The Honda is the way to go. Yep, they're spendy but while worth it in my opinion.
What ever you buy, don't store it with pump gas in it. Ethanol oxidizes the shit out of the inside of the carb and plugs up the "slow" jet causing it to surge and/or die when put under a load.
The Honda has a drain on the bottom of the bowl you can open to drain the carb. You have to open the side cover to do that. I keep a gal of "true fuel" (non-ethanol) around and if I can, I just run it dry (pump gas). After that, I put a little true fuel in it and run it for a few min. If I only need it for a few hours, I just run the non-ethanol. If I need to run multiple gal threw it, I use pump gas then flush it when I get home. Generator always starts with just a few pulls.