Another Generator question..

[nothermark]

Originally Posted by pasdad1

Except the $1000 generator is STILL more reliable AND MUCH quieter ! Plus the filter will NOT keep the frequency stable as this still depends on the RPM of a small 2cycle engine made in China by the lowest bidder !

So what? You assume I care about either the noise or the frequency stability more than the cost. As I pointed out earlier, I do not. The frequency is a red herring. So is the questionable high frequency ripple in the QST article. The voltage stability is reasonable unless one is trying to slam big loads on and off in a rapid manner. That would be an uncommon use.

My point is that one can have a choice of a noisy vacation or a quiet stay at home for the difference in price. Ditto, one can have a $100 stand by or nothing. As for the "made in china" slur all it tells me is folks do not read origin labels as much as they should.

[pasdad1]

Originally Posted by nothermark

As for the "made in china" slur all it tells me is folks do not read origin labels as much as they should.

No. My Honda generator engine was NOT made in China. Maybe Honda has a factory there now, I don't know...but the quality would be up to Honda specs vs the no-name clones.

[nothermark]

But I can buy 9 more Chinese made one's for the same price as the Honda. That is assuming I will need them. The latter is not an assumption I make.

Given the difficulty in finding anything not made in china these days I will take your word for the Honda but check the label on anything else I am considering.

[1bigmess]

If you can buy 9 or 10 2k watt "quiet" inverter gennies that can be paired together for 30 amps of power for the price of one Honda EU2000i, than you should buy ten of them, and sell them for double the money, because we've all been utterly fooled by Big Red and you can reap all the benefits.

Tell me where I can buy nine or ten of them, and I'll go do it right now. I'll even post pictures to prove it.

[TVG]

so, what are yall considering noisy? is there a threshold from noisy to ok to quiet. I know the DB levels, just wondering what the definition of noisy is. Anything over 75db? Or less?

[pasdad1]

Originally Posted by nothermark

But I can buy 9 more Chinese made one's for the same price as the Honda. That is assuming I will need them. The latter is not an assumption I make.

Given the difficulty in finding anything not made in china these days I will take your word for the Honda but check the label on anything else I am considering.

Reliability has to be measured with the difficulty of obtaining another Chinese one at the time of failure, plus the inconvenience of doing without power for this interval. If you are in the middle of nowhere, and the generator breaks.....do you congratulate yourself at having saved $900 when in reality it may take a week or more to get a replacement, and you have to move to a park with full hookups @$30/night ?

And also the $100 Harbor freight generator is NOT a replacement for a Honda eu2000i as the HF unit is rated at 900 watts

[pasdad1]

Originally Posted by TVG

so, what are yall considering noisy? is there a threshold from noisy to ok to quiet. I know the DB levels, just wondering what the definition of noisy is. Anything over 75db? Or less?

Not sure I would consider a loud vacuum cleaner at 70Db "quiet"

[nothermark]

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

If you can buy 9 or 10 2k watt "quiet" inverter gennies that can be paired together for 30 amps of power for the price of one Honda EU2000i, than you should buy ten of them, and sell them for double the money, because we've all been utterly fooled by Big Red and you can reap all the benefits.

Tell me where I can buy nine or ten of them, and I'll go do it right now. I'll even post pictures to prove it.

The original question was whether or not the HF generators are used and if they work. The answer was more or less "yes but". The inevitable noise and reliability of the Honda over the cheapy then started.

No one argues that the Honda is not a better unit but if all one wants is something to charge one's trailer battery in the boonies the chinese units will feed AC to a charger well enough. If one is looking at the cheapies there is are assumption that the need is not great while up front cost is an issue. In that case the $100 unit should be good for a few hundred hours at a cost that will not blow the vacation budget. That may well be a few years use for the OP.

FWIW As far as the QST articles quoted go the reason they are of interest to the Amateur Radio community is that they little $100 units are a regular at weekend long field day events where they often feed a few lights and a charger to maintain portable radios. They work at a cost a lot of folks can afford.

[1bigmess]

Originally Posted by nothermark

The original question was whether or not the HF generators are used and if they work. The answer was more or less "yes but". The inevitable noise and reliability of the Honda over the cheapy then started.

There are perfectly valid reasons for that.

[TVG]

do you really need a inverter type? What happens if its not?

[pasdad1]

Originally Posted by TVG

do you really need a inverter type? What happens if its not?

The inverter generators are the quietest since the engine can run at variable speed according to the load. A non-inverter generator runs at 3600 RPM all the time.

[1bigmess]

I wouldn't even put "quitest" at the top of that list as the best feature for the owner. Being able to only run at an engine speed that is needed for the load saves fuel. No or light load, sips fuel. Heavier load, the engine RPM adjusts accordingly.

Industrial gennies run at a constant speed, whether you're burning a light bulb, running the microwave, or cranking down on the AC. It is one of the ways they can be sold for less money. This particular lack of a feature alone does not make an industrial gennie less reliable.