3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

[professor95]

professor95 wrote:
EDIT ADDED 45/5/2013- When this thread started in March of 2005, I never expected to see it survive this long or amass the quantity of information that has been shared here.

In the eight year run of this thread we have amassed almost 10,000 postings and surpassed a million views. This creates somewhat of a dilemma for anyone who has just discovered the forum.

Since the amount of information is virtually overwhelming, I suggest you set your preferences for this thread to read "newest first" and then begin to page backwards.

What you will find in these pages is a wealth of info on virtually any make or model of Chinese manufactured synchronous (non-inverter) generator in the 3,000 watt performance class. Info will include how to rewire series coils to parallel to obtain maximum wattage from a single 120 volt outlet. Tips on further reducing sound levels, how to care for these generators, which ones are "RV ready" and provide the best overall performance for the dollar invested. Which companies NOT to deal with, where the best prices are, how to safely wire the generator into a home or RV, how to check your RV for electrical faults, sources for generator accessories, which 20/30 adapters are safe to use and which are not. How to convert a gasoline generator to propane or NG. This is only the beginning. The forum has a life of its own with the focus sub-topic switching frequently. Still, the main topic of utilizing the amazing, inexpensive Chinese gensets is always there. The amount of creativity and innovation presented in these pages is indicative of the talents shared in the diverse backgrounds of the folks who make up our combined RV community.

Many of the original brands and models of Chinese gensets mentioned in the introduction and early pages of the thread have since disappeared. New EPA and CARB emissions requirements, company bonds assuring the emissions warranty will be honored even if the company goes out of business, and fierce competition in the industry have changed the playing field. Champion Power Equipment has become the apparent "trophy team" providing an ever expanding retail outlet, an ample parts supply, a strong warranty and excellent customer service. CPE has continued to improve their product and now offers a new model (#46538) with exclusive convenience, safety and performance features aimed at the RV market. Big names like Cummins/Onan, Honda and Generac all now have Chinese built open frame synchronous gensets available. Ironically, the prices often found on these gensets has not significantly changed during the past eight years - even with the devaluation of the American Dollar and new EPA/CARB requirements.

I also encourage you to use the search function and even the advanced search options to find information. Key works such as "rewiring", "PowerPro", "Champion", "Onan Homesite", "Duropower", "ETQ", "Jiung Dong or JD", "Tractor Supply", "Costco", "Lowe's" and "Home Depot" are all examples of keywords that will give you specific information on different models being sold by retailers today.

Or, you can fill your glass with your favorite beverage (keep more close by - maybe some munchies as well :D, sit back at your computer, tell your wife (or significant other) that you will see her in the morning and spend the next 10 or so hours reading through the postings.

No one on the forum gets mad if you ask a question that is a repeat. Please do not hesitate to post to the forum. All questions are considered important and those active on the forum will do their best to respond with a valid answer.

Also note we are not out to knock the Honda, Yamaha, Kipor or other brands of high end digital gensets. We recognize the quality of these products and their suitability for quite, efficient RV use. But, there is a flood of reliable, inexpensive and comparatively lower cost gensets coming out of China that are excellent alternative choices for the RVer wanting power to run an air conditioner, microwave, etc. without excessive noise or breaking the budget.

Oh, one last thing. The folks on this forum are true gentlemen. We do not flame one another or the product discussed - period. Ugly contributors usually have their comments and remarks ignored by our masses. It is not a forum to start arguments to obtain a clear win. We do disagree on many issues, but we have all agreed to do that in a respectable manner.

We now have the introduction of more and more inverter gensets. There is a rather extensive thread named "The Official Unofficial Champion 2000i Generator" on this forum. Today, I added info on the new Champion 3100i inverter genset. Discussion on this product may get moved to its own thread at a later date.

Many have looked upon this thread with distain saying Chinese is cheap and doomed to failure. I remember saying exactly the same thing about Japanese products a few decades back. But, over the past eight years the track record for Chinese built generators has shown otherwise.

Please, join us in a fascinating journey down the Chinese built genset road of knowledge.

This is the question I posted that got it all started back in March 2005.......

Randy

For a little over a month now, I have been somewhat intrigued by the availability of a 3000 watt, 6.5 HP generator at Pep Boys and Northern Tool for under $300.00. The engine on this generator looks identical to a Honda 6.5 HP OHV engine. Knowing that the Chinese have become very adept at “cloning” reputable technologies from other manufacturers, I was not surprised at the similarities. Neither store could give me any information on the generator nor did they have a “running” display model.

