New Generator

[beenthere]

Bob
What do you want the HF gen to do for you, and for how long?

[clww]

I bought a Generac 6500/5000 model from TSC two years ago. I have used it extensively at the cabin when I'm there working. I have nearly 1000 hours on it with few complaints. The only thing is that it does use about a quart of oil every 200 hours of running time. It's a gasoline powered model, and I would buy another one.

[loggah]

clww, thats the same one i bought,works good. Don

[scsmith42]

I'm just curious, has anyone ever tried one of the 800 watt generators sold at HF for $100?  I kinda figured for that money it might be worth a gamble to buy one for camping.

The 2 cycle one?  The RR museum next to the farm bought one a couple of years ago.  The darn thing worked surprisingly well.

[easymoney]

i have two of those little 2 cycle generators. mine say 1000 watts. they would work for camping running lights, charging batteries and maybe a coffee pot. they will not run a skil saw they are not nearly as noisy as some of the Briggs and stratton and such. i had rather sit in the dark than listen to some generators run.
i plan to buy a larger generator to run an electric chainsaw for cutting firewood and such. my luck has not been good with gas chainsaws.

[Larry]

I've had a 12 hp Subaru Robin Homelite generator for 12 years now.  It's been through two ice storms with 10 day plus outages.  I've had to do two carb cleaning jobs because of junky gas.  I finally learned to start it the first of every month to let it run for 15-20 minutes.  Also use Stabil Marine gas stabilizer.

It's a 6.5 KW and will run essentials in a normal house pretty easy (no AC).  No problem with the TV or computers.  The big problem is the expense to run 24/7.  During ice storms we would normally run it for an hour in the morning, hour in the evening, and maybe an hour before bed.  Sometimes might run it at dinner to check the FF.  Only real need was to keep food froze/cold in fridge and freezer.  Heat was with wood stove only.

During the last ice storm it was impossible to get gas unless you drove better than a 100 miles.  The boat has a 50 gallon tank and I hooked it up to the generator the last time.  Think I used between 30 and 40 gallons for 10 days.  That's a lot of gas iffen you have to fetch it in 5 gallon cans.

If buying a new one I would definitely go with propane.  I would really would like to convert this one if I knew there would not be any problems.

It was battery start but after the first battery died I just pull start it.  Normally one or two pulls and its not all that hard to pull.

[VictorH]

There are conversion and add on kits for most small engines.  Some allow you to use either gas or propane and others make the engine dedicated to propane.  You can even get tri-fuel kits that allow for NG to be used as well.  Kits typically cost from $125-250 depending on the engine and use.  Many of the kits are simply an adapter that fits between the air cleaner and the existing carb.

[dgdrls]

http://greenmountaingenerators.com/

Not certain on your budget, but this place moves refurb' military units.

DGDrls

[Ron Scott]

One needs to determine what their size needs are. I rate them on noise, so prefer the Honda's as being the most quiet. However, they are also quite pricey for their size.

[1woodguy]

my favorites for toting around are the smaller Hondas
Or ones with the Honda motors
Old gas doesn't seem to bother them as much

For bigger generators you can still load yourself if you wake up feeling strong I have several pramacs that have honda motors
 

[Brucer]

I use a Honda EM3000 to power the chop saw at the milling site. I chose Honda because of the low noise -- don't want to annoy the neighbourhood.

Use a fuel conditioner if it's going to sit for a while. I lock mine up over the winter and it starts just fine in the spring.

Before you buy, take along your power tools and ask to try them with the generator you are considering. I was looking at a 2500 W Honda to power my 1500 W chop saw. Tried it out at the dealer's and the saw took 45 seconds to get up to speed. The generator was ticking along very nicely the whole time but the saw motor would have burned out in a matter of days. I bumped up to the 3000 W generator and the saw started instantly.

Be very careful with these light, portable generators. They are just too DanG easy to steal. Wherever mine is, it's securely fastened to something that can't be moved. And I'm not going to get into how it's fastened ;).

[Magicman]

I have two; a Honda EU2000, and a Champion 3500.  For quietness, nothing beats the Honda.  Although China made, the Champions are very reliable and have a USA based home office and warranty center.  They are very popular in the RV community, but not as quiet as a Honda.

