Portable Generators--What Brand?

[*zap*]

A Honda invertor purchase for long term use is a no brainer...the construction/materials use is night and day compared to the china built stuff. Now if you need a backup I would say a 'lesser' gennie would be ok. Or use the lesser and have a Honda for backup.....just run the Honda a bit every few weeks or store it correctly.

 

[Stache Attack]

Cummins onan. Good selection of them. They have dual fuel options and don’t let you down. I’m hoping to get one soon very good machines

 

[Sled]

I've used Honda and the harbor freight predator. Both are great and work for a long time. For the cash I still own the predator and have sold my Honda for profit.

 

[TimeOnTarget]

I have a 2200 and a 2000 Honda. Both have been awesome. I also have a 15kw champion that has been great as well although I do wish it had a eco mode.

I had a bigger generac for awhile and it was a POS from day one.

 

[*zap*]

One thing that is good to do is:
When changing oil try to start up after you drain the oil out. Make sure that the oil alert is working.

 

[Broomd]

Always have to state that Honda and Yamaha are tough to beat. That said, we have a 7500w Westinghouse ($854 shipped purchased 1/2016) wired into the dedicated whole-house panel and it's been flawless for the last 7-8 years.
We also have a Westinghouse 2400 invertor ($554 shipped purchased 12/2015) for the small stuff.
If we know there will be a power outage coming we use the small one.

Flawless performance and all-in for $1400 for both, tough to beat. Don't overthink it. There really are great budget alternatives!

 

[DAD]

Is there a specific place where I should look at buying a Honda generator from?

 

[ScreamingPotato]

We have an off grid camp down on the coast here and are heavy generator users in the summer (A/C). Sometimes I live there for a couple weeks at a time also. Got a main cabin and a two room bunkhouse now to run. To say we've been through all kind of generators is an understatement, pretty much all of them. My favorite right now is the Westinghouse igen 4500 and now I have a Westinghouse "banger" for a backup as well. The igen has a fuel life meter that's actually really accurate which is nice to peak in and see if you've got a few hours left sometimes. It gives us roughly 20 hours on a 3.5 gallon tank that I overfill a bit. That's running pretty much a small house and everything you can think of. The stove is gas but microwave, coffee, A/C in the Texas heat and all the rest of the fixings that come with it obviously lights and flood lights and such. We have a camper also and I swipe the igen to go on trips if we'll need a lot of power, winter is just the little Firman 2000 watt inverter though. The igen 4500 we put 900+ hours on it this summer and it hasn't skipped a beat. I did finally change the oil a few weeks ago. The banger gives us about 14 hours on a 4 gallon tank but it runs high idle and not designed to save fuel like the inverters are.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Honda

 

[BigE]

Is there a specific place where I should look at buying a Honda generator from?

Genconnex direct if you want a propane fueled Honda

 

[hiker270]

There are thousands of Honda dealers out there. Generally the price for a new one is fairly competitive between most dealers.

 

[WyldGoose]

I have a dual fuel Champion for my house, I only run propane with. Electric push button start, and pull start. Reliance inlet to plug into next to the panel and an Interlock plate.
It powers my 4 freezers, 2 fridges, lights, tv, WiFi…
I’d like to add a little propane converted Honda 2200i for my truck camper with a soft start on the AC.

 

[DAD]

Is the Honda 2200 big enough to run multiple appliances at once?

 

[sasquatch]

Is the Honda 2200 big enough to run multiple appliances at once?

You could likely keep a refrigerator and freezer going with maybe some lights, but depending on size etc etc it may struggle.

I use a Yamaha 2000 if/when I lose power from hurricanes and depending on what else I want to run at the time I may have to run my fridge/freezer in batches.

Example when out and about during the day I’ll run the fridge/freezer, but then at night I’ll unplug those to run a window unit to sleep.

Refrigerators and freezers are insulated pretty good. If not opening constantly they’ll last an easy 12 hours on and off


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[ScreamingPotato]

^I ran my reef aquariums off of a little Firman 2100i for 4 days recently. I'm sure the Honda would do at least as well or probably better. Those reef tanks have some high wattage lights, multiple pumps, dosers, skimmer, heater (which was in overdrive because it was Snowpocalypse). In addition it ran my son's TV and video game system lol, and like said above I'd cycle in the fridge and deep freezers but they're in the garage so didn't need much. I never tried to run everything so never found the limit, but the reef tanks ran 24/7 nonstop.

 

[tdhanses]

Is the Honda 2200 big enough to run multiple appliances at once?

Think of it this way that’s 2200 peak watts not constant running watts, so really you probably will have 1900-2000 continuous watts, a microwave uses between 900-1200watts to run.

2200 isn’t going to run much in a house unless you just want lights and maybe a freezer.

 

[Remington92]

6yrs with a harbor freight predator 3500 inverter and its never let me down for 1/3 the price of a honda.

 

[Yoder]

I bought a Champion dual fuel about 5 years ago. I haven't put a ton of hours on it but I really like it. I never bought a transfer switch. I open the main, then wire it into my 30-amp breaker for my dryer. My panel doesn't have any spare breakers, or I would install a dedicated 30-amp breaker with a twist lock outlet outside. I can feed the entire house. You have to be mindful that you only have 30 amps to work with so you can't just turn everything on at once. Don't do this unless you know what you are doing. If you back feed the grid during an outage, you could potentially kill someone working on the lines.

 

[TJfromTX]

Ran the Champion 4650 Dual Fuel for days on end during Hurricane Beryl..... no issues at all.

 

[Nick Muche]

6yrs with a harbor freight predator 3500 inverter and its never let me down for 1/3 the price of a honda.

One year with mine, bought it based on a friends recommendation, he’s used one for quite awhile. It runs our cabin flawlessly and quiet. The price is so good that I had to try it over the Honda.