3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
professor95 wrote: EDIT ADDED 45/5/2013- When this thread started in March of 2005, I never expected to see it survive this long or amass the quantity of information that has been shared here. In...
Forum Discussion
Champion Generators vs Hurricane Wilma.
After 3 days in the dark, as it became apparent that power would not be restored quickly, a number of my neighbors decided to buy generators. While ELM3000's were not available, Sam's club and BJ Wholesale had Champions for sale. BJ Wholesale had 3500 Watt units, Sams had the larger 5500 Watt Champion for sale.
Guess who got to assemble and teach people how to set up and use them??? Yours truly.
In all, 4 households bought the Champion 5500, and 2 bought Champion 3500 units.
There were several minor problems with a few of the 5500 Watt units. One would run only briefly, then shut down. I quickly traced the problem to a kinked fuel line where it exits the fuel shut off valve. It was just a little too long. Snipping an inch off it prevented it from re-kinking.
Two other 5500 Watt units developed vapor lock in the fuel tank. They would burn about 2-1/2 to 2 gallons of fuel, then shut down. Loosening the fuel cap produced a whoosh of air being sucked in. Placing a small bit of wire across the fuel cap's black rubber seal when replacing the cap allowed for a small amount of air to equalize the tank pressure and provided a workable, if not elegant, solution to the problem.
While none of the Champions were put to such a harsh test as I put my ELM3000, everyone who bought a Champion was satisfied with their purchase, and darned happy to have power and TV. (Especially those with children.) The relative quiet of the Chinese generators was noted with approval by everyone who had them, and with envy by the other neighbors with Colemans, Generacs, Troy-Bilts, Etc.
Oddly enough, while there seemed to be generators available for purchase a few days after the storm, gas cans were nowhere to be found! As people bought generators, I leant my empties to them. Waiting on line for gas I couldn't help them with, although people took turns bringing all the cans for re-fill.
Once again, the information on this list was invaluable.
After 3 days in the dark, as it became apparent that power would not be restored quickly, a number of my neighbors decided to buy generators. While ELM3000's were not available, Sam's club and BJ Wholesale had Champions for sale. BJ Wholesale had 3500 Watt units, Sams had the larger 5500 Watt Champion for sale.
Guess who got to assemble and teach people how to set up and use them??? Yours truly.
In all, 4 households bought the Champion 5500, and 2 bought Champion 3500 units.
There were several minor problems with a few of the 5500 Watt units. One would run only briefly, then shut down. I quickly traced the problem to a kinked fuel line where it exits the fuel shut off valve. It was just a little too long. Snipping an inch off it prevented it from re-kinking.
Two other 5500 Watt units developed vapor lock in the fuel tank. They would burn about 2-1/2 to 2 gallons of fuel, then shut down. Loosening the fuel cap produced a whoosh of air being sucked in. Placing a small bit of wire across the fuel cap's black rubber seal when replacing the cap allowed for a small amount of air to equalize the tank pressure and provided a workable, if not elegant, solution to the problem.
While none of the Champions were put to such a harsh test as I put my ELM3000, everyone who bought a Champion was satisfied with their purchase, and darned happy to have power and TV. (Especially those with children.) The relative quiet of the Chinese generators was noted with approval by everyone who had them, and with envy by the other neighbors with Colemans, Generacs, Troy-Bilts, Etc.
Oddly enough, while there seemed to be generators available for purchase a few days after the storm, gas cans were nowhere to be found! As people bought generators, I leant my empties to them. Waiting on line for gas I couldn't help them with, although people took turns bringing all the cans for re-fill.
Once again, the information on this list was invaluable.
