The Official unofficial CPE 2000i Generator Thread

To my experience, a dissatisfied customer condition is more strongly expressed than a satisfied. Unhappy is a louder condition, by human nature. (not to suggest that the reasons for said dissatisfaction are not valid as experienced said person)
Accusations of outright misrepresentation of fact and of duplicity with a manufacturer however, do push the boundaries of the kind of courtesy usually expected of a discussion board. I am sorry to read of it.

I'm happy with my own 2000i. It cost little ($500.00 CDN), delivers clean power, will operate my A/C as well as run my 1000 watt microwave, simultaneously! (when I start the A/C first)

If it won't actually ever put out 2000 watts as the case display suggests, well I doubt my car will actually go 120 miles per hour like the speedometer is graduated up to either. Neither condition bothers me, they both fulfill my needs. If a red or blue car actually can go 120, good on them. :) I am not humiliated by that condition.
I just look at my bank statement that still indicates $600.00 or so more than it would have had I bought a generator of those other colours, and I bask in my air conditioned cargo trailer conversion, content with the present situation.

Peace.
A happy 2000i owner. :)

First, I want to thank everyone for the time and effort poured into this thread! This thread was a great resource in learning how to maintain my two CPE2000i boxen.

Now whats with the accusations of mendacity towards the prof? I've lurked on this thread for a while before posting, so I appreciate all of the information I have gleaned from it. Information provided by him, you, and many others. There are some factual inaccuraccies regarding CPE parrallel operations and small details that have popped up, but that is normal, people are people details are easy to mess up. I do not believe anyone is giving out false information intentionally, so why the flames?
With that said, I don't see how he says the CPE beats the ef2000is performance-wise in any way. Now perhaps if we are talking watts/dollar, then he has a point. For how much the CPE twins cost they aren't bad little boxes. They are mechanically very reliable, fairly quiet, and they work fairly well. They do not work as well as their red and blue competitors, but those are in a different price class altogether.

Hybridhunter wrote:
Nice report.
Interesting as per the Profs testing, the Yamaha 2000's were "the worst if the bunch".
(I think I understand what's going on here now... ie: certain dispariging reports of other brands, cheer leading, "inside" info on updates and such...)
Anyhow, I got my semi - trusty 1200 watter going again, and life is good.
Nice not getting a dozen overloads/shutdowns/restarts just to charge a couple batteries....
I notice a level of mendacity passed off as something else on this thread, so I am going to go on my way.

Have it your way. I am not inclined to stoop to a level of "mendacity" - or lying. I have not used such terminology for your constant and incessant reports of a CPE2000i not being able to even charge one group 24 battery. In fact, despite the lack of any video proof, I have accepted all you have published as being true for your personal experiences and tried to come up with a "why". Personally, I still do not understand why you have had so many problems. If my two CPE2000i units performed the same I would have two new anchors for my boat.

As for the testing I ran - as I explained earlier they were all done with resistive loads. No doubt the outcome would have been different with inductive or capacitive loads exhibiting differing power factors. My testing was accompanied with video's of the CPE2000i and Kipor KGE2000i side-by side as well as the CPE2000i as a stand alone unit doing what your Dad's apparently will not do.

I can only wish you well and remind all gathered that this is a thread devoted to the CPE2000i - not all brands of inverter generators. One should expect cheer leading as well as statements of disappointment.

I'm glad you got the 1200 synchronous unit working again. I own both a CPE1200 and a Kawasaki 1400. They are exceptionally sturdy little units providing excellent performance at a price well below any inverter generator.

full_mosey wrote:
professor95;

What is the 20-hour AH rate of your 20 battery AGM battery bank?

Each is rated for 50 AH at the 20-hour standard. So, the unit should provide 1,000 AH at the 20-hour rate. Can't say they still do.

Nice report.
Interesting as per the Profs testing, the Yamaha 2000's were "the worst if the bunch".
(I think I understand what's going on here now... ie: certain dispariging reports of other brands, cheer leading, "inside" info on updates and such...)
Anyhow, I got my semi - trusty 1200 watter going again, and life is good.
Nice not getting a dozen overloads/shutdowns/restarts just to charge a couple batteries....
I notice a level of mendacity passed off as something else on this thread, so I am going to go on my way. Only here, and only once have (okay, maybe on a certain blog ;-)), have i ever read about the CPE 2000 even coming close, let alone outperforming (!!), honda and yamaha gensets. But to readers of this thread, everything I reported back is unbiased, and truthful from my experiences. (Remember, I still run a CPE product as my genset of choice, just not a 2000i). So.... good luck and caveat emptor.

