3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

shum02 wrote:

Bluestreak wrote:
I am about ready to pull the trigger and order the Costco generator...but I am suprised that there are no reviews on the Costco Website yet! How come?

Noise is my major concern, and I was curious about the comments of the poster with the clip of his freshly arrived unit...talking about "clatter" as a major part of the noise. Where is this noise coming from? Is it from the sheet metal parts, the valve train in the engine, cooling fins ringing or ???

Finally, I know it's comparing oranges and limes, but does anyone know how the Champion 3000 compares to the Honywell 2000 as far as noise ?

I'd love to put the various generators we talk about here in a free-field environment and make some actual measurements!

Thanks for the link. I had seen this clip before and liked it for what Honda was trying to do, but I have some built-in skepticism over any video clip of anything making noise. Most image recording devices (phones, cameras, video recorders, etc.) and consumer audio recording equipment have built in ALC (automatic level control) circuitry and they all work in strange and mysterious ways to make the sound “better”. As it turns out, how "loud" some noise maker seems to be, as seen in a video clip, can be more an effect of the recording device than the noise-making device.

If Honda, or anyone else making the comparison had held up a recognizable sound level meter, (even one from Radio Snack) and showed us what it was reading, that would be great! That way, we could see the meter, the unit under test and the test area as well as hear the "quality" of the sound. If you really want to get into it, the thickness of the grass, the relative humidity and temperature, atmospheric pressure, presence of reflecting surfaces and the “flatness” of the field can all have an effect.

Bottom line, it does seem clear that big and ugly is louder than small and cute. Beyond that, I think we’re all on our own.


(What turnip truck did I fall off of? I spent my formative years as an engineer working on sound and vibration issues in nuclear submarines, jet turbine powered generators, aircraft and airport noise, computer equipment, BIG booms out in Nevada and automotive noise and vibration. S&Vengineering can be a lot of fun!)

On this page of Honda's site is a catagory called "Tools and Resources"

Honda Power Equipment

Click "Generator sould level comparison" and you'll get a decent video that compares Honda's inverter and open frame gensets which would compare with the Champion.