Harbor Freight/Honda smackdown....
I see HF is now offering a 3500 (maximum) watt PSW inverter with all the bells and whistles for $700.00 (regular price. Even looks like the Honda that retails for $1999.00 the HF puts out a bit ...
Forum Discussion
Well, the OP's post got me looking into this particular generator and I ended up buying one. Had to drive to a store 30 miles away as the two local stores were sold out already. According to the local store clerk a guy came in yesterday and bought 7 of them cleaning out the remainder of their first shipment.
As for my needs and current setup. I have two 2000 watt champions, one purchased early 2011, the other early 2012. Also have the parallel kit. With my current 5er, even paralleled they can't reliably run either one of my 15k btu air conditioning units. Generators don't go into overload, but voltage goes too low and my Progressive Dynamics EMS trips out for low voltage even when turned off when the voltage gets pulled down under 104vac. With a single generator, I can't reliably run the microwave, especially if the DC converter is trying to do much beyond float the batteries. This varies with what if anything else is running and altitude. With my solar setup, microwave and ac are all I need the generator for, with maybe a rare battery charge session in bad weather in the shoulder seasons.
First impressions:
Added oil, hooked up battery, put in a little gas and tried the pull start rather than electric start. It started first pull, runs quiet, with my first impression being it's quieter than my little champion inverters. I only ran it for maybe an hour in front of the garage. I powered up a couple saws and a two horse compressor with voltage on the display barely dipping when I turned the items on. Tomorrow evening I'll hook it up to my 5er and give it the good workout. I have a Sound meter app on my phone I'll use to get comparative values between the HF and Champion units. Obviously not a calibrated instrument, but tends to be consistent so it will be of some comparative value.
Many thanks to SidecarFlip for the original post.
As for my needs and current setup. I have two 2000 watt champions, one purchased early 2011, the other early 2012. Also have the parallel kit. With my current 5er, even paralleled they can't reliably run either one of my 15k btu air conditioning units. Generators don't go into overload, but voltage goes too low and my Progressive Dynamics EMS trips out for low voltage even when turned off when the voltage gets pulled down under 104vac. With a single generator, I can't reliably run the microwave, especially if the DC converter is trying to do much beyond float the batteries. This varies with what if anything else is running and altitude. With my solar setup, microwave and ac are all I need the generator for, with maybe a rare battery charge session in bad weather in the shoulder seasons.
First impressions:
Added oil, hooked up battery, put in a little gas and tried the pull start rather than electric start. It started first pull, runs quiet, with my first impression being it's quieter than my little champion inverters. I only ran it for maybe an hour in front of the garage. I powered up a couple saws and a two horse compressor with voltage on the display barely dipping when I turned the items on. Tomorrow evening I'll hook it up to my 5er and give it the good workout. I have a Sound meter app on my phone I'll use to get comparative values between the HF and Champion units. Obviously not a calibrated instrument, but tends to be consistent so it will be of some comparative value.
Many thanks to SidecarFlip for the original post.
