After Honda, Yamaha

Eric. I've had several gennies and none are bullet proof, I bought a Kipor 2600 which I would consider number three in ranking several months ago and no complaints so far.
I paid $900 brand new on eBay which is about half what you'd pay for a less powerful Honda or Yamaha !

Rob.

In my opinion, make sure you compare apples with apples. Check the displacement of the motor, a lot of 2nd line manufacturers make outrageous generator output claims.
The generator can only put out what the motor can put in and there is no way a 125cc motor can put out the same power as a comparable 175cc motor.

Well , I have a Honda 2kva , a Kipor 2kva , and a Fujimicro 4.4 kva (actual running 3.7 kva) ... the Fuji was $760 .... runs a treat - remote and key start - came with toolkit & spare plug ... digital readout .... has steady output 240 volts ..... is better than the others

The next best after a Honda or Yamaha is a Subaru Robin.

You can buy 3 Chinese gensets for the same price as a Japanese genset. But the Chinese ones have only 1/3rd the lifespan and are unrepairable due to no parts or service availability.

Bottom line is, if you want reliability and repairability and spares availability, buy a quality Japanese genset.

The last point is to understand that you should never operate a small genset at anything over about 75% of its rated output.

http://www.energymatters.com.au/subaru-r1700i-1650w-portable-generator-with-inbuilt-inverter-p-462.html

https://www.toughland.com.au/inverter-generator.html

Not sure where I would rank this brand. But I have seen one run and operate and I reckon its a pretty good value for money. Im planning to get one myself. Its giving 2 years warranty. Not as good as the warranty being offered by Honda but Im sure not everyone can afford a honda or yammie.

I wouldn't agree to statement about chinese generator all being bad. Its really only those that can you get for less than $500. You cannot expect a company to back them up with warranty when they are only selling it for such cheap price.
There are reason why Honda and Yamaha are being so expensive.
1) to generate enough money to cover their warranty parts and repair
2) they use part of these funds for R&D which others don't need as they just copy from the leader
3) being the market leader, they want to make big bucks.

As for us consumer, you can choose to pay big dollar and get the top-shelves product. or you can shop smart and find a company that copy them well enough and still make enough money to survive for the coming years so your generator warranty is valid.