Not to hijack but on this topic, Honda 2000s have a built in hour meter, but it only tracks in 100hour increments. Every time you start the generator, the number of times the green light blinks corresponds to the # of hours x 100. IE: 3 blinks = 300-399hours.
For closer monitoring, imo, these generators are not finicky. I’ve seen some on the job (that didn’t get stolen, most of them get stolen though) with 1000hours on them and they get few to 0 oil changes. Usually generators on the job yet oil changed by the run out method. Low oil warning shuts it off, after laborer #1,2 and 3 all pull on the recoil about 178 times they break the recoil rope. Then they call the boss and say it died then the rope broke. Only after fixing the rope and pulling on it 33more times does someone check the oil, see that there’s none in there. Fill it up until it’s spilling out the hole, jam the fill plug back in and fire it up. That scenario gets repeated again the next time it runs out of oil.
What I’m trying to say is it’s hard to kill a Honda generator. I’ve seen about 10 die of old age, 50 used as traction by a front end loader or excavator and 100 are stolen and sold at the local pawn shop!
Personally if you’re using it more than enough to just change the oil annually, I’d just approximate 40-50 hours and change it. It takes like 10 min and $4 worth of oil.
