Huntingdog writes “First off, I have never "knocked" the Champions. In fact for some, I recommend them.”
:R
You DID “knock” Champions by saying (and I quote) “He still has the Champion, but never uses it anymore. He has discovered the great benefit of the Honda's fuel economy. The Champion goes thru fuel at a astounding rate.”
That right there IS a KNOCK by saying something that is basically false when you intentionally leave out IMPORTANT information such as the LOAD (YOU don't load yours down).
Your Honda DROPS OUT OF ECONOMY MODE once you go past ¼ load, the engine REVS UP and USES basically the SAME amount of fuel as a larger gen.
Not everyone will load a 2000W gen with a 500W or less load, in fact if you have a 60A converter at full output (recharging a very low battery bank) the converter WILL EASILY DRAW 900W which means the Honda will NOT be in econo mode (slow RPM) until the charging current considerably tapers below the 500W level..
You “forgot” to mention that fact..
Gee, sorry that my introducing some FACTS has offended you :S How dare I to do that :B ..
Two new 2000W Hondas costs about $1900 plus the pairing kit of about $100 so you have $2000 into that set..
I paid under $299 for my 4Kw clone for a net savings of $1701.
Even IF your Hondas truly “saved” fuel that $1701 in savings WILL BUY a considerable amount of fuel..
Just filled my truck today, gas price of $3.62 per gallon, I CAN buy 469.9 GALLONS of gas for the $1701!
I estimate that my 4Kw gen uses about .33 gallon PER HR so that 469.9 gallons would run my gen for 156.6 HOURS just on the cost savings…
Over the ten years I have had my 4Kw gen I have less than 50 hrs on it so basically would have to use it for 30 years to use up the $1701 in savings..
Even if I ran my gen for 4hrs per day for each camping weekend during summer that would be 8 hrs of time for 26 weekends that is 208 hrs, I would only use 68.6 gallons for the camping season. It would take me 6.8 YEARS to use my $1701 of savings..
I compared the HP and displacement of the two Honda vs on larger gen and there is a SMALL difference, so small that Honda WILL use nearly the same amount of fuel when loaded ABOVE 500W when compared to the same load on a bigger gen.
The ONLY real place that the Honda shines is in lighter weight and a little less fuel used WHILE IN ECON MODE ONLY which is BELOW ¼ load or less than 500W.
In other words, give full disclosure by qualifying the facts that FOR YOUR OWN USAGE you “save” fuel because you only have LIGHT LOADS and depending on the LOADS applied that a Honda may or may not be more fuel efficient than other non inverter gens and in order to get any fuel savings the loads MUST be low enough for the gen to stay in econo mode..
Not everyone is going to load a gen that light and ESPECIALLY if they are already wanting a 3Kw-4Kw gen they most likely will NOT see any fuel savings with TWO Honda inverter gens..
The small tanks give you less than 4 hrs between fill ups when running heavy loads, this causes many to spend MORE money rigging up a haphazard external fuel tank.. Around here a 3 gallon marine tank sets you back $50, then you have to modify your fuel caps and if you want the option to run without the rigged external tank you will need to buy extra fuel caps at additional cost. So at best you will spend an additional $100 (or more) just to get to the same run time I already have…
You leave out other facts that there ARE other “inverter” gens available, many are just as reliable as your Honda to boot and cost less.
Granted, there are some out there which may not be reliable but considering that even your Hondas are pretty much throw away items when they break it really doesn’t matter.. The inverter alone for a Honda will cost you nearly half a new gen..
Another fact which is often conveniently left out is the two engines sound (the combination of exhaust, intake and vibrations) tend to fall in and out of sync. For some folks like myself it IS annoying to listen to the pulsation in sound from the engines noise going in and out of sync creating an uneven pulsation in the sound. I would rather be locked in a small room with a bunch of chalk boards with thousands of finger nails screeching across them..
My 4Kw gen also pulls double duty, I take it with me for camping plus it is used to power select items in my home during power outages (wood burner fan, fridge, freezer and some lights) AND can be used to power some of my power tools.. A single 2000W Honda Inverter gen just plain would not even run my basic needs of wood burner fan, fridge, freezer and some lights let alone start my table saw and would barely start my hand saw and most likely would trip out under load of sawing.
I do have a Chinese 2000W gen which also works nice, cost me a whole $100 on sale but I find that it is way too limited in power for my needs (just barely starts and runs my wood burner fan and a couple of light bulbs in my home). I am planning to sell it off and get a bigger Harbor Freight 8750W gen to run my home during power outages plus it would run my water well which I cannot do even with my 4Kw gen (deep, deep well).
It is about getting the right “tool” for the job which makes the job go faster or better, not everyone will be able to use one 2000W Honda.
I am not busting your chops, but merely pointing out the lack of facts which tend to be often left out when folks blanketly say to buy the Honda 2000W inverter..
I know myself if I would have spent the extra money for a Honda inverter and found out the hard way that every 4 hrs you had to refill the tank or spend considerably more to extend that time I would be upset not to mention having to buy two just to get enough capacity to run my high priority items.
Huntin’ as a side note, perhaps instead of writing your posts in red, you should stick to the standard BLACK text..
To me posting in red is EXTREMELY HARD to read, looks like you are ANGRY, rude, condescending and or attempting to INTIMIDATE OTHERS along with trying to grab attention… To me it is the same as writing in all caps (bad 'net etiquette).
I tend to skip over YOUR posts since they are in red and red is not as easy to read on a white background.
I write my comments in black and only use the colors when quoting or attempting to highlight or address someone else’s text..
Black text is DEFAULT, use it.
Besides that really has to be a pain in the rear to set the color each and every post you make..
