Porter Cable BSI550 W 5 500 Watt Generator with 10 HP Engine
Be prepared for power loss emergencies with the Porter-Cable 5,500 watt generator, featuring an overhead valve Briggs and Stratton engine and seven gallon fuel tank. The powerful 10 horsepower engine delivers with a 9,000-surge-watt capacity, providing 13.2 hours of power at half load and 8.1 hours at full load. This generator offers convenience with semi-pneumatic wheels, full-width axle, and handles that fold and lock for trouble-free transport and storage. It’s also constructed with a completely welded steel tube frame to protect important parts while rubber isolators protect the motor in order to reduce vibration. The Porter-Cable BSI550-W is built with a cast-iron cylinder sleeve and low oil protection for all day endurance. In addition, the innovative brushless, all-ball-bearing alternator produces with less down time and the accessible front panel includes two 120 volt outlets with an one installed circuit breaker and one 120/240-volt twist-lock connection.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Less is Better
As an engineer, I’m obsessed with numbers and choosing a generator presents the perfect opportunity to play with them. I won’t bother you with a lot of technical details, but this is the generator I chose after 4 months of deep, deep researching.
First criteria: my needs. I wanted to power a 3 bedroom home with a finished basement through the harsh winters in Maine. Here are the devices I setup as an absolute necessity to power up during an emergency:
1) Water well pump, 2) Furnace blower, 3) Basement Sump Pump, and 4) Refrigerator. Here are the “good-to-haves”: 5) lights in the kitchen and main living room, 6) pellet stove, 7) oven range. And, finally, just the “nice-to-haves”: 
TV, 9) microwave oven, 10) computer. And here’s what gets excluded: all the 2nd floor in the house, garage door opener, bedroom lights, everything else not listed above.
By adding the must-haves and nice-to-haves, a 5500 W generator takes care of business. One of my concerns: since I have a lot of electric motors to start (well & sump pumps, refrigerator, furnace blower) this requires a good surge capacity from the generator. In case you don’t know, a motor takes a lot of electricity to start up, between 3 to 5 times (!) over their normal running wattage. Here’s the caveat: not all motors should start at the same time, so then determining what your surge wattage is becomes an “art”. Consumer Reports simply tells you to ignore the surge wattage, since all the generators they tested started their appliances with no problem. Well, the thing is, they don’t mention what appliances they tested and how they started them (manual selective start or just regular use?). So, their point is taken, but surge wattage can’t be simply ignored (it shouldn’t be the only criteria to buy a bigger generator, though).
Well, this generator, with a 9000 W surge, is the biggest I’ve seen in all 5500 models — it beats them all. So, this model is perfect for me, as it meets the criteria I’ve selected above. It even powers my computer and TV (with surge protector) if the oven range is turned off.
This is very important: if you turn your generator on, you’re in “emergency mode”. This means, you lose some comfort, some conveniences. You just try to keep the inconveniences at a minimum. Well, if you don’t agree with my assessment above, you’re looking for the wrong type of generator. If you want to power your entire house and live as if power wasn’t lost, you need a stand-by generator, not a portable one. Of course, they cost a lot more money (good and powerful ones start at over 10,000 bucks). That’s a lot of money to pay not to be inconvenienced. Now, since you’re looking for portable ones (I assume so since you read this review so far), you’ll have to give up something. Basically, you can’t throw a pot roast party for 20 guests if you lose power; like I’ve said, you’re in emergency mode. Cooking a gourmet meal shouldn’t be a priority, order out, get pizzas. You get my point. So, decide what you want to power in an emergency situation.
Second criteria: fuel consumption. I was just about to purchase a 7500 W model with 13000 W surge, for about $1,400 bucks! Have you seen the fuel consumption for these generators? Only 8 hours, tops, at half load. This ones rates at 13.5 hours. Well, with gasoline prices hovering at around 2 bucks a gallon, do the math if you run a larger generator for 2 weeks (a possibility over hurricanes and severe winter storms): it may cost you over $500 dollars in gas! Of course, with this generator the cost drops significantly and you don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to refuel it. This is very important to me, especially during cold winter nights.
Third criteria: quality of parts and components. I wanted a good engine and a good quality brand name generator. This one meets my criteria. It’s not a Honda, but they’re overpriced anyway and most home-owners and occasional users won’t benefit as much from them. Construction workers, electricians and contractors may benefit some from their cleaner electrical output and “quietness”, but no generator is really quiet. I ran a Honda once at my house and, sincerely, they’re loud too. You just have to work around their noise, it’s one of the inconveniences of being in emergency mode. Compare the noise of a generator to 5 kids screaming at the top of their lungs. With a Honda, you have 4 kids screaming at the top of their lungs. My point: 4 or 5, it doesn’t matter, they’re still loud.
