Does anybody have the HarborFreight 2500 Inverter Gen?

MrWizard wrote:
The peaks are clipped
The rest of the wave form looks okay

Agreed, That is not a MSW sine wave. It isn't a very pretty PSW. The peaks are clipped. But is is far better than a MSW.

Average daily db...
Living room music (76 dB)
radio or TV-audio(70 dB)

60 db- Conversation in restaurant, office, background music

So it would be between the Living Room TV and the restaurant / office background music.

Not very loud unless you are listening for it.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Movie Set trailer generators are so quiet all that can be heard standing next to one is a breathy "sigh". much like what a Fantastic Fan Endless Breeze makes at a three foot distance. The movie gensets I saw were in the 60 Kw range. I think one of the quietest generators I have encountered was the old fashioned Honda 600 watt.

Beat me to it MEX!

Those movie gensets, you don't know what it is untill your right next to it!

Food for thought;

Up here in the Northeast it's not very "RV Friendly" like the Southwest. No BLM up this way so one has to campout "incognito". We have a few sites up in Northern NH (Great North Woods) where we like to boondock.
The key is out of sight out of mind so it's also important to have a quiet generator unless you have solar on the topside. We spend 4 days up in the Magalloway mountain area. Lots of logging decks you can tuck back into & not be seen.

This last trip up was the 1st in our new to us Discovery. Was impressed how quiet the Onan 7.5 Quietdiesel was. Also the diesel consumption was impressive as well.

RM

Oldme wrote:
FIY

Normal conversation at 3' 60-65dB

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html

Wanna bet. My Ex could converse at 55 db and sound like extendo polyethylene female fingernails being dragged across a blackboard at mach 2

The peaks are clipped
The rest of the wave form looks okay

MrWizard wrote:

mds9185 wrote:

otrfun wrote:

gmctoyman wrote:
The original question ... Remains unanswered !

FWIW, I posted a quote of an online HF review in which the reviewer commented that he was not able to run a rooftop a/c with his HF inverter generator. Post date/time: 03/26/14 05:28pm.

My roof air draws 1680 watts and I was unable to get a peak start up draw due to my watt meter not being fast enough. However my Honda 2000i will run it and the Harbor Freight 2200i will not. I believe this is caused by the harbor freight generator having nearly a modified sine wave inverter. In the attached pics you can see the Honda is nearly a pure sine wave and Harbor Freight is nearly modified with only a slight wave form. The Honda is slightly quieter. Overall decent generator. I did test it to a 1900 watt load with no issue.

Click link too see pix, then click picture to enlarge
One drive is file save sharing..not a photo share

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=e262984a4305eb4f&id=E262984A4305EB4F%2117082&ithint=folder,jpg&authkey=!AIiTz0znbqxtA3w

Yeesh, pretty bad for a inverter generator. I think the wave off of the 120v only 3500/4000 is cleaner than that.

Gdetrailer wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Something to ponder...

The chances of the generator developing 0 db.

Actually a Honda has a BETTER chance of getting 0 DB by someone TAKING IT.. Something else to "ponder" :@

As far as the OPs question goes, it might and it might not..

Some folks have been successful with a Honda 2000W inverter gen and some have not.. Honda 2000W inverter gen is rated 2000W PEAK, 1800W RUN.

HF is rating theirs at 2500W PEAK and 2200W RUN..

The main thing I see is with the HF gen you do not get "Econo mode" but I would not think that is a big issue since once you load the Hondas they are no longer running slow (Econo) and WILL be running noisy..

At $499 for the HF unit it might be worth a stab at trying it when compared to spending $1000 of the Honda..

Check with HF but I do think they just might take it back if not happy with it..

Honda is rated 2000 watts peak 1600 watts run

Seven pages of opinions and not one person answered the OP's question, Anybody have one?

mds9185 wrote:

otrfun wrote:

gmctoyman wrote:
The original question ... Remains unanswered !

FWIW, I posted a quote of an online HF review in which the reviewer commented that he was not able to run a rooftop a/c with his HF inverter generator. Post date/time: 03/26/14 05:28pm.

My roof air draws 1680 watts and I was unable to get a peak start up draw due to my watt meter not being fast enough. However my Honda 2000i will run it and the Harbor Freight 2200i will not. I believe this is caused by the harbor freight generator having nearly a modified sine wave inverter. In the attached pics you can see the Honda is nearly a pure sine wave and Harbor Freight is nearly modified with only a slight wave form. The Honda is slightly quieter. Overall decent generator. I did test it to a 1900 watt load with no issue.

Click link too see pix, then click picture to enlarge
One drive is file save sharing..not a photo share

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=e262984a4305eb4f&id=E262984A4305EB4F%2117082&ithint=folder,jpg&authkey=!AIiTz0znbqxtA3w

Interesting comment on the FUEL. We had one in Class C claiming that there are better and lesser brands in 87-octane unleaded ethanol.

Here's a claim some gas is better than other for generators. In parts of Florida, some of the Gate Stations have a small island with unleaded ethanol-free 89 octane. It's popular to tow trailer boats there to get ethanol-free at less than marina prices.

Enter VAVLTECT. Sold at marinas, it's 89 ethanol-free unleaded with One-Year Stabilizer. Needless to say, available mostly in coastal areas but there's a website that tells where it's sold. We use it in the boat (Chevy V8 MerCruiser, fuel is even more critical for two-stroke outboards...) but I also buy it for small engines. Marina says they sell lots of it to people carrying cans in from the parking lot. We have a Honda-powered pressure washer that I've left unused for months at a time. Rebuilt carb twice after doing that with ordinary gas. Last time we left the washer, mower, weedeater with Valvtect for about 4 months. All started and ran fine. Like they'd been used weekly.

Also had the ONAN 4KY in the RV gum up on ordinary gas. After replacing the carb, every fillup gets StaBil, even if we're running often.

So, suggest this for portable generators: Seek out 89 ethanol-free and if it isn't Valvtect, add StaBil...