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The trademarked logo for Yamaha depicts the brand name in bold red and a logo graphic with three intertwined tuning forks.

Yamaha

Why Choose Yamaha?

For over 135 years, Yamaha has been a leading manufacturer of a wide range of musical and motorized products. The brand has dominated several manufacturing sectors, being the largest producer of pianos in the world and a leading manufacturer of motorcycles. Another realm in which the brand has earned its position since the 1970s is in generators like their portable generators, gas powered generators, industrial generators, and inverter generators.

If you are looking for an effective and efficient generator, your first step is in knowing how to choose the best portable power station. By looking at the brand’s legacy and innovations in building generators, you can better understand which names to trust.

History

The Yamaha company dates back to 1887, when it was established in Japan as a piano and reed organ manufacturer. The corporation was established in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan, where it is headquartered today. In fact, the brand’s modern logo showing three interlocking tuning forks is a tribute to its origins as the world’s largest piano manufacturer. Although they still produce pianos and remain top-ranked in that sector today, the company diversified over the years. Its other lines of business include motorized vehicles, other musical instruments, semiconductors, and power generators.

Founding and Milestones

Founder Torakusu Yamaha

Torakusu Yamaha founded his innovative company in 1887 at the age of 36. He initially named the organization Nippon Gakki Co Ltd. The brand was renamed in his honor after his death.

Originally a watchmaker, rickshaw driver, and medical equipment repair man, the entrepreneur did not plan to start repairing or building pianos and organs. But the local Jinjou Elementary School had a non-working organ they needed repaired. The school asked him if he could work on it and by accepting this project it opened doors to his new occupation. Within two months, he and a colleague had built the first Japanese-made reed organ. That first organ was called “badly made” by regional experts. But the determined founder attended music theory lectures and produced a second organ in another two months, with this one being praised. From there, he received seven orders for new organs from Japanese clients. In 1889, he produced over 250 organs to fulfill orders, including one for the governor. After visiting the United States in 1899 and touring piano makers W.W. Kimball and Company, Mason and Hamlin, and Steinway and Sons as part of a five-month tour, Yamaha officially started building pianos.

After Torakusu’s death in 1916, Nippon Gakki Company started evolving. It was first renamed for the esteemed founder, becoming the Yamaha Corporation. During World War II, like most manufacturing companies, the company began making products for the war effort.

After the war, they started designing and building motorcycles. The YA-1 Motorcycle was their first model, a hit as “The Red Dragonfly” and Yamaha Motor Company’s first official product in 1955. Distributor Cooper Motors was selling the motorcycles in the U.S. by 1958. In 1960, the brand added outboard motors to their product lines. After automobile collaboration with Toyota in 1963, snowmobile manufacturing and other motorized products were added to the company’s lineup.

The Japanese-based company produced its first widely available generator in 1973, the ET1200. This generator was the predecessor of the company’s more recent portable, gas-powered, industrial, and inverter generators. Yamaha USA opened in 1977 to meet growing motorized product manufacturing needs and the growing demands of American consumers, such as for the production of the generator line.

Production and Manufacturing

USA HQ Building opened in 1980 in Cypress, CA

Products

Generators produced by the company today include:

If you have questions about how to choose the best portable generator or why buy a portable generator, the company offers helpful information for consumers. On its website, you can find a handy model selection guide. You can also learn more about the main features, safety features like CO sensors, and how having a portable generator can help you. Explore the main types of generators, such as inverter generators, fresh water, and standard generators.

Besides this equipment, the brand also manufactures other power products. These include their lines of pressure washers, general purpose motors, mud pumps, and high-power water pumps. In general, consumers put a lot of trust in Yamaha products because of the brand’s lengthy history that dates back to 1887. The company’s products are particularly revered in motorsports circles because of design and manufacturing innovations since the 1950s. In fact, they created the world’s first off-road motorbike.

Yamaha started really leaving its mark with motorcycles in 1955 when their first production bike, the YA-1 street motorcycle, won the first two races in which it competed. Consumers loved the hearty engine and sleek lines of the YD1 and MF1 street bikes, the first two sold in the USA. In 1961, one of the manufacturer’s motorcycles drew attention as the 6th place winner in the World Grand Prix 250cc class at round 4, the Isle of Man. The brand started a decade-long winning streak at the Daytona 200 in 1972.

