When I ran my Coleman mach 8 off the Honda 2K, I would make sure to switch refrigerator and hot water over to gas. the AC would start in East Carolina (sea level) even with generator on eco mode, but yes the generator might flash red on startup. I had my Coleman running on a wall thermostat so when it started you were starting both fan and compressor the same time.
the only thing that gave me problems was my VIP220 Dish receiver. IF I was running it off generator the receiver would reboot every time the AC started. so I used to run the receiver off a smaller AC inverter to eliminate the voltage drop during AC startup.
later I did get a Harbor Freight 3500 which was quieter than the honda (honda would be running higher RPM to produce power for AC to start/run than the Harbor freight so it was quieter).
