KOHLER Generators Reviews

I had the generator for 4 years. It had 100hrs on it and the alternator/stator went out rendering it useless. Not at all satisfied. All maint. was done on schedule..This Generator was done through a Third party with the solar package. I was told by the Solar company KOHLER will not stand behind the warranty and that I needed to buy a new generator. I also called KOHLER and was told the same thing. Buyer beware.

I had complete confidence in the electrician that was responsible for the generator. He told me who had to look at it to oversee the final installation. I had had the representative come to the house previously, too. So it was a good experience. The generator is great. It comes on when it's supposed to. I'm glad we did it. When the electricity goes off, the generator comes on within a few seconds. There's nothing that we have to do for it, and there's no concern that the power is gonna remain off.

Kohler 12 RESV generator. After being In service for 1 1/2 years 100 hours use, (local electrician and propane company installed new), unit cranks but will not start and getting Kohler service out to look at it is impossible, I contacted the two dealers in the area and was told they do not service units they did not sell and install. I can't even get an appointment out of them, so basically your warranty is useless, Kohler appears to have a weak service network that is extremely limited and for that reason alone I can't recommend this unit, it is just a yard ornament now.

Power went out, generator came on...for 3 seconds. Done. Right when we needed it most! Called the emergency number. Guy comes out and says the stator went out. Can't fix it for 2 days. What?? I am so angry. We ran it once a week with no trouble. This thing is less than 2 years old! I wish I heeded the reviews.

Purchased a 24Kw Marine Propane Stand-by gen with an automatic transfer switch from a "approved" Kohler seller. Do not waste your money. Horrible service and no call backs from Kohler customer service. Spent over 2K on repairs by a Kohler certified repaiman due to a rough running engine and the issues were never resolved. Replaced it with a Honeywell 24Kw genorator.

During Hurricane IAN the whole home generator initial came on when electrical power was lost; however, as the storm intensified (around midnight), the system failed. This required waiting for winds to subside in order to open Hurricane Shutters to investigate. Discovered that the container latch failed and the cover was open, exposing the inside to wind and rain. This appears (in my opinion) to be a critical design failure, as wind tunnel testing should have identified this as a potential risk, and measures taken by KOHLER to mitigate this challenge.

I see others have had the same troubles we have had with our Kohler Generator. We purchased in Oct 2019. It would fail when needed, resulting in unhappy guests and lost income. Finally got a guy to come out (1.5 hrs away for a licensed tech plus cost of mileage) and discovered it was never properly installed. LPG Orifice was zip tied to the unit and should have been installed to accommodate propane. We were told we were overloading the system when in fact it has been like flooding an engine. I hope it works next time. We completely regret ever having this installed to the tune of over $12,000 in investment. Nothing but frustration on our end with service calls costing way too much money.

My 20Kw generator worked ok for the first few years. I spent $350 a year for preventive maintenance and it turned out to be for nothing. The PC controller failed leaving the unit useless! The repair cost estimate was approximately half the cost of a new unit. ($1200 part) The unit has been in service for 4-1/2 years and now it's a boat anchor. I've had 3 outages in 4-1/2 years. Looking back, this generator was a real waste! I live near Greensboro NC and there isn't a factory authorized repair person in our 5 county Triad area. The closest technician is 2-1/2 hrs away near Fayetteville NC. When I am able, I will replace this unit with a Generac. No more Kohler for me. I certainly wouldn't recommend them to anyone I know.

I just upgraded my old Kohler generator to the latest model a week ago. During the weekly test, the generator basically blew itself up. I was told by the installing contractor, he has seen several others do the same thing within that last few months. To make matters worse, Kohler can't give me an estimate when I will have a replacement. Stay away from Kohler until they can fix this defect!!

Generator purchased after Hurricane Delta. Generator never worked right. We live in Louisiana. Generator was taken back to where it was purchased by buyer for repairs. When generator was returned it still did not work properly. We have sent many emails and someone has come to our place to fix it but it still does not work. We paid $6000 for the generator including installation fees and have had it since last year and it never worked right and still does not work. We have asked to return it or to replace it. Kohler Generator Customer Service does not respond. My 90 year old Mother lives on our yard and we do not want to be without electricity. We was without electricity from our electrical company 6 weeks after Delta. We are back in the hurricane season now and would like to get the issue resolved.

Thanks to our wonderful Kohler Generator and Castle Rock Electric, we have had power during several Pandemic Time electrical outages, some for days at a time! Never did we have to worry that we would not have power and especially water usage since we are on a well and need electricity.

