Cummins ONAN P4500i 4500 Inverter Generator Review

Find out whether the Cummins ONAN P4500i 4500 Inverter or alternatives are right for you in this review.

Cummins ONAN P4500i review in short

Some of the best uses for the Cummins ONAN P4500i include:

• RV or regular camping
• Tailgating
• Small businesses like food trucks
• Running certain small to medium power tools
• Construction sites

Cummins ONAN P4500i performance in important categories

The Cummins ONAN P4500i mini review, pros, cons, and uses likely make the message for this brand model clear.

However, it can still be interesting to see how this inverter generator performs in certain relevant areas.

Individual reviews compare the specific model to portable generators in general and sometimes scores are based on customer input

Cummins ONAN P4500i key features

You don’t have to know about every single detail or part to figure out whether the Cummins ONAN P4500i is good enough for your needs and preferences.

Instead, the shorter list of key features below gives a good general overview of this inverter generator.

*Warranties can vary from seller to seller

**Price category at the time of writing

What will the Cummins ONAN P4500i run?

Since the main job of portable generators is powering your electrical devices, knowing what the Cummins ONAN P4500i can run is an important detail.

First of all, some examples of the biggest machines the Cummins ONAN P4500i could run separately are a window air conditioner (15,000 BTU), a 1/2 HP furnace fan, and a table saw.

You can also run certain combinations of appliances and tools that require less power.

For example, the Cummins ONAN P4500i should be able to run a pressure cooker, toaster, laptop, and refrigerator at the same time.

To be able to be certain about whether the Cummins ONAN P4500i can run a certain combination of devices you would calculate their power needs.

After that, you can see whether you are able to start and run these devices in a way that does not go over the 4500 starting watts and 3700 running watts of this generator.

Cummins ONAN P4500i customer reviews insights

There are examples of generators that good look in terms of features but turn out to have an above-average amount of technical issues.

To avoid investing in a model like this, it tends to be smart to look at the customer reviews of generators, including the Cummins ONAN P4500i.

You may also have heard about an Cummins ONAN P4500i recall in 2010 due to potential generator problems.

To save you some time, I went through the customer reviews of this generator and noted some general trends right here.

The overall positivity of the Cummins ONAN P4500i reviews is reasonable but there is a lot of room for improvement too.

There are a decent number of cases where customers are not able to get the generator started.

Sometimes the Cummins ONAN P4500i stops working relatively soon.

Even if these technical issues are still within the warranties, customers seem to find it hard to actually get help with the Cummins ONAN P4500i.

In short, from the customer reviews it looks like the Cummins ONAN P4500i is not the most reliable generator out there.

This can be extra bad for people who want backup power.

Cummins ONAN P4500i alternatives

Especially with the suboptimal customer reviews, you may wonder whether there are any alternatives to the Cummins ONAN P4500i generator.

If you really like the Cummins ONAN P4500i, it is basically a no-brainer to choose the Westinghouse iGen4500 instead.

This is basically the same generator but it is more budget-friendly and has fewer technical issues.

People who really valuable reliability and or a dual fuel option can also consider the Champion 200988 4500 DF.

You can also check out these comparisons that include the Cummins ONAN P4500i:

• Cummins ONAN P4500i Vs Champion 4500
• Cummins Onan P4500i Vs Westinghouse iGen4500

Is the Cummins ONAN P4500i worth it?

If the Cummins ONAN P4500i was the only generator out there, you could argue that its benefits would still be worth the price.

However, with the existence of the Westinghouse iGen4500, I don’t see why anyone would choose the Cummins ONAN P4500i instead.

Additionally, there are a few other good 4500 watt inverter generators that do even better in certain specific areas like price or reliablity.

Other Cummins ONAN P4500i specs

While it should be clear from this review that you likely don’t want the Cummins ONAN P4500i, you may still want to see its other specs in the table below anyway.

The Cummins onan 4500 generator manual contains even more details like the best ways to get it started etc.

Cummins ONAN P4500i FAQ