Wanted to throw in my 2 cents. I purchased a pair of CPE2000i boxen in 09/2010. (They have a build date of 07/2010) They did double duty as backup power to my home, and as tent camping generators. In their backup power role I always had trouble with these generators once the power draw reached the 2500-3000Watt range when they were parralled. My fridge would kick on either the compressor or the defroster and they would overload fairly immediately. They also have a slight throttle hunting issue at 1000-15000Watt load parralleled, but not at idle or full load. (Weird and irratating!) Well I recently purchased a pair of yamaha ef2000is generators to replace the cpe boxen. The CPE engine is indeed a close copy of the Yamaha, so much so that the parts look interchangeble by eye. However the ef2000is is a different animal concerning the inverter hardware/software and output performance with eletrical loads. In the home backup role a pair of ef2000is gennys will sustain 3600watts with no overload light, and I can confirm the 1900 watt peak per unit 20second cuttoff. As a test I dropped the entire 3600watt load onto the ef2000is pair running in econ mode as a unit step function. At first the voltage sagged some but they spooled up (took approx 5 secs) and held the load with no overload light (econ off the voltage hardly sagged at all). The same test with the CPE boxen would result in an overload immediately eco or not eco. I lowered the load to drop 3000watts and then 2500 watts on the CPE twins, they still overload eco or not. They are not very tolerant to surges.
The yammis are to my ear a couple of db quieter than the cpe2000i's at both idle and full load. They do not hunt at any throttle setting either. I don't think the CPE gennys are bad boxes, they run well within their performance envelope, but from my experience that envolope is kinda small, the throttle hunting and the low tolerance for surges and high loads is very irratating. Is the 1800 I paid for the yammis worth the increased performance? In regards to their superior load handling I would say yes. The small increase in quietness, not really.

professor95;

What is the 20-hour AH rate of your 20 battery AGM battery bank?

I have two Champions, 3500/4000 and the 2000i, both of them cost less than one Honda 2000i. I'm sure the Honda is better, but not that much. I also have a 2010 Nissan Altima and I think that a Mercedes is better, but not that much..So far no problems with any of them .

Hybridhunter wrote:
Why do you assume the Honda would not? I've never heard or seen that, I have no reason to believe it could not. There are Youtube vids of the Honda putting out 2100+ watts to the CPE's 1700.

Sorry if this claim sounded like an assumption. It's based on my own measurements and measurement reports from others on this forum. Several eu2000i owners have reported not being able to go above 1,900 VA, and I have seen no reports from anybody achieving above 1,900 VA. I found a You Tube video showing over 2,100 watts (don't know of course if it's the same one you saw). It looks legit, so it's a new data point for me. Maybe my eu2000i as well as others are weak. Maybe the Youtube one is on steroids. Not being there I can't explain. My statement is admittedly based on very limited data, but no assumptions.

Hybridhunter wrote:


And professor, how did the Champ compare to the Honda when the honda can easily output over 2000 watts? I am a little lost on that aspect.

I'm, sorry, but I have to stand with Wayne on this one. The Honda I had (borrowed) would not in any way easily put of 2,000 watts or volt-amps.

That said, the in-rush and surge current of the Honda 2000i beats the pants off of the CPE 2000i. It would be nice to get 5 seconds of 2,000 watts out of the CPE2000i - but, alas, it is only 400 ms. and I work with that knowledge and adjust my equipment loads when needed. The 13 amp breaker is not strictly a magnetic fast trip as I once suspected. It is thermal-magnetic and does take several seconds to trip. By carefully staging resistive loads I coaxed a CPE unit over 1700 watts for several (don't remember exactly how many, so several will have to do)seconds before the breaker finally tripped.

I have always been disappointed that CPE gave their unit a 2000 watt rating and have been outspoken about it - JMHO.

You know - "Different Strokes for Different Folks" has been a saying around for a long time. As I look around the campground where we are parked I see pups, Provost bus conversions, all sorts of 5th wheel brands, Class B vans, TT's, etc. Also Fords, Chevy's and Dodge TVs along with HD Motorcycles and some Hondas. I pull with a class 8 truck and down deep inside believe it is foolish to pull a fiver that weights more than your TV with any PU - You know, you either pull the trailer or the trailer pulls you. But that is me and my preference.

We have hundreds, even thousands of choices for our RV lifestyle and we obviously don't always agree on what works and what does not. Personally, I still have no desire to purchase a Honda over a CPE since MY CPE is doing the job I expect it to do.

I am sorry your experiences with your CPE2000i have not been as good as mine (or others gathered here) - but that does not mean I am overstating its abilities and I respect that you are not overstating your disappointments.

Your CPE2000i problems have been duly noted and documented in these pages multiple times. We still do not have a "reason" why their performance has been disappointing to you. Something has to be different - but I can not tell you what it is, based on the information we have to ponder. While I have noted some less than "Honda" or Kipor performance issues with the CPE product, I simply have not experienced problems of your severity. BTW - this is my aux battery bank being frequently recharged with the WFCO converter mounted in my Volvo and powered by a single CPE2000i. As you can see, there is a lot more in there than a single G24 battery and when they begin to discharge and I power up the WFCO, it is running wide open trying to build their charge back up. The PD 65 amp unit in the fiver is hooked to twin G31 AGM batteries and does not exhibit overload issues either. The CPE2000i will rev up and work hard for the first 10-15 minutes before dropping back to a slower RPM - but it does not overload.