Generators, do you get what you pay for?

[LittleBill]

Hi,


Recently picked this up for HOME use during a power outage.

Everyone talks about how crappy the output is from a NON honda inverter generators.

I also own a elim3000, which is found in various posts on here. Never a problem.

So for giggles i hooked up an oscilloscope to my new NON-Inverter generator. Got to say I'm pretty impressed. I have seen significantly worse.

Quality does seem to show. I did a 3 hour break in last night to about 5900 watts. Going to power the house and take it right to its limit sometime this week

Although it is on the "quieter" side. This thing is loud when loaded


Generator link

CLICKY paid 550 before tax with coupon

link to other generators output including Honda 2000
Generator/Inverters outputs

[77charger]

LittleBill wrote:

dave17352 wrote:

LittleBill wrote:
my elim still runs flawless, has about 100 hours on it, what exactly is failing?

100 hours is just getting started. Not saying its not dependable just saying that's not many hours.

agreed but i have a onan in my motorhome which has 300 hours. its been apart 4 times now

i just find it odd, that both generators of his broke around the same time of use. there are huge huge threads devoted to those 2 generators. and i have not seen many comments on failures at all

I had way more than 100 hours on them both they both.They just began to struggle when loaded up and once load kicked in they sounded like they were going to die.When new they worked great no doubt and i will still say they are a great buy for the money my guess would be they both had close to or more than a 1000 hours i know i ran them both from fri to sunday non stop on a couple of occasions.

[vermilye]

I found this link comparing a couple of different power sources. The non inverter generator looks pretty bad...

[LittleBill]

dave17352 wrote:

LittleBill wrote:
my elim still runs flawless, has about 100 hours on it, what exactly is failing?

100 hours is just getting started. Not saying its not dependable just saying that's not many hours.

agreed but i have a onan in my motorhome which has 300 hours. its been apart 4 times now

i just find it odd, that both generators of his broke around the same time of use. there are huge huge threads devoted to those 2 generators. and i have not seen many comments on failures at all

[dave17352]

LittleBill wrote:
my elim still runs flawless, has about 100 hours on it, what exactly is failing?

100 hours is just getting started. Not saying its not dependable just saying that's not many hours.

[LittleBill]

my elim still runs flawless, has about 100 hours on it, what exactly is failing?

[77charger]

In my experiences i have had the china type elim 3000 and the champion.Both lasted about a year and a half.Used often during the winter desert trips and a few summer trips for camping.each cost me about 300 each.

After the second unit began to fade(yellow champ) i decided to just get a used honda 3000eu for 1300 cause at the time another champion was gonna be 400 this time around in CA.that would have been 1000 bucks in 4.5 years on gens.I got the honda in 09 and it has been great but the bigger cost saving has been fuel what took 12-15 gallons for a week long trip is now 5-6 gallons for the same time.
Consider the fuel savings and reliability over the 4 years and you realize the long term savings plus its quiet.

[LittleBill]

it was resistance heater, maybe i will try it with an air compressor on it

[Wayne_Dohnal]

You didn't say what the load for the test was. If was a resistive load like a portable heater, try it with a more unfriendly load like an air conditioner or power converter with a somewhat heavy load. If the waveform still looks good with those loads you have found yourself an above average conventional generator. For comparison, here's a picture of an Onan Microquiet running a fully loaded PD9160A converter (voltage trace on top, current on bottom):

[LittleBill]

i stated it is NOT a inverter generator

[ken_white]

DrewE wrote:
Are you sure that's an inverter generator? It doesn't appear to me to be one. Even very cheap non-inverter generators will produce a nice sine wave, when used within their (actual, not necessarily stated) limits, since the waveform is based on the physics of rotating a coil in a magnetic field. It's a lot more work to produce something that isn't a fairly nice sine wave.

You are correct it is not an inverter type generator.

[DrewE]

Are you sure that's an inverter generator? It doesn't appear to me to be one. Even very cheap non-inverter generators will produce a nice sine wave, when used within their (actual, not necessarily stated) limits, since the waveform is based on the physics of rotating a coil in a magnetic field. It's a lot more work to produce something that isn't a fairly nice sine wave.

[WyoTraveler]

Ho hum about generator but impressed with your scope.