3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

This past week was our first real “dry camping” trip of the season with a chance to test out the ELM3000.

Five nights in the mountains of Virginia with lows in the low 40’s without any power hook-ups can be a challenge, especially when you want to take all of the conveniences of a satellite dish, microwave, 27” TV with surround sound amp and DVD player and the requisite hair dryers for my wife and visiting daughter.

My normal set-up includes an 8d battery for house power being fed by 100 watts of solar panels. The 8d provides 450 reserve minutes of power – normally enough power for frequent use of the water pump, lights and furnace during the night. With plenty of sunshine (the trees were just beginning to get leaves) the solar panels provided ample power to keep this battery charged and the generator was not needed for the house side of the system

On the auxiliary side, I have four deep cycle marine batteries in parallel feeding a 1,200-watt inverter. These two batteries give me a little over 360 minutes of reserve capacity. This power is for the entertainment equipment, small kitchen appliances like a blender for mixing drinks and two curling irons. So, with a continuous 600 watt draw at 120 volts I can only depend on these batteries to give me about three hours of service before the inverter disconnects them (barely enough to watch The Aviator Friday night). Solar power for recharging these batteries comes from a 48-watt panel. There was not enough solar energy to fully recharge the inverter batteries so the ELM3000 was called in to power a Century 40 amp battery charger for a couple of hours during the day to bring these back up to par (we had to watch the Indy race on Sunday).

The generator was also needed for the microwave and hair dryer as well as the Black and Decker Spacesaver coffee maker on several mornings after I tired of “muddy” java from the stovetop percolator. Later, when hot weather hits, it may come into play for running the air conditioner as well.

My camping neighbors at Big Meadows to the left and right both had Honda 2000 inverter units. Another camper three sites down had the 3000-watt Honda inverter. The camper behind me did not have a generator at all. The Hondas were darn near silent, humming along with only a barely discernable drone. My ELM3000, while NOT being excessively noisy, was noticeably louder than any of the Hondas.

On Saturday, one of the NPS Campground Hosts stopped to talk for a few minutes. He commented on the ELM3000, noting that it sure was a large generator. I gave him a little history on the origins of the unit and the $229.00 final price tag when he commented, “...and it meets National Park Service noise regulations”. This made me stop for a moment, wondering how he knew that it met regulations if he was not familiar with the unit. So, I asked him, “How did you know it met regulations?” His response was, “I measured the sound level earlier this morning.” I wanted to ask him why he measured it, wondering if someone had complained or if this was just a normal procedure, but decided to just let the question stop there.

One item worth mentioning though, along the noise line, was on our first day in the campground, I had noted a fellow camper about 5 units away running a Home Depot type commercial generator that was pretty loud. He did not use it on subsequent days. Perhaps he was told not to run it due to the high noise level?

My second observation was one I missed in earlier tests. The microwave oven timer ran at double speed. Yea, if I wanted to run the microwave for one minute, I had to set the timer for two minutes! Apparently the microwave is seeing the output from the generator as a 120 Hz power source. This is one thing I need to look into further. Other than the timer thing, the microwave worked normally, as did the battery charger and hair dryers. The clock on the coffee pot also ran normally. I forget to check the clock on the microwave, but am assuming it also ran at double speed.

All totaled, I ran the ELM3000 for about eight hours over five days. Starting with a full tank of fuel, I came home with about a 1/4 a tank. It started first pull every time and even with the generator on the back carrier of the RV, we could not hear it inside while sitting at the dinette unless the windows were open.

I am pleased with the ELM3000, but still envious of the quietness of the neighbor’s Hondas. I want to revisit the sound abatement issue. One idea I have is to move the ELM3000 into the back of my tow vehicle, which has a camper shell over the bed, and route the exhaust to the outside via some 1” conduit using a “cord hatch” like the one on the RV placed in the truck’s camper shell and painted to match. I am thinking that the shell will kill most of the mechanical noise, especially if I place sound absorbing material inside. Some indoor-outdoor marine grade carpet would do nicely glued to the inside of the shell with 3M High Strength 90 spray adhesive and still allow for adequate cooling. This will be an easy one to test and is on my agenda for next weekend when we begrudgingly stay at home.

One last item... I just received notification via e-mail that Pep-Boys has processed and approved my rebate form for the ELM3000 (11 weeks after sending it in!) and I could expect my check in 3-4 weeks. I sure am glad I was not in a hurry to get that money back!

Happy campin'!