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buylow12's avatar
buylow12
Explorer
Mar 10, 2018

Choosing a Inverter Generators

If I should post this elsewhere, just let me know.

So my $100 1000 watt Chinese loud smokey piece of ****, without an inverter of course, finally gave out on me yesterday when I pulled it out just to run it to make sure it still worked. After messing with it for about 15 minutes I gave it to some Mexicans in our park for free.

Before everyone just says spend $1000 on a Honda or Yamaha, we have two 100 watt solar panels and two deep cycle 6V batteries and that was sufficient for months of boondocking. We basically just use the generator as an emergency backup to charge the batteries. With the way we live we get three days on full batteries with no sun and one good sun day can charge them fully. I think I used the generator 3 times and my dad who gave it to me used to use it to run the Christmas lights on his boat for the Christmas parade and that was the extent of the use.

However I usually like to upgrade each time I replace something so I've been looking at some of these inverter generators. I can get one the same size 1000 watt for like $200 so it'll be quieter and what not and some of the 2000 watt ones you can hook together for like $450. I really only need the 1000 watt one but I kind of want the 2000 watt so I can run the whole trailer and could get another and daisy chain them to run my A/C if needed.

Anyways I'm really open to ya'lls opinion on what I should choose.
  • Sounds like you already know the options.
    You point out the very infrequent use so high investment for minimal usage is rather a bit of a waste. I would suggest sataying at 2000 watts for the reason you mentioned, plus the 1000, if your batteries are very low could be taxed if your converter is very large.
    The 2000 inverter also becomes a nice fallback option at home during power failures or other events.
    If longer term reliability is a worry for you, either spend the extra $500 on the purchase, or with HD, or Harbor Freight buy an extended warranty and pocket the difference.
  • buylow12 wrote:
    It's just not something I use that much, so it's another $500 (double the price) really worth it. I suppose that's my question.


    Seems to my that's only a decision you can make. ;) Another alternative you might consider is to look around for a lightly used Honda or Yamaha ... I've done it twice myself, saved quite a bit over buying new, and when I sold each actually sold them for more than I paid. :B
  • If I had it all to do over, I would buy the Yamaha 2400 watt unit.
    It has just enough extra power to be able to do anything I wan't and has features Honda doesn't.
    Second choice would be the Champion 3100.
  • It's just not something I use that much, so it's another $500 (double the price) really worth it. I suppose that's my question.
  • Sounds like you've made up your mind, deciding against the Yamaha and Honda brands which have been building reliable inverter generators for decades. The crowd promoting newcomers like Champion and Predator will be along shortly to regal you with how great their low cost units perform.