I guess it depends on what you mean by good. I have only put about 25-30 hours on mine since buying it last summer with about 950 hours showing on the meter, I use it to for power at my shed in the back yard about 150 feet from the house. These units are not exactly small and portable with the ASK the 701a weighs in a bit over 500 pounds dry which is a lot for a generator rated at only 3000 watts, of course that is military rating at 8000 ft and with a .8 PF, somewhere in the tech manuals it states it will support up to 400% for starting loads, etc. These units also will output 120V 1 phase, 240V 1 phase, 120/208 3 phase, and a special 120V only 3 phase mode, they however do not output household 120/240 split single phase unless you make a small modification.
As I see it the pros and cons are:
Pro: heavy enough not to grow legs too easy (after loosing a push mower, power washer, wheel barrow, propane tank, etc. from my back yard over the years this is important to me)
Pro: Not too heavy to move if it NEEDS to move, I have scooted mine by hand a few feet.
Pro: Good solid construciton
Pro: easy cold start, I have yet to need to use the glow plugs before starting, have tried down to 28 degrees, below 30 it sputters just a little
Con: its 3600 rpm, and fuel economy could be better, it gets around .5 gph full load
Con: utility grade frequency regulation, on mine on a cold day it takes about 10 seconds to start registering on the meter, goes to about 57 hz then takes 2-3 minutes to stabilize around 60-61 hz, once warm full load variation is around 3-4 hz. Still much better than the deptatment store units, also it takes going from zero to full load in one step without a hiccup.
Con: even with the ASK this thing is relatively loud, using a sound meter it measures identical to my 4.5 HP Sears push mower, the difference is this is a muffled sound, I have mine set on concrete pavers and can feel the vibration through my shoes 25-30 feet away, I certainly would not want to sleep with it outside my window, but at 50 feet it would be tolerable, at 150 feet from my house I have to listen for it to see if its running, but I do have a lot of highway noise here.
Con: parts availability for all practical purposes this engine was only used in this series of generators and its DC, and 400 hz cousins.
Ike