14KW. So far so good. Had an initial issue with kicking on when the power went off. The control panel was replaced under warranty (thank goodness as they are expensive). After that it has been fairly flawless.

Good generator, very reliable. It could be quieter with less vibration and I would give it a higher rating. I'm very happy to have it any way being in Hurricane alley!! I think it has a 5 or 7 year warranty!

We bought 3 whole house Kohler Generators over a period of the last 15 years. The first two were for our main house and a guest house on our property. The homes were on an island and we had quite a lot of power outages. They came on in about 8 - 10 seconds after we lost power and worked flawlessly. Whether they were on for only a few hours or a couple of days, we had everything going in the houses as we normally would.

Ordered a 13KW generator in September 2020 with a $4000 deposit- it is now mid February 2021. I have contacted the contractor and Kohler several times for delivery and installation updates with little to no response. Covid is one thing, lack of a response and service is another. I will never trust or do business with Kohler generators again as they have not provided timely responses or given confirmation of a delivery date while they still appear to be selling the product through numerous 'dealers'. This used to be a respectable company - Just find another company.

I own a 17KW Kohler generator which only has 785 hours on it. Recently the fan became unattached from the engine and damaged the fan shroud on the unit. Kohler has discontinued the part and no replacement is available. So now I am left with a hunk of metal that cannot be used since Kohler does not have a replacement part. I would not recommend a Kohler generator because even if it works today like it may not work tomorrow because a critical part is not available.

Clock timer was set wrong.

We are an electrical contractor who have installed over 200 generators. To keep the review legit, we will not disclose the brand we have sold exclusively since 2012, however we will share that Kohler machines have been the least reliable and most problematic of any generator we have ever sold or serviced, including; Winco, Generac, and Briggs and Stratton. Kohler will not answer tech questions directly, you must call the distributor. Our local distributor has a guy who pages through the manual and reads it to you over the phone. We finally partnered with another strictly generator company so that we’d have someone with years of field experience on actual machines, and regarding more complex issues. Here are examples of problems we’ve had. Should mention that these units were all serviced annually:

Purchased a Kohler 20KW natural gas unit 1-9-17 -unit installation turned into a disaster, finally got unit installed and started. We live along the East Coast. Wanted the peace of mind when the power went out that the unit would keep our home livable, unit worked great until 11-29-2018. Have been trying to get unit repaired properly since, today is 12-5-2019. For a year I've had techs here multiple times, replaced battery and gas regulator at a cost of $300.00 to me. Unit still will not start and run spins over but doesn't start. Tech came again replaced stepper motor, same issue. Tech came back removed throttle body to check gasket at butterfly, was ok. Tech came back checked all the internal wires for poor connection none found, tech came back took out controller and took it to shop to check it over, came back reinstalled controller same issue, ordered new controller and installed, unit now will start but hunts terribly.

Purchased a 20KW Kohler Generator from a Generator Retailer. They were great installing and servicing it. The thing has had problems since day one hunting, voltage drops constantly. Kohler has said the motor needs to be replaced but won't pay for it. The Tech. has been out here in storms in winter and summer at least 20 times. Called Kohler Customer Service, that's a waste of time. I contacted the President of Kohler. He was nice but palmed me off to his VP of Customer who is of no help just puts you off, he was useless and told me not to contact them any longer, what kind of company are they????

If you are considering installing a whole-house generator, I would recommend against Kohler. After having our Kohler 20 RESAL model professionally installed five years ago, the machine has almost never operated correctly. It has only kicked on automatically for a few of the many power outages we’ve had. We’ve had to call repairmen at least 8 times in the short duration since it was installed, and have already poured more money into repairs than the machine is worth. Kohler has been resistant and argumentative over honoring their short warranty. After just 9 hours of operation, the machine now requires another thousand dollars worth of repairs. Kohler has refused any help. I would rate Kohler generator operation, customer service, warranty, and my satisfaction with this product as poor. We are now replacing this machine with a Generac. The Generac comes with a ten year warranty.

I purchased a new boat 9 months ago with 11 kw Kohler generator model 11EK0ZD. From day one the generator shut down continuously due to the LOP (Low Oil Pressure). The oil has been change twice. Despite endless phone calls describing the situation and disappointment in their product, Kohler customer service accepted that they have problem with the oil pressure sensor and they are running a campaign to replace the sensor. I tried to get the Kohler tech to replace the sensor in South Florida and everyone wants to charge $200 per hour and $1.95 per mile, and they requested a credit card to before they send a technician.