I have done a little research. This is what I have discovered:

Many of these generators are imported by ELIM International (www.eliminternational.com) out of Buffalo, New York from Jiung Manufacturing in China. (The unit at Northern is identical but carries the JIUNG name.)

The engines are indeed a Chinese knockoff of the popular 6.5 HP 196cc Honda Engine. “Supposedly” Honda has licensed the engine technology to the Chinese manufacturer of the product.

The Chinese company that makes the ELM3000 generators is a rather large, diverse, long-standing company with a reputation for “above average quality” Chinese made products (Jiung Manufacturing). There are many more Chinese companies making almost identical gensets.

The generators at PepBoys do have a six month limited warranty. But, it is only on the engine (not the generator) and requires paying for shipping to and from Buffalo. Probably not a very practical thing to do if you have warranty issues.

ELIM does supply replacement parts (a PDF parts manual is available on the ELIM web site). No prices are given for replacement parts nor is there an “availability listing”.

The generator head itself is a brushless design. The only really significant wear parts in the generator are the bearings – most likely universally available.

The published dB rating is 67 at 23 feet. This is “reasonably” quite for a generator of this size as most comparabl.... The 67 dB rating is the same as Honda gives their 3000 watt CycloInverter with a “look alike” eng...

[jarheadfor4]

I bought the Champion generator back in late October of 2006. I needed a generator that I could use at deer camp to recharge the battery and run the coffee pot. Deer camp was a total of 5 weekends with many of them lasting 2-3 nights each. The generator was great!

I was able to keep everything going and run the microwave at deer camp. Next year I will get brave and bring the satellite dish and tv, but for now the coffee maker and the battery charging will have to suffice.

I placed my generator in an old tent about 50 feet from the camper. I didn't want to disturb anyone. It worked fine. No rain got on it because of the tent and I opened the windows to let fresh air in and out.

The unit is rather heavy, but I carried it several times by myself. It works better to do the 2-man carry with it, but I am still capable at 38 y/o.

Good generator for the price, but not quiet enough to make me comfortable to camp in close proximity to someone worried about noise. I love mine!

[WaltinColo]

Here Here!!
I cant wait for the camping season to begin again so I can start getting some use outta mine. 🙂

Congrats on the new gen!

[CMPNNCC]

Just got in my new Champion Generator. After following this thread for many, many months I finally bit the bullet and ordered from PartsAmerica with the 10%off code. The Champion sure is quieter than I thought it would be. Thanks for all of the input, and the many hours of research that went in, so that campers like myself could purchase a generator that would be benificial to use right out of the box.

[Ready_ToRoll]

I have a PowerWise 3000 that I got from Costco about 7 months ago. About 5 months ago, on this thread, "cloudswrest" pointed out that this model had a grounded neutral in the generator and the 240V outlet had no neutral wire connected. It was pointed out by "professor95" that the grounded neutral was dangerous and the missing neutral on the 240V would not allow use of 120V from this outlet. See professor95 answer here

I am going to install a transfer switch in my basement for power outages and I wanted to use a 240V switch for greatest flexibility in the future. So, I needed to fix both problems.

It was pretty easy. I removed the wire connecting the neutral to the Y/G ground wire in the generator end. By installing a smaller connector on one end of the removed wire, I was able to use it to connect the neutral connection of the 240V outlet to the center connection of the 240V side of the voltage switch. (This made the wiring identical to the Champion RV ready model wiring diagram.)

The generator runs fine and I now have 120V between each hot and the neutral on the 240V outlet.

Photos and revised wiring diagram available here.

Bruce

[ol_Bombero-JC]

Yep, Prof - you've done it again!
If any readers want to check it out, go to page 250 and 251 -
or try for (search) a post (to this thread) by "RockyT184" on 8-5-06.
Great links to the various Kipor Ti (yellow) and Tc (red) models with
lots of info on those pages.

Funny thing - like the Wiz said back then - NO Kipor/Honda (AllPower)
knock-off/re-label in the So. CA Pep Boys in his (our) area.
Never have seen one here, but will have to take a look again.

