Portable Generators

[Gary_C]

I have been looking for a good quiet generator. Problem is I need over 3000 watts in the summer to run an A/C in my camper. The main use is for charging batteries that run my inverter and I think it takes just over 2000 watts when the battries are low.

I have used an old 4500 watt generator with a Briggs motor but it is not putting out even 100 volts and will not run much of anything anymore. Plus it's so loud I can't stand to listen to it run for long and it can eat up 4-5 gallons of gas too fast. And it takes two people to move it around.

I thought I had found just what I needed with a Boliy 3600 watt quiet generator that I bought this summer for about $1200. It's a nice unit and it weighs about 70 lbs so I could move it around and it would handle the A/C if I shut down the battery charger. But it was hard starting and I finally took it back to the dealer. He offered a newer version with electric start for $200 more and I took the upgrade. But the little battery crapped out right away and the distributor sent me a better one but I had to take it back to the dealer cause the battery leads were already corroded and it was soldered on to the leads. They got the new battery installed but it was not much better and still would not start the generator when it was cold. However it did start fairly easily with the rope pull. But when it was running the engine speed was going up and down and the voltage went from 100 to 126 volts and I took that one back and got a full refund. The dealer said he was sending it back to the distributor along with the display stand he still had in the showroom.

So now I am back looking again. With the Honda 2000, I can hook two together and get 4000 watts but I doubt one 2000 alone will handle the battery charging and I hate to have to run two units all the time. But I have heard nothing but good things about Honda generators. The next one up is the 3000 but that thing is a beast to carry as it weighs about 130 lbs and 3000 is not large enough for the A/C. There is a newer 3000 Handi that only weighs 70 lbs but it still does not have the max capacity either.

So now I may try a Yamaha 2400 that can be hooked together with another identical unit and would give me more than enough watts. And the price is not so bad at $1200 for one and I don't need two till next summer.

I really liked that Boliy and it was a good size for me but just too many troubles right out of the box. The Hondas have the best reputation but I fall into a capacity problem where I would need two 3000's at $1800 each plus parallel cables. If this Yamaha will work it looks to be the best alternative. That 2400 will do all the charging for me and my wife can get the second one for when she stays in the camper as she is the one that needs the A/C. 

So anybody have any experience with these size generators?

 

[SPIKER]

wow you sure are spending a lot of cash for very little generator.   

I would look at a 4500 to 5000watt unit these can be had for 500 or so bucks used any day of the week and only run 600 or so brand new.

they are not as portable and run 10HP motors on average. 
you could buy 2 of these for the price you were paid for that one that didnt work.

check HD, Lowes and Menards as well as HF for them.   There are a dozen brands and all are about the same workings just names on the sides of them.

Mark

[WH_Conley]

Spending that kind of money and having equipment , I believe I would look at a welder that is also a generator. Not real portable at 600 pounds, but are pretty quite and will run a generator load a long time on 5 gallons of fuel. Tractor supply has a Hobart, which is owned by Miller, top of the line, about 10,000 watts in the 3K range. Diesel would be a little more, but cheaper on fuel. I have seen these machines with 5000+ hours still running good. The only experience I have with these small machines was a Miller Bobcat 225, gas. Hard down welding was 5 gal of gas a day. Again, not something you could load your self, just something to look at.

[Qweaver]

I bought the 11000 w version of that Hobart this past summer and I'm well pleased with the performance and sound level of the machine.  I was able to save $500 by buying through Amazon.com.  Plus no tax or shipping.  Warranty work might be a problem tho'  This machine will power my entire house as long as I don't try to run the HVAC and electric cook stove at the same time.

[Holmes]

I have a Honda 3000 watt gen. with inverter electricity. {Good for computers}I had not started it for close to a year ,  3 pulls and it started  and it is very quiet. I do not find the weight to be a problem.  Dana

[Stump Jumper]

Check out the yamaha inverter generator with battery boost they rev up and idle down based on power use
they are pricey. Go see a demmo

[sawguy21]

You have already discovered the shortcomings of the cheap offshore knockoffs. The bitterness of poor quality remains after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
I am not sure why a 2000W will not keep up to your batteries. Are you trying to charge them off the 12V outlet? You should be using the genny to run a deep cycle charger.

[Gary_C]

wow you sure are spending a lot of cash for very little generator.   

I would look at a 4500 to 5000watt unit these can be had for 500 or so bucks used any day of the week and only run 600 or so brand new.

they are not as portable and run 10HP motors on average. 
you could buy 2 of these for the price you were paid for that one that didnt work.