I purchased a new Kohler 20RES generator 6 months ago from a local good authorized dealer. They were the highest bidder. It locked up when running a weekly test 4 weeks ago. My dealer spent 8 hours in the freezing cold troubleshooting the problem and codes. My dealer says the engine is dead and the entire unit should be replaced with a new unit, but Kohler is wanting him to change the engine on site. Stupid. The warranty states Kohler Co. can only inspect a product for purpose of the warranty and an agent cannot, but Kohler will not send an employee to make the warranty adjustment inspection. I’m screwed.

I replaced a 6 year old Guardian generator that constantly broke down and finally the main stator failed. I had never heard of Kohler generators, just bathroom fixtures! My repairman suggested it, as he had been installing them for many years and seldom had any problems. I paid a little more than the repairs for my old generator to install the new Kohler (Kohler 20KW Residential Backup Generator). It now has been almost 3 years of flawless reliable service. I just had it serviced (I never had it serviced and it was not exercising) and the tech told me not to let it exercise regularly as it never really gets a chance to warm up and builds up a white film in the crankcase. He said my generator looks brand new; it has about 43 hours of run time on it and he said it is well made. I live on the West Coast close to the ocean, so I am always concerned about moisture build-up, but if the tech says everything looks brand new, I will assume this is a well-made machine!

I just wanted to share a blog article I wrote about my bad experience with a Kohler 20RESAL home standby generator. Poor support, frequent failures, unreliable, Kohler won't help much at all, have to deal with "authorized service providers" which are expensive even for warranty issues, etc. If you are considering a Kohler I recommend that you please read this. Thank you.

We had a Kohler 30RES generator installed ten years ago. Little did we know then that we had bought a dud that Kohler would not stand behind. Technicians refer to it as "The Screamer" because it runs at 3600 rpm, double the speed of Kohler's (supposedly) better generators. It failed to start during the recent ice storm despite having been professionally maintained, and my family and I ended up in a hotel. Exactly the situation we thought we were avoiding by having a generator.

I purchased my Kohler generator a few years ago. Overall cost with electrician, gas hookup, Kohler service tech (for warranty purposes) and cost of generator was around $7500. I have performed the annual oil/filter and spark plug changes (which is the only maintenance that is to be performed until 300 hours per the owner’s manual.) The first oil change is scheduled for 100 hours or annually. Its first failure occurred at only 82 hours and cost $200 dollars to repair. At 150 hours it will no longer run... Again.

Kohler did not put a model # on the boat generator. The generator starts but will not stay running. Put out only 35 Volts. We cannot get parts because of no model #. The circuit board was found to be OK. We don't know it there is a starting capacitor or not. This is in a 41 Viking Yacht. Any help will be great appreciated.

Been trying to get Kohler generator serviced since November 2017, now February, still no service. Have called multiple times to so-called Kohler service in Portland and Saco and have yet to receive callback to schedule. They’ll sell them to you fast but good luck afterwards. You’re on your own. Think about this when considering buying a Kohler generator. Absolutely wretched service.

I have owned a 14kw Residential Generator for about 6 years. I have had the recommended service done every 6 months by a certified dealer. Runs weekly, loaded transfer tested every service period. Now, when I really needed it, big storm, it will not come on. Under voltage alarm. Trees down on both ends of our road so service couldn't come if I could even get them to come. This lousy generator will be replaced with another brand proto. I do not recommend Kohler to anyone who needs dependable service, ever.

Generator controller went out and was replaced with a part that doesn't have as much capability. I contacted the manufacturer and they told me I just had to live with it. Having to reset the exerciser requires paying a service rep to come out or using a laptop and trying to do it myself. Very disappointed with the way they treated me.

It is very good brand and it is high quality. It is easy to operate and can be used outdoors. Powerful, portable and super sleek with lots of great features. Even more power and fuel efficiency in a quiet, portable package. It is very easy to carry and it is not too much expensive. It is the best.

All of the quality of the machine are great and useful. I have a great time using and storing the item. Easy to use. Also, the reviews were great. I researched the product and there are no bad things. I would truly recommend this machine to everyone in need.

Have to do a lot of research and make decisions on things like stationary or standby, features that you want, consumer reviews. I ordered my Kohler Generator from Home Depot and went to pick it up when they got it in. Transporting home was no problem. We have a truck. It has super reliability and performance with a 5-Year or 2000 hour limited warranty, has a locking roof, fuel and electrical connections through the enclosure wall eliminate the need for stub-ups through the bottom. But it can't power all devices, runs on propane or natural gas which is expensive unless it's a must have for you and having a large tank on your property can be unsightly.