Motorcycles, scooters and other types of bikes made by the company today include:

  • Motocross bikes
  • Cross country motorbikes
  • Trail motorbikes
  • Dual sport motorbikes
  • Supersport street bikes
  • Hyper Naked street bikes
  • Sport Heritage motorcycles
  • Transcontinental Touring motorcycles
  • Adventure Touring motorcycles
  • Sport Touring motorcycles
  • Scooters
  • Sport ATVs
  • Utility ATVs
  • Recreation side-by-sides
  • Utility side-by-sides
  • Sport side-by-sides
  • Power-assist bicycles

Manufacturing

Yamaha’s corporate headquarters building in Shizuoka, Japan

Since the company’s beginnings, most of its products have been proudly made in Japan. U.S.-based manufacturing plants built after the 1980s took over some manufacturing for the American market, such as for golf carts, personal watercraft, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and side-by-side vehicles. But generators have primarily come from three plants near the company’s headquarters in Shizuoka. This changed after the 2011 tsunami that hit this region and caused widespread destruction. Some of the manufacturing moved over to the Shanghai, China, are, including the production of generators. For this reason, people who purchase one of the brand’s generators may notice that it was made in China.

Key Facts

According to the company’s President and CEO, Yoshihiro Hidaka, Yamaha developed a new long-term vision for sustainability, knowledge, innovation and human rights with specific goals to achieve by the year 2030. Toward these goals, Yamaha signed the 2017 10 Principles of the United Nations Global Compact that specifically covers human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption. The company has committed to act within those principles and those of other international agreements in all of their business operations. The brand has also recommitted itself to its own principles of sustainability, local and global community harmony and stakeholder trust. As pertaining specifically to Yamaha generators, the company commits to the “research and development of next-generation power sources.”

The company operates under a mission of “Kando.” This translates as the simultaneous deep satisfaction and intense excitement felt as a result of encountering something of exceptional value.

Yamaha is participating with the Sustainable Development Goals of 2015’s United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. This includes pledges of activity toward Yamaha’s clean water supply system, using outboard motors to modernize fishing in developing countries, cleaning up lakeshores and beaches, removing invasive species, and supporting employment and education with motorcycles.

The company also committed its participation in the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) with the overall goal of reaching the Paris Agreement target of maintaining a global temperature increase of less than 2°C. As part of this program, Yamaha partners with NGOs like the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), World Resources Institute (WRI), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and United Nations Global Compact.

Warranty Information

Yamaha backs up almost all its new generators with a 3-year limited warranty for personal, noncommercial use, and a 2-year warranty for commercial or rental use. This warranty covers all defects in parts and workmanship for 3 years from the date of purchase. The exception is for the EF1000iS, which is under warranty for 2 years for personal, noncommercial use.

It is important to look for warranty information in your product’s box as you receive it and open it for the first time. To make this easy, the company recommends looking for the following box contents:

  • Spark-plug wrench, shaped according to the generator model
  • Owner’s manual
  • Service information
  • WEB-questionnaire information
  • Warranty paperwork

Check Out More Yamaha Content From GeneratorTools

Yamaha Generator Reviews

We make finding your ideal portable power supply easy through our Yamaha Generator Reviews. These reviews can help you understand which product will suit your needs best, such as the EF7200DE/D, EF4500iSE, or EF2200iS. These informative and unbiased reviews give you helpful points to consider about each of the generators before you make your final selection, based on real customer feedback.

Yamaha Generator Roundups

Since the 1880s, the Yamaha brand has stood for excellence in manufacturing, durability, quality, and customer satisfaction. But which generator has the precise features you need? How can you know how to choose the best portable generator for your home, family or commercial needs? Here, you can explore each product’s features point-by-point to find the right fit.

Yamaha Generator Press Releases

Through press releases, you can get an inside view of Yamaha’s business and the investment they put into their manufacturing process and product quality. For example, recent releases explore the company’s generator CO sensor technology, model innovations, and product use in the real world.

Yamaha Generator Recalls

By reviewing product recalls, you can get a clearer picture of manufacturing quality and how the company handles product defects. Do they act responsibly and keep customers well-informed? Although Yamaha generator recalls are not common, these informative documents may help you choose which product to buy or which to remove from consideration.

Where to Buy

Although Yamaha does not have its own storefront on Amazon, you can find the company’s products available there through licensed resellers.

Similar Brands

Similar brands for generators that compete with Yamaha include:

Online Presence

The brand maintains a strong online presence as evidenced by the following media sources.

Contact Information

If you need to contact the company, you can do so through the following sources.