Thread: school me on Generators.

Originally Posted by Blatant

Is there anything else that I "must" have regarding this? Someone alluded to not using extension cords or using some sort of heavy duty/gauge cord?

If want to run anything without a cord, ie. furnace, well pump, built in fridge, oven, you will need to run it through your panel and then you'll need a special 240v cord and your panel will need to be wire for it. I got by with a portable for years, but eventually got tired of dealing with it. I'll never get my money back on the whole house gen, it's more of an insurance policy and it gives my wife peace of mind, since I'm gone a lot.

This is the best generator in my opinion. It will start every time with the first pull. It is very quiet. Some generators are incredibly noisy.
With the eco throttle on it just sips gas.
I made the mistake of not buying this one, and everytime I want to build at my cabin, my piece of shit honeywell 2000 needs about 40 to 50 pulls to get it started.
I need physiotherapy after the weekend from just starting the thing.

Its a honda and it will run forever.

Originally Posted by Blatant

I think i'm going to pick up the honda eu2000i for about 850.00

Is there anything else that I "must" have regarding this? Someone alluded to not using extension cords or using some sort of heavy duty/gauge cord?

That thing is a joke. 2,000 watts for 850.00 is a butt raping without lube.

Seriously, why the massive drop from what you were first looking at? 2,000 watts isn't gonna power much of nothing.

so i'm still fckn lolligagging around but need to get to it soon. dbs, the reason for the drop is the honda eu is pretty super quiet. Had the time to fck with one this weekend. I could talk on the phone with it a ft away. Pretty impressive. Still hate the price tag though.

HOwever while at costco this weekend i saw this.

http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Productg...=11&lang=en-CA

seems to be similar to the honda, especially in the db category. Super quite etc. Anyone bought or used one of these? Half the price or more vs the honda

no experience with that costco gen - though i have a generic 6500 from costco - that we built our cabin with (saws, air compressor, etc). gas hog(ish), loud as fuck, and i won't plug fragile electronics into it, but cheap.

i've used seven honda eu2000's all summer long for the past four years for work. they run like champs, easy to maintain, sip fuel, light and quiet. you can also rig them in a series if you need more power. highly recommend them.

do yourself a favor and ground any generator you get. a piece of rebar pounded as far in the ground as possible with some copper wire wrapped around it will work fine. helps keep it from tripping under multiple loads

I have a Honda 5000 generator for when the power goes out. It was the smallest 240V model at the time (for my well pump). After 20 years it still starts on the first pull. I converted my HW boiler and well pump to plugs (which doesn't meet code) so I can just plug in the stuff I need. Works great -- I can hook everything up in under 10 minutes. Fridges and freezers don't use much power (around 100W) and I even run the satellite and home theater gear with mine.

The Honda inverter gear is worth the money and will last a long time (a friend has a 3000i which is barely portable). A 2000i will run any power tool you have so it's the smallest size for off the grid living plus it has a bigger fuel tank so it'll run overnight. Get a big chain and padlock so it doesn't wander off.

Originally Posted by wendigo

do yourself a favor and ground any generator you get. a piece of rebar pounded as far in the ground as possible with some copper wire wrapped around it will work fine. helps keep it from tripping under multiple loads

Bad advice. Different generators have different grounding requirements. Honda, for example, uses a floating neutral so shouldn't normally be grounded.

Originally Posted by Blatant

HOwever while at costco this weekend i saw this.

http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Productg...=11&lang=en-CA

seems to be similar to the honda, especially in the db category. Super quite etc. Anyone bought or used one of these? Half the price or more vs the honda

I have one of those that I use to power my travel trailer when we're boondocking. It's a sweet little unit. Quiet. Efficient. Easy to operate. With the eco mode on and a relatively low load you can stand right next to it and carry on a normal conversation. Not all that powerful though so be aware of the limited amount of equipment that it'll run. I'm thinking about buying another one with a parallel kit next summer so that I can run the AC on warm evenings.

FYI Sam's sells it for like $400.

Practical info cruiser. Thanks. And thanks on the Sam's. I haven't check there yet but knew they had some sorts of Gen's. The specs seem to be pretty close to the honda.

How long have you used it? Any hiccups at all?

I probably have 20 or 25 hours on it so not that much use yet. Just bought it this spring so it's only had a few trips. No issues to report though. It's easy to start and doesn't seem to use much fuel. I certainly don't mean to compare it to the Honda in long term reliability, but I could buy a few of these units for the cost of one new Honda eu2000i at a local retailer. And I'm only using it for dry camping, not for emergency power so I have a different level of risk tolerance than some folks might. Still, it seems to be well built. Nothing jiggles and all the plastics line up. And like I said when you throttle it down in Eco Mode it really isn't much more noisy than running a cheap box fan.

found tons of reviews on this finally. They all seem to do paint a very favorable picture for what it is. Also it's nice no one is saying it's a honda or yamaha.

Originally Posted by Blatant

found tons of reviews on this finally. They all seem to do paint a very favorable picture for what it is. Also it's nice no one is saying it's a honda or yamaha.

Blatant, let us know what you bought, as I will just go with what you did the research on. I need one too. Thanks

I've got an 1850 watt Coleman. When the power goes down, it'll work the coffee pot, run the sump pump (main power issue) and keep food cold in the fridge. But not all at the same time. We go into survival mode. Cook with the camp stove, light with candles and snuggle to keep warm. Gas powered hot water tank makes things bearable.

Final answer at this point: Despite all the info I found on the champion, which i think would be an outstanding deal for the cost generator, i ended up finding some brah on cL selling a honda eu1000i for 300 bucks that he bought just this past june. Receipts and all. I may still need the 2k and it'll probably be the champion but for 300 on the honda 1k,(which many reviews allege 1200) i couldn't pass it up, i can sell it for double when i figure it out.

I will admit, there is ALOT of shit you need to know, understand, research or figure out regarding generators. It is remarkable how quite this thing really is...

so the honda eu1k, despite being a slick little generator and running the new fridge, not the old one, is just not enough juice. I'll unload it on CL and stew over the champion 2k as originally thought or a honda 2k.

I bought the EU2000 during the recent power outage. It ran the sidebyside fridge, lights and TV. It is amazingly quite. It is easy to move around. I drove it to my office one day.

At one point I had the FIOS system unit, two cable boxes, TV, a few lights and the fridge connected. When the fridge cycled on the FIOS cut out for a second. The generator was in economode. I didn't get around to testing it in full power mode.

Was that side by side comparison inside a garage? Isn't that a bad idea?

Thought I heard that there is a recall currently on some of the champion generators.

Just bought a Honda EU1000, it is a sweet little machine. Small, light and quiet, perfect for camping, charging the batteries. Not a lot of out put, but I don't need a lot of power, and portability is more important.

I already have a Coleman 1800w and it is too big, heavy and load, all of which the Honda 2000 is better at, just not as good as the 1000.