Champion 3100 watt inverter gen question

[mrad]

Has anyone used one of these or know of anyone who has?
Cabelas will have them on sale next week for $799! I was going to get two honda 2000's but at 799 for the champion I am reconsidering.
Will it run a 13,500 btu AC?

[Eamaybury]

We have used our champion 3100 with a 13,500 btu a/c overnight. Fill it up before you go to bed- I get up 6 hours later and it is still running. We minimize load besides the a/c overnight once we've done the final fillup of the genny for the evening. You are correct that the champion is gravity feed unlike the fuel pump in the Honda's so there is no commercially available long run tank for gravity fed generators that I have ever seen. You need to obviously secure the generator with a Cable and lock. We always run the A/C overnight camping in the south. The carbon monoxide comment is right on- there have been several high profile deaths from CO poisoning recently. Even if you don't have a genny you need one (or several, they are cheap) CO detectors on your trailer to protect you from the multiple deadly sources of CO both in and out of the unit. See my review and pictures on the Blain fleet and farm website.

[mlts22]

A friend of mine bought one. I might do a side by side comparison between his and my 3000 watt Yammy for noise and load testing one of these days.

[Hou72che]

It runs 5-6 hours on a constant load from a 15000 btu a/c. Just received my electric start version of this generator beginning of June. Already looking into building a extended run fuel tank for it for this exact reason. Great generator though!!

[skeighter]

No extended tank, but this thing will likely run for 6 to 8 hours on economy mode. I'm 4 hours into my break in on this unit and am at about half a tank. It's a nice little unit. Pick it up cheap at Overstock.com. Use a 10% off coupon for new shoppers, free shipping and no tax give you a genset comparable to Hondas for a 1/3 of the price. Haven't been able to use it camping yet. Have 3 days in the Sequoias in July planned. Looking forward to using it then.

[mrad]

bikendan wrote:

mrad wrote:

2oldman wrote:
2 hours

So unless it can run on an extended run tank, it would not work well trying to run the AC overnight?

unless you're boondocking or at a car race, i know of NO campgrounds that allow running generators overnite.

Most of the country music festivals allow them.
Most likely it would not run through the night, but I would like to know if we left the cg to attend a show, that it would still be running 3 hours later.

[bikendan]

mrad wrote:

2oldman wrote:
2 hours

So unless it can run on an extended run tank, it would not work well trying to run the AC overnight?

unless you're boondocking or at a car race, i know of NO campgrounds that allow running generators overnite.

[otrfun]

mrad wrote:
Will an extended run fuel tank work with this generator ?
It says it will run 8 hours at 25% load. Any idea how long it would run when 13,500 ac is running?

Don't think you can use the Honda-type extended run fuel tanks that require a fuel pump. Don't believe the Champion 3100 has a fuel pump. Might be able to rig up a gravity feed type of system.

I used a Champion 3100 inverter generator last fall to power my 13,500 BTU a/c in my small toy hauler quite a few times. With temps in the 90's, a tank lasted about 5-6 hours before it ran out of gas.

However, YMMV. Higher temps and/or larger TT, then you might get less than 5-6 hours---lower temps and/or smaller TT, could be more than 5-6 hours.

[2oldman]

mrad wrote:
it would not work well trying to run the AC overnight?

No, and fyi, very few campers I've seen ever run a/c at all, let alone all night.

Perhaps some of the Class A's with onboard gens do, but almost never the portable ones. It's a beacon of noise saying "Steal me." And personally, I wouldn't feel safe running one too close to the coach - CO kills.

[mrad]

2oldman wrote:
2 hours

So unless it can run on an extended run tank, it would not work well trying to run the AC overnight?

[2oldman]

2 hours

[mrad]

Will an extended run fuel tank work with this generator ?
It says it will run 8 hours at 25% load. Any idea how long it would run when 13,500 ac is running?

[eric1514]

If you're going to have to pick one or the other up and move it, say from your truck to your trailer, the Hondas weigh 47 lbs each but the Champion weighs 97 lbs. Personally I couldn't pick one up off the ground and put it in my truck.

I have a 3500/4000 Champion for around the house and it has been flawless.

[dtappy3353]

New unit to arrive this coming Tuesday.

Overstock.com was very accommodating; no hassle to return defective unit and shipped next day the replacement generator.

Patiently waiting for generator.

[MrWizard]

The 3100 champion inverter is on my buy list
I've seen them and heard them in action