I already have one of those. It is worthless for what I need and if some one would give me $500 for it, you can have it. On my last job I was working next to a heavily traveled road and I left it sitting in the open for about a month and no one would take it. It will not run a microwave, TV, or a heavy duty batt charger. The TV picture pulsates, the microwave will not start, and the charger doesn't charge. Only thing it is good for is running my grinder for cutting a hydraulic hose to length. And the only way I can get it in the back of the pickup is to run a log chain thru the handles and leave a loop on the ground for the grapple on the forwarder to pick it up.

I do have a need for a welder generator and have rented one in the field a time or two. But it too is not portable enough and I don't have room in the pickup bed to carry that around all the time. And I am not sure if it can work as a electronic power supply. I think you do need an inverter type of generator for the electronic equipment.

So that brings me back to these small, super quiet, and expensive inverter generators that are dominated by Honda and apparently Yamaha. Apparently the Boliy is just a China made imitator that just is not reliable enough. I know some guys that run their hunting camps on a single Honda 2000 generator that will run 24 hours a day on just a few gallons of gas. That would be great but 2000 watts is just not enough. Even 3000 watts may not be enough for everything.

Sawguy21 I am charging those four six volt batteries thru the 2500 watt combo inverter/charger. And it does take a lot of juice to charge and has an internal cooling fan that runs all the time while charging or inverting. I talked to the tech rep at Baileys and he was not sure if the 2000 would run the charger/ inverter. The 3000 would but it definately would NOT run the A/C. And even two 2000's hooked in parallel would struggle with the A/C. There doesn't seem to be an easy or cheap answer.

[Ianab]

The problem you might be having with the cheapo generator is they don't regulate well under a small load. So when you plug in the microwave and it's only running the clock, the voltage is not stable and the oven shuts down. One trick is to plug in a decent static load, like a string of lights or a 1kw electric heater. That gets the unit under a bit of load and things settle down. Going from 1kw to 2 wk load at random isn't an issue, but going from 0 to 1kw gives them a fit.

When my Ex's house burnt down she choose to live in a truck at the farm while the house was rebuilt, so she went and got a Yamaha generator similar to this http://www.yamaha-motor.co.nz/products/power/conventional/10-ef5200fw

Got the remote start kit and could park it in the shed beside the truck, and it had the grunt to run a 2kw heater, microwave, TV, some lights etc, without breaking into a sweat.

The Inverter generators are even better as the output is generated electronically and is much more stable.

Ian

[Magicman]

I have the Honda EU2000i.  Don't use the 12vdc outlet for battery charging.  It's not regulated and not high amperage either.  It's fine for a quick juice up.  For charging and maintaining, use a good quality battery charger plugged into the genny.  I have a B&D 25/10/2 that I use.  (Had to buy a new one after the breakin.)

If noise is not an issue and higher amperage is needed, consider the Champion C46540.  Again, it has a 12vdc outlet, but I plug my battery  charger in.

I regularly use both of the above mentioned generators and absolutely recommend both of them.  Both go to Colorado with me each October.  Why two?  Well when you are 1800 miles from home and rely on a generator for a battery charge up each evening, you carry a spare.  Depending upon the circumstances, they each get  used.  These two are widely used in the RV industry and have a good proven track record.

There are certainly others that will serve you well.  Yamaha for one.  I would be very careful when considering Generac, Honeywell, etc.

[Brucer]

In April I bought a Honda EM3000c generator (3000W) to power my trim saw.

The saw draws 15 amps at 120 volts, so I figured a 2500 watt generator would give me the extra power I needed when the saw starts up. Wrong! Fortunately I took my trim saw to the dealer's, along with a few bits of wood. When I fired up the saw connected to the 2500 W generator, the generator reacted instantly. However, the saw took about 3 seconds to come up to speed -- way too long. I'd burn out the motor in short order with that generator.

Next step was to look at a high-end 3000W generator that happened to be in the shop. The saw got up to speed with no hesitation. The generator had electric start and was remarkably quiet -- but my budget couldn't handle it.

So I gave the EM3000c a try. It worked like a charm. Pull start and a bit louder, but it didn't stretch my budget. Weight is 31 kg (68 pounds). We've been using this thing all summer -- about 4 hours run time per week. It's easy to start and has given us no problems. Mary fired it up yesterday when the temperature was -2 (about 29 F) and it started on the first pull.