Kohler makes a high quality generator and it was on sale so it cost the same as the Generac which I thought was not built as well Kohler. Also, they gave us a 5 year bumper to bumper warranty. And so, I purchased from them. I like that there are text alerts and natural gas fuel. The generator is also very quiet and low maintenance. The pad it came with is nice and high in case it floods. Also, automatic start and my wife doesn't have to manually start anything. However, the installation was expensive and we had to have the power off all day when the installation was booked. The generator is also too far off our house and it was difficult to get permits. Had to upgrade my gas service. It's not pretty looking as well and we had to exclude our solar power system. But overall happy so far.

We had a huge wind storm that knocked out power all over the city. We didn't want our food to thaw so we bought a Kohler generator. The stock was fairly limited because everyone was out buying them. We bought what was the best deal we could find. With the generator, I like that I can power my house when the electricity goes out!! I'm also happy that a tank of gas will last a pretty long amount of time. Also it seems it requires minimal maintenance. However, I'm not happy that it doesn't have that high of a power capacity. We can only power a few of our appliances when the power goes out. And I don't like the fact that I have to run the generator until all of the gas runs out so the gas doesn't get old and ruin the generator.

My Kohler generator was a gift but the person selected it because of the good reviews and customer feedback. I bought it because I needed a dependable and easy to use generator when we lose electricity. We lose power a lot and need the sump pump powered so basement will not flood on us. I am very happy with it because it works quickly and I never had any issue getting it started. But it is really super loud. It can not be helped since my neighbors have generators and they are just as loud. But still it's tough and somebody had to sit with it because a lot of people steal them.

My family has been a valued customer of this brand for years and hopefully many more years to come. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone looking for a good reliable generator that has a great outstanding warranty. This brand stands out and completely does what its functions say it does. It is long lasting and has no mechanical failures so far since it was bought. I like how it holds enough capacity to kick on and all the electricity will be restored within a half hour. It helps keep our family safe and never fails to be the support for my friends and family. I love the way it runs smoothly and does not make noise and it's also energy efficient. But I would improve the overall time frame it takes to get the electricity back on and working properly to its fullest extent. I also wish we had a home remote that you can control from the inside of the house.

Before my purchase, I knew practically nothing about generators and their various brands, but Kohler seemed the most newcomer friendly and it has proven to be just that. It is incredibly reliable and has never failed in times when it was needed most, providing enough power during power outages to sustain the necessary electronics in times of duress. Although it functions perfectly fine, when it is on, it is incredibly loud that it can in some instances distract from what you are doing.

I always liked the Kohler brand whenever buying anything from motors to generators over the years and chose them over other brands from previous experience. I'm Kohler Certified and I like that the generator has multiple 115 sockets to run multiple tools or appliances at a time and that it came standard with a 220 which is becoming harder to get. But I would like to the see the fuel tank capacity increased from 4 gallons and increase the run time on a tank of fuel from 8 hrs to 10 hrs per tank. Also, they can make the paint a little more durable for outdoor use on job sites.

The Kohler generator has all the feature I am looking and searching for. It did the job it was supposed to do very well and it worked with and for everything I needed to use it for. I love the size but I wish I could use multiple speeds. Other than that, I absolutely love my Kohler generator and I will not change a thing about it. I selected this because it has a great brand reputation. It is reliable, durable, versatile and easy to use. It is a great investment and I will use it for years to come and then some.

This product was conveniently priced well. I also liked the size and the capabilities within the machine. And I love how long it's able to last without powering off to save power. It's also not too large but it's also really effective and is reliable. The controls are also self-explanatory when it comes to the generator. But I would like to add a more convenient time period, knowing when it will power off and on again, as well as more protection around it in case of emergencies like trees falling down from a hurricane. But overall it was a good choice.

We had a storm coming a short while back and I wanted a generator for the home. More or less I looked up some info and called over to a store to reserve it. I then picked it up, set it up and it did a great job. The plugin areas to run lines are pretty good and being able to line it into the house is really good as well. It's also sort of stylish and I like the look of the generator a lot. But you can get it to have solar power as well. Honestly, you're going to want to advance solar on your end so you can help to put fossil fuels to an end. It'll help you prosper in the long run.

It is a smaller generator and easy to move from place to place as needed. It is exceptional to take camping and fishing due to its size and ease of use. It starts up every time no matter how long it sits in between use and is easily maintained. It powers everything that I need it to and it has enough power to handle the few items that need to remain running during power loss. The Kohler generator was extremely affordable and has been a wonderful purchase. I purchased the brand because it is a consistent brand and came highly recommended from friends and the online reviews were very positive. It met my initial expectations and continues to do so.