I caught wind today that Coleman Powermate, who went bankrupt recently, still has products that are for sale for a little while longer. This is in part due to a tool distributor, TAP Enterprises, who teamed up with Homelite to purchase the remaining Coleman inventory for somewhere around 55 cents on the dollar.
While I applaud the efforts of the investors for a wise purchase, I can't help but wonder about the consumers. My guess is that the majority of consumers who will purchase Powermate products have no idea that there is no company behind the product anymore. The website that is selling the remaining inventory is offering a 90 day warranty. That means that if you do get to use the unit for say a storm outage and it works, the next time you need to use it will probably be outside of the warranty period. Most portable generators carry at least a one year warranty. More reputable companies will even extend the warranty period out to two or three years.
With no manufacturer to make the units anymore means no parts availability either. Consumers need to be more aware of what they are buying. For the most part, these units were sold through Big Box retailers (which was part of the manufacturers demise). In all my days of shopping around for generators, I have not found a salesperson yet who can tell me about the internal workings of the units. What type of cylinder sleeve does the engine have? Are the isolators able to keep the unit from vibrating across the floor? What is the THD (total harmonic distortion) of the unit? I see that it has a brand name engine on it but what about the alternator? What is the percentage of copper in the windings? Did the manufacturer cheapen the unit by using Aluminum in the windings instead of copper?
The day that consumers are armed with these questions and the salespeople are equipped with honest answers will be the day there will be a shift in purchasing away from the low cost leaders. What good is saving a few hundred dollars on a generator just to have it fry the circuitry on your $2000 television?