It has a 12 volt outlet "for charging batteries only" that puts out just over 8 amps. Looking at the wiring diagram I see there is no power conditioning on the 12 volt circuit so I wouldn't want to power any electronics with it directly.

This unit has been absolutely reliable and is way quieter the the B&S powered generators I've seen around.

[Ron Scott]

Ditto to what Magicman said. We also power a hunting camp with a Honda 2000. Very quiet runner, and no problems over the past 10 years. The Yamaha has come on with a good reputation also.

[johnjbc]

I have 2 of the Honda 2000 inverter generators and they run the air and everything else in my camper fine, If the batteries are up the newer gen will run the air if everything is else off The older one won’t.  I made the Parallel cable my self for a little over $10 with parts from Walmart. Only problem I have had was when I didn’t use the Carburetor drain before storing the unit and it kept surging until I got the carb cleaned out.
I bought mine online for $800 

[ErikC]

 I have a honda 2000i as well. I have used it to charge my batteries at the house when solar isn't keeping up. I have a 24v battery bank of 7000 amp hours, so I am sure you can do what you need to for an rv. That generator maxes out at 20 amps, so you need to set a charger below that. I get the best charge for my run time at 16 amps. I can go a little higher, but run time is a lot less, so I end up with less charge in the batteries at the end of the tank. It will last longer if you don't run at max load too I bet.

[Hilltop366]

I have a Honda EM5000s That I got to run a 2hp air compressor and a 10" cut-off saw at the same time when I was building my house. It has enough power to do that an is quiet enough but I do have something bad to say about my Honda and that is after I finished the house and had power hooked up it sat around a lot only getting used once or twice a year and after a while the inside top of the fuel tank got very rusty because of the filler neck on the tank will not let the tank fill up completely and leaves an air gap at the top, and of coarse the problem of the gas going bad after a while.

After that I have always said that if I was to get another generator I would like a diesel with a plastic tank so I would have no more rotten gas and no more rusty tank (a welder would be nice too)

Also be aware that most brands over rate the output for example my EM5000 is rated at 4500 watts and 5000 peak.

[sawguy21]

Peak (surge) power is the way most manufacturers rate their gennys. Consumers like numbers, the bigger the better. Briggs and Stratton is a notable exception on their portables, they are rated at usable power..

[Gary_C]

Well I did get a generator this week. After going over all the ones that could possibly work, I ended up buying a Honda EU3000is kind of by default. The Yamaha 2400 was not quite big enough and could not be paralled for more watts. The Yamaha 3000 at 154 lbs was too heavy for me to lift. I hated to buy something else from another dealer as the local dealer was very good to me and he has not been able to get a dealership with Honda. Seems those shysters at Northern are trying to lock up all distribution of all Honda generators and would not give this dealer any price break off list price.

I bought this Honda EU 3000is at a L&M Fleet Supply in Cloquet. It's not the new EU 3000i Handi that is lighter at 78 lbs but it was $200 cheaper than the Handi and puts out 2800 watts rated load vs. 2600 watts for the Handi plus it has electric start. So far, after three days of running it's been just great. Starts almost instantly at temps in the 20's and is very quiet. I am very happy with this one. 

The sales guy at L&M told me that the jerks at Northern have called twice this week complaining they are selling those Honda's at too low a price. Seems that Northern started out $300 higher than what L&M was selling them and they had to lower their price at least twice because of customers complaining. 

[John Mc]

Does anyoe know why it is that some generators have a much higher surge capacity than others? I've got a 4000 watt generator with a 6600 watt surge capacity. I see others rated at 4500 continuous with only a 5000 surge rating. (none of these are inverter-based generators).

[Gary_C]

It probably has to do with heat dissapating ability of the generator.

[John Mc]

It probably has to do with heat dissapating ability of the generator.

I would have thought heat dissipation was more related to the continuous rating than the surge rating.

[mapleveneer]

I have to agree with Conley and Weaver way up top.  Get a welder, then you can fix other things that break, too.  I picked up an old Miller Legend welder (1992) for $500 last year with a 5 Kw generator output.  Running as a generator it turns 1800 rpm, just purrs along, you hardly know that it is running.  Power was off at the house for three days last spring and it worked flawlessly.  The newer Bobcat models have 10Kw generator output.

[Qweaver]

We just used the Hobart 11000w(9500w full time) to power the house for 6 hours and I was able to run the entire house as long as I did not try to use the HVAC and range at the same time.  I didn't try running both but the math said don't do it.  But with the pellet stove on and the HVAC off, we could run everything else.  This machine is very quiet compared to my old Lincoln 7000w.