There are two very different technologies with today's generators.  The "inverter" generators produce DC voltage which is inverted to AC.  They idle down and speed up as higher current is needed.  Standard AC "generators" run at either 1800 (Onan) or 3600 RPM, and are much noisier.

[John Mc]

Remember when shopping that a lot of the lower priced generators are NOT safe for use with electronics (TVs, computers, etc.)  Also remember that a lot of modern heating and cooling systems are now controlled by electronics.  Not only can some of these controls be damaged by "dirty power" from the less expensive generators, some of them simply will not function unless the power is clean enough.

Generally, you want to look for a generator where the THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is LESS than about 5 or 6%.  Also beware:  some manufacturers will give you a rating that says "THD less than 6% at 50% load".  Ask them what it is at Full Load -- since it's often higher (I'm not sure why this is, but I've seen it on several occasions when looking at generators).

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Good thought John....but the problem around here is, the places that sale generators, have customer service people who can't answer the first question about a generator.  :

[John Mc]

Yeah, often it takes some digging with the manufacturer's tech support or customer service line.  I've had decent success getting my questions answered by emailing or posting questions online to various manufacturers. If they are going to put it in writing, they're often more accurate.  If you call, you often have to work to get someone who KNOWS the answer rather than just getting brushed off with a non-answer ("I use mine to power my TV all the time").  You want a number or specific wording in print like "safe for sensitive electronics, not just someone's anecdotal experience.

The inverter-based generators tend to have VERY clean power - often better than what you get from the grid.  However, these can be very expensive. It's also not necessary to go all the way to inverter generators to get power that is "clean enough". 

It just bugs me to see generators advertised as being great for "emergency power backup" for your home that have a THD that won't safely drive electronics. Years ago, when the most electrically complicated thing on your furnace was a thermostat that was not much more than a mechanical on/off switch, that may have been fine.  But a lot of folks have much more complicated systems these days.  What are you going to do in the middle of winter when you fire up your generator and it fries your control board?

[Tom L]

I have a honda eu2000 and have been very happy with it. us it to power my home when we are out of power

last yr during sandy it ran for 10 days straight. in the economy mode and burned 15 gallons of gas.

runs my fridge freezer and a small light at night. if I unplug everthing it can run a coffee pot.

very quiet and mine is 10 yrs old now, may have 700 hrs on it and still runs strong.

[snowstorm]

dose anyone have any experience with an onan gen its the emerald series. it came out of a motor home. if i ground the brown wire that went to the remote panel it starts an runs fine. seems odd it needs to be grounded. if i plug a 1300watt heater in it works fine then it will run 2 1/2 hp motors. unplug the heater and the engine dies. try running 1 motor and the engine dies. the elc motor will run for a few seconds the governor goes wide open on the engine. the really strange part is the engine losses its fire. i used an inductive timing lite to check spark . turn the elc motor on and the engine quits from no spark why?????????       its rated 4000 watts 

[Gary_C]

I have a Honda EU 3000i that supplies all my power while living in the woods which is most of the time. It mostly gets used to recharge the battery bank for the inverter in my camper plus I carry it in the pickup for misc power tools on the job. It's an inverter generator with an eco setting so it only runs as fast as needed for the power demand.

It's been a great generator and the only drawback is it's so heavy and I can just barely lift it into the pickup bed alone. But it's completely dependable, electric start, sips gas, and is super quiet. I'd highly recommend it for carrying in a pickup. But it does not provide 240 volt power.

[woodenboater]

I've got a Honda 2000 generator that charges batteries at my cabin, runs the well pump and some power tool usage (prefer my Milwaukee cordless for most work). Relatively quiet and runs forever on eco. They hold their value, iow, not cheap used ;)


good luck

wb

[petefrom bearswamp]

I have 2, an eu2000 Honda at my Adirondack camp and a Makita (Robin Subaru eng) 5600 here at the house.
Both are very good units the honda is light and quiet,  the Makita heavy but on wheels..
Ran the makita 4 hrs last week when the power was out.
Burned about 2 1/2 gals of gas at full load.
It is noisy but it is at my shop 125 feet from the house so not too bad.
It runs all the essential stuff, water pump, wood boiler furnace in the winter,   2 freezers and 2 refrigerators plus tv and lights.

[Magicman]

This Honda EU2000 has served us well for 9 years. 


 
We used it morning and night in Colorado for 9 days and burned 4 gallons of gasoline.