Champion or Powerhouse inverter generator?

Hi,

If I had a choice between powerhouse and champion I would pick the latter.

My own choice was Yamaha 3000 sIEB.

I'd pick the Champion too.
That company has gone to great efforts to make better products and have good support. The ones I heard running last year were smooth and just as quiet as my Honda.

I've had the Champion 2000 Watt for a couple years and have had no issues with it. Won't run the air conditioner but I knew that when I bought it.

My personal opinion, based on experience, is that the Champion has been around long enough to confirm they legitimately belong with the red and blue boys. You could now call them the "Big Three".

I'd get a Champion. I have a Powerhouse PH2100PRi. Poor quality control, hard to find parts, hard to start, and I loathe the automatic choke it was cursed with. It's better since I cleaned the aluminum particles (possibly leftover from machining?) out of the carburetor and replaced the no-name spark plug with an NGK, but I wouldn't buy another one. About the only good thing about it is it actually ran the air conditioner on my popup successfully.

I have the Powerhouse 2700/2800 and a Champion 3500/4000. I have had no problems whatsoever with the Powerhouse, and it will be my choice for my next gennie (I may buy the little 450). I would add that the Powerhouse products show a level of design and engineering above anything else out there.

I am aware of some reports of QC issues, at least with the early ones, but I have not seen any issues myself. And while Powerhouse does have a customer service center with real people, it is no where near the level of Champion customer service, which is easily the best.

While I love my Champion 3500, their early inverter models had both QC issues and engineering issues which they have since resolved or improved. But at this point I am no fan of their cube-shaped gennies, and MUCH prefer the luggable (80 lbs) suitcase-shape of the 2700.

FWIW, it's nice to see people finally calling the yellow Champions the equal of the Red Hondas and blue Yamahas. But even a couple years ago people were cursing Champions simply because they were new to the market.

IMO, the same is true now of the black Powerhouse gennies. Some of the models show a remarkable level of design and engineering, and I am confident that in a few years they too will be accepted in the marketplace.

On rv.net, I've read two types of posts for generators that are not Honda/Yamaha/Champion. They either read, "I have had no problems with my generator, so far, so good", or "Mine broke, can't find parts, so it is useless."

I do consider Champion an alternative to blue/red. They are slightly larger, and a tad noisier, but the price is right on them, usually about 10% more than a no-name model. They also have decent voltage regulation.

As for types of generators, you can go for two 2000 watt models running in parallel or one 3000 watt model. pianotuna's suggestion of a Yamaha 3000iSEB is a good one. A pair of Honda eu2000i models is also a solution. If I were just leaving the generator in one place (be it by the RV or the truck bed), I'd go with a 3000 watt model, since they can get up to 200 pounds. If I wanted more portability, I'd go for a pair of twinned 2000 inverter models.