Finally, here’s what I mean for “less is better”. If all you want is to power your house during an emergency, there’s a good chance you’ll be wasting your money if you buy a 10,000 W generator or bigger. First, 10,000 Watts is a lot of juice to deliver and you’ll need 50 Amp plugs, cables, and a big transfer switch box if you want to use all that juice. They’re ALL more expensive when you talk 50 Amps. The regular 30 Amp already costs money, about $100 for cable (depends on the length you want), $300 bucks for the transfer switch with 8 to 10 breakers (a bit less with <6 breakers, but then you can't power as many appliances), and then installation labor. With my generator, I paid less than $1,500 for everything: generator, transfer switch box (required by law or you're liable, the risk is all yours if you chose to back feed to your house), cable, and labor. With a bigger unit (50 amps), good luck, you're talking a lot more money (I stopped adding up when it approached $3,000, including generator).
All in all, this generator is a winner; it powers my house (what I want), it has good fuel consumption, it’s also “lighter” (160 lbs, compared to 250+ lbs for 7500W ones), and the price is good. I hit literally dozens of generator sellers on the Internet and locally for many weeks, and this one at Amazon.com beats them all. This may change, of course, but I’d still pick this model.
Some drawbacks: 1) no electric start. Well, they’re notorious for not working anyway, especially in cold winters. I borrowed a generator from my brother-in-law and the electric start rarely works, we always end up pulling the cord to get it started anyway (both his and my generator start at most on the second pull, 100% of the time). 2) No Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR). This means the voltage output can vary quite a bit and may damage sensitive equipments. The manufacturers’ manual requires that you use UL listed surge protectors for TV’s, stereos and computers. I do that and so far, no problem. Only more expensive generators have AVR’s and I didn’t feel it was justifiable to pay hundreds of dollars more for one (then you have the fuel consumption issue if you buy bigger! Remember, in this case: less is better!).
Like insurance, you hope you don’t have to use a generator, but when you need it, you will be glad you have it.
I hope you have good luck choosing and buying your generator. This one works really well for me. If your needs are similar to mine, picking this one is a no-brainer.
1 Star Problems, Problems, Problems
I bought this model in September 2003 as a back up generator to run through a generator transfer station. After repeated failures, a replacement generator and exceptionally bad warranty service, I think I finally have a generator that works. My first generator would not power anything from half of the outlets and the large outlet used for a generator transfer station (a station equipped with wattage meters and was tested with a neighbor’s less powerful generator- his generator was able handle regular and full surge test needs). Unable to get a real person on the Porter-Cable customer service number, I took my generator to the closest listed warranty service shop…after several months of excuses, including no one at Porter-Cable would call the mechanic to tell them how to fix it, and very poor customer service, I attempted to contact a real person at Porter-Cable…next to impossible. I then contacted Amazon by email to see if they could contact Porter-Cable. Instead, Amazon arranged to ship me a new unit and take the old one back, with no charge to me….incredible! Kudos to Amazon! The second generator operated for three hours (during a power outage) and started to die. Two different warranty service shops, another few months and several pick-ups/drop offs later (during the work day, naturally), I am told it will finally run properly. I hope so, as it is now out of warranty. So, in over two years, my generator has been able to run properly for a total of four hours and I was unable to get the attention of Porter-Cable to help fix either of these two poorly-made products. I even took the time to write a letter to the president of Porter-Cable detailing every issue and problem…no answer in two months. I hesitate to write a bad review for any products (and have not done so up to this point), but in this case, I feel I need to share “after sale” issues for anyone who receives a poorly-made generator that they are going to trust to provide power in an emergency situation…with all the service trips and time spent, it would have been cheaper to pay twice as much (I paid $700) and have a generator I could trust (I don’t trust this one anymore, not a great feeling to have about an emergency back-up generator). The only shining star in this tale is Amazon, who went well beyond the call of duty to help me.
5 Stars Worth the Money
I live in a semi-remote part of the country and I had my Generator within 7 days of ordering as against reviews I had read where buyers waited weeks. The assembly was easy and straghtforward and the generator started on the second pull. It is used as backup power when our power fails (frequently). It easily holds our gas furnace, refrigerator, chest freezer, lighting, TV and computer. It holds enough gas to carry us through most power outages. I am well satisfied with this purchase.
Ted M. Eastern Montana.
5 Stars Porter-Cable BSI550-W 5,500 Watt Generator
Everything about the generator was as expected. Received it within a few business days. However, had to install the wheels and handles. Otherwise, great purchase for the price!
5 Stars Good Generator so far
Like one of the other reviewers I’m a mechanical engineer. I purchased this generator because I live along the east coast, though not in an area with many hurricanes, so I had time to conduct quite a bit of research before purchasing it. I work in the generator industry, though with larger generators, so I came into my search knowing more than many, but I was seriously disappointed in the amount of information available on the small gas engine generators. Most of these manufacturers are not using the web to provide enough information to differentiate their products from their competition or to really sell their products.
My main criteria was: 1) Low fuel consumption 2) Good voltage regulation 3) High surge capacity. 4) Good engine with cast iron sleeves. 5) Potential reliability. Each of these is important for the following reasons.
1) Fuel consumption – Generator burn quite a bit of fuel. This generator burns a little more than
