SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20131207-68D65-2147449259. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Champion 41532 (The Champion Power Equipment 41532 gasoline powered, electric start portable generator is powered by a 439cc Champion single cylinder, 4-stroke OHV engine that produces 7000 running watts and 9000 starting watts. With a 5.9 gal. fuel tank this unit can run up to 8 hours at 50% load. Our OHV engine is equipped with a low oil shut-off sensor and designed for long life and easy maintenance. This unit is ideal for large RV's, trailers, power tools, jobs around the house, or home back-up power during emergencies.). Incident: I have a 9000 KW Champion portable generator purchased about a year ago. I try to run it regularly for maintenance, and last week I had trouble getting it started. Finally it started, but with difficulty, and ran very rough. I let it run, went inside the house, and a few minutes later it was making so much noise I looked out the window and flames were shooting out of the exhaust! I ran out, and with much trepidation (it was very scary looking!), turned it off. I called Champion and they said it sounded like a carburator. They said they would send me a new one and if I could transport it to an approved dealer, would cover labor. Well, it would probably cost me a few hundred dollars to get someone to come here with a truck, load it, drive it to Norwalk CT (I am in West Redding - about 1 hr away) and then go pick it up again! They said it was up to me to either cover the cost of delivery and pickup or to install it myself! I then googled the problem and found that they had recalled a number of their generators for faulty carborators causing fire - just like mine! I emailed them and they said that mine was NOT included in the recall, and thus, they would not cover the cost of having the repair transport. What am I supposed to do?! I'm 64, disabled woman, 5'2" tall and arthritic hands!