On April 6,2012 I purchased a Pentagon
Tornado 6500 generator from Discount Tommy. It arrived without the 2 cotter pins
for the handles missing. I replaced those as I did not deem it necessary to make
a big fuss over it.
In May of 2012, I used the generator for the first
time. A part fell off of it but it still worked. I sent pictures of the
part to Discount Tommy and their engineers determined that it was not off
the generator.
On June 27,2012 I found where the part went. It was part
of the governor assembly. I put it back on and it worked.
Again I did not want to cause a
commotion over a bolt but I
did wonder what kind of engineers they had there.
On June 29, 2012 the generator decided to half die.
I lost the 30 amp 120/204 volt portion that is needed to run my camper. The 120
volt outlets still work.
The 240 volt outlet is intermittent. The
120-120/240 volt switch will not operate either. That happened during Field Day
setup. That was the last straw.
I contacted Discount Tommy, Which I found out was DTX International, 9855 Front St. US Hwy 131 N, Mancelona, MI 49659, and was advised to take it to a local repair shop and they would pay up to 100.00 to find out what the problem was. After that they would determine whether to pay for repairs, or replace it.
I contacted all the local small engine and generator shops and none of them would look at it. I found one 60 miles away that would look at it but did not work on them.
I contacted Discount Tommy again and was told to return it for repair or replacement. I was to pay shipping to them and they would pay for the return.
I told them that the freight estimates that I had gotten were $200.00 to $800.00 and that I had no intention of paying that amount for an item that was defective out of the box.
I would definitely not recommend this generator or company to anyone.
The problem appears to be in the voltage selection switch. There is also a weather boot on a cable that is lose and the ground screw was also lose.
I got a replacement switch after sending in the old one, and made the repairs myself.
Submitted by:
Dave
KA3PMW