going to be a real handy tool to have around when the lights go out.

BTW- The motor and the alternator section each have a 2 year warranty! At this price I found nothing to compare to the BS750.

DOA (Rating: 1.00)
Review : I received this generator from Amazon, prepared it per the included instructions, cranked it up, and immediately realized that it has two big problems: Voltage is only 107V, and it started making a gawdaful screeching sound after running for about 60 seconds. Screeching seems to be coming from the genset itself (not the engine), possibly indicating a bad bearing in the generator. Not good!

The fact that it made it out of the factory in this condition tells me that Porter Cable is doing a poor job of Quality Assurance. Also since I bought it from Amazon rather than a local retailer, I obviously can't take it back to the store for an exchange...I am forced to lug this heavy thing to the nearest factory service center. In retrospect, I might have been better off buying it locally.