Sounds like the model "Compudoc" checked on is/was the Kipor Tc.
JC

[professor95]

Mike R. - Don't doubt it - but never heard of "All Power", have you?
The "digital" and "special microprocessor" terms would
appear to be a bit of smoke and mirrors - - maybe not.
It's looks like a Honda 2000i - but says nothing about being an inverter
model. A bit of deception?

Pep Boys has had some previous gens that were'nt too good (see start of thread).
The tech service would seem to need some "smoothing out" too!
[At least they were honest!]

Anyway, I think "compudoc" made the best choice of the two he was looking into!
JC

The Pep Boys AllPower is a relabeled Kipor Camp Mate. In fact, if you look closely at the label it will identify Kipor as the manufacturer.

There was a lengthly discussion on this model in mid August of this year. Page back to that time period and you will find a considerable amount of discussion.

[MrWizard]

it's an inverter genny, the local pepboys has had them, but I do wonder about the quality factor of the inverter.

the standard 'allpower' genny is just like the 'j dong' and works find, there are members on this board who have them, me I have the champion RV ready

[ol_Bombero-JC]

Mike R. - Don't doubt it - but never heard of "All Power", have you?
The "digital" and "special microprocessor" terms would
appear to be a bit of smoke and mirrors - - maybe not.
It's looks like a Honda 2000i - but says nothing about being an inverter
model. A bit of deception?

Pep Boys has had some previous gens that were'nt too good (see start of thread).
The tech service would seem to need some "smoothing out" too!
[At least they were honest!]

Anyway, I think "compudoc" made the best choice of the two he was looking into!
JC

[Mike_R_]

ol Bombero-JC wrote:
CompuDoc - have to wonder about the "power being passed through
a special microprocessor" - to "smooth it out".
Say . . . what?
Bet it comes with a bottle of snake oil additive too!

The power must be processed in someway, since the rpm's are determined by the electrical load put on the generator.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

CompuDoc - have to wonder about the "power being passed through
a special microprocessor" - to "smooth it out".
Say . . . what?
Bet it comes with a bottle of snake oil additive too!

[CompuDoc]

I called All Power in reference to there digital 2000 watt generator that Pep Boys sells. It looks like a rebranded Kipor. I can get the Honda EU2000i for $900.00 locally and was compariong this generator to the Honda.

Right now Pep Boys has the 2000 watt All Power on sale for $599.99. Thats a savings of $100.00 off the regular price putting it $300.01 cheaper than the Honda.

When I called All Power I asked them how there warranty service works and they told me that they have authorized repair services all over the U.S. so I asked him for one in NJ and gave him my zip code. He told me about a place not to far away. The next day I called and the repair tech had told me that they would have to order the parts if it needed repair if I were to buy the All Power generator. He had also told me that if it was an engine problem that they could fix it but if the probelm was in the generator part they would not be able to.

He also said I would be better off buying the Honda and not a chinese knock off because parts are readily available. I had already planned on buying the Honda but with $300.00 in savings over $200.00 if was to but the All Power at regular price it was tempting but after talking to him that confirmed it for me to stick with a name brand such as Honda.

The service place that I called does not even sell the Honda or anything Honda for that matter so it was an unbiased opinion he was giving me.

[Oldfordman]

Was in a Schuck's (CSK) store yesterday and they are still $299.

[bugdude]

Just bought one for my own birthday present, and I am impressed.

[Gene-C]

I bought the Champion 46540 a couple months ago for the camper. Haven't used it much till last friday. The worst ice storm to hit this area ( Southern Illinois) in years or maybe ever.
Hooked it up to my RV outlet from the house with a double male pigtale. Pulled the main breaker and fed it into the house. I ran the gas furnance,Refridge,TV, and some lites for three and a half days . I changed the oil after the second day and had to add some oil a couple of times. ( very small amounts) I used about fifteen gals of gas running 14 to 16 hrs a day. Not bad I would say and it started on the second pull every time. Next usage will be a trip to Mexico in Feb.

Gene-C

[hmans3]

camperdave northern tool sells a generator cord with a y adapter. It converts one l14-30 plug into 2 5-20 receptacles $19.99. I just had a power outage for three days,due to a f2 tornado.I got a l14-30 plug and wired it on a electric drier cord. I have a hookup for my welder in my garage so I pluged into that. Shut off the main and turn on the generator and swithed it to the 240 setting. It powered my furnace,refigerator,freezer,and some lighting no problem. The generator ran great the whole time. Champion 46540 hmans3