UST GG2300 Review

Overall Rating

Portable, fairly quiet, low fuel consumption, easy to start, cheap. Runs my LP furnace and most of my power tools.

Spark plug a bit hard to get to. Not much of a warranty -- they will send you replacements parts for a year or you can ship it to them at your cost. Lights flicker a little.

Against my better judgement and my own advice I bought a cheap generator. Really cheap. Both of my Honda eu2000s no longer work and I needed something to get me over until I decide what to do next (Yamaha YG2800i perhaps?). I bought this UST GG2300 2300 watt generator from Pep Boys auto supply on sale for $230. So far, after about 10 hours of use, I'm very happy with it. It has an OHV engine and is very easy to start. The frame is very sturdy and I have found nothing cheap or chincy about any of the components. The spark plug is a little difficult to get to with a regular rachet and plug socket but it came with its own plug wrench and it fits OK. The engine runs very smoothly and is quieter than I expected for an open frame generator. The gas tank is easy to fill and holds over 3 gallons and has a fuel gauge that is actually fairly accurate and useful.

Members' Comments onUlysses's Review

• hitstealscore on 12th Jan 2007

  I have a UST 3500 generator, and I feel the same way about it. My friends laughed at me for buying such a cheap unit, but they don't laugh when we are at a job and my generator runs great and quiet and theirs won't start.

• Ulysses on 16th Feb 2007

  Here it is; two months later and the little UST GG2300 Generator still works great. I have about 200 hours on it now. After my 5000 watt genny with the Honda GX270 busted a valve, I went and bought the GG5500 for about $350. It did have a problem with the float sticking in the carburetor, which was easy to fix, and UST sent me a replacement carb. I've seen the GG2300 for as little as $190! As a matter-of-fact, my wife went back to Pep Boys and got an adjustment (less than 30 days from purchase), so that's what we actually ended up paying. So far I like the GG5500 better than my Lifter 5000 watt genny with the Honda engine--the UST is actually easier to start, quieter, and seems to have a better muffler and air cleaner. It also came with wheels and fold-down handles, and a 30 amp plug. It has nice toggle type circuit breakers, which can be reset right away if needed. It holds exactly one quart of oil (not 37.2 oz like it says on it), and no funnel is needed to add oil--just pour it in. It also has some kind of voltage regulation, which works well, except for start up on big loads, but it runs more stuff than either of my other 5000 watt gennys, and it has a big gas tank too! It seems to burn about 1/2 gallon per hour most of the time, at around half load. Oh yeah, and it also comes with four decent quality 120 volt outlets that actually hold plugs. And it has 10 amp DC for battery charging, if anyone cares to burn that much gas to charge a battery ;-) The choke is a little hard to get to on the GG5500, but you get used to it. Both the GG2300 and GG5500 use a little oil between changes, but the oil is still transparent after 50 hours. Maybe these cheap Chinese OHV engines are not quite Honda's, but they seem to be pretty darn close. It will be interesting to see how many hours the engines last.

• goellioott1 on 31st Jan 2009

  I bought the UST 950W generator and was also quite happy. It ran for about a week continuously during a severe wind storm/power outage. This year during an ice storm I went to start it and the entire start mechanism/pullstart came apart and some small plastic parts fell out broken when I removed the pull start. I started the generator with a 5/8 socket hooked to the bolt on the fly wheel but need to get a replacement pull start kit. I only paid $79 for the generator and air compressor combo kit at pep boys. The 950W will run a refrigerator and 50 inch TV and thats about it. Worked for us.