New You Tube Harbor Freight Inverter Generator noise Test

[MEXICOWANDERER]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb6XShcxKeU

[Big1]

Get a Honda or a Champion.

[George3037]

Tvov wrote:
I thought it was a decent test. Holy mackerel that Generac is/was loud!

I was impressed by the Predator.

To anyone who owns one... How long have you had it? Related - how is their longevity?

And... how is the weight when it comes to moving it around? When we borrowed a Honda 2000 the ease of moving it around was fantastic.

I've had my Predator 3500 for about 2 years now. It is very quiet. I measured 56db at 25' with several db apps I downloaded. Unsure of longevity yet as I don't know anyone who's had one longer than me. With a full tank of gas mine weighs 117 lbs. That's a lot more than a Honda 2000 but also it is a 3500 Watt. It runs my entire TT including the 13,500 A/C.
Predator takes 2 people to lift into my high pickup bed. Very tough to pick up that weight over waist high when alone. When I'm home I use an electric winch in the garage.

[Lynnmor]

edatlanta wrote:

lakelivr wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:

edatlanta wrote:
I hope he had a transfer switch at his home that he turned off to isolate his home from the incoming utility power before setting up the generator on the front porch. Otherwise I'm glad I wasn't a lineman working in the area. Dangerous stuff.?

Do you really think that tiny generator will power up the entire neighborhood?

Perhaps he was intelligent enough to turn off the main breaker if he connected to the house wiring.

The generator won’t power up the entire neighborhood but it will backfeed high voltage into the system. The transformer feeding your house typically takes 8000-20000 volts and ‘transforms’ it to 120/240V that you use in your home. The same transformer will happily take a 120V input and convert it backwards to thousands of volts which can energize the powerlines for a long distance. Modern safety work practices will normally protect a utility lineman. It’s probably more dangerous for the unsuspecting public who assume a downed line is dead because the lights are out in the neighborhood.

Exactly!

You do understand that the generator will immediately go into overload and trip its breakers if connected to external power lines? While I do know better than to allow this to happen, it is mostly an old wives tale.

[edatlanta]

lakelivr wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:

edatlanta wrote:
I hope he had a transfer switch at his home that he turned off to isolate his home from the incoming utility power before setting up the generator on the front porch. Otherwise I'm glad I wasn't a lineman working in the area. Dangerous stuff.?

Do you really think that tiny generator will power up the entire neighborhood?

Perhaps he was intelligent enough to turn off the main breaker if he connected to the house wiring.

The generator won’t power up the entire neighborhood but it will backfeed high voltage into the system. The transformer feeding your house typically takes 8000-20000 volts and ‘transforms’ it to 120/240V that you use in your home. The same transformer will happily take a 120V input and convert it backwards to thousands of volts which can energize the powerlines for a long distance. Modern safety work practices will normally protect a utility lineman. It’s probably more dangerous for the unsuspecting public who assume a downed line is dead because the lights are out in the neighborhood.

Exactly!

[pnichols]

Just for what it's worth, I'll bet that little tear-drop trailer also has a way smaller A/C unit in it than that in the typical much larger RV.

If so, of course a 3500 watt variable speed ("inverter") generator is going to be loafing along when powering it - as opposed to a small inverter generator that must work hard in it's upper RPM range to power the same small A/C unit.

Guess what generator is going to be quieter? Hence the test was invalid in that it was comparing apples to oranges.

The trick is to - design and affordably price a generator that is still pretty quiet in the upper end of it's RPM range such that it can be sized so as to not have to be any larger (or heavier) than necessary to power the heaviest load expected.

i.e. The Honda EU2200i - that is only 57 dB(A) at full load and a world-class 48 dB(A) at 1/4 load (click on the "Specs" tab) - can easily be lifted, while also being ultra quiet when powering typical RV air conditioners including the probably small A/C in the test :
https://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu2200i

[lakelivr]

Lynnmor wrote:

edatlanta wrote:
I hope he had a transfer switch at his home that he turned off to isolate his home from the incoming utility power before setting up the generator on the front porch. Otherwise I'm glad I wasn't a lineman working in the area. Dangerous stuff.?

Do you really think that tiny generator will power up the entire neighborhood?

Perhaps he was intelligent enough to turn off the main breaker if he connected to the house wiring.

The generator won’t power up the entire neighborhood but it will backfeed high voltage into the system. The transformer feeding your house typically takes 8000-20000 volts and ‘transforms’ it to 120/240V that you use in your home. The same transformer will happily take a 120V input and convert it backwards to thousands of volts which can energize the powerlines for a long distance. Modern safety work practices will normally protect a utility lineman. It’s probably more dangerous for the unsuspecting public who assume a downed line is dead because the lights are out in the neighborhood.

[STANG23L]

Have had my 3500 Predator for two years now. So far I have roughly 18-20 days use where it ran 24 hours a day. So far I have had zero issues with it. Its still as quite now as it was new.

Was way overkill for my old camper (no AC). Hooked it up to the new beast last weekend. Had no issues running the fridge, water heater & AC.

A full tank of gas lasts around 10-11 hours. Wish there was a way to extend run time. It is heavy so as long as you don't plan on moving it around every day its not so bad.

[Lynnmor]

edatlanta wrote:
I hope he had a transfer switch at his home that he turned off to isolate his home from the incoming utility power before setting up the generator on the front porch. Otherwise I'm glad I wasn't a lineman working in the area. Dangerous stuff.?

Do you really think that tiny generator will power up the entire neighborhood?

Perhaps he was intelligent enough to turn off the main breaker if he connected to the house wiring.

[Tvov]

I thought it was a decent test. Holy mackerel that Generac is/was loud!

I was impressed by the Predator.

To anyone who owns one... How long have you had it? Related - how is their longevity?

And... how is the weight when it comes to moving it around? When we borrowed a Honda 2000 the ease of moving it around was fantastic.

[Tvov]

edatlanta wrote:
I hope he had a transfer switch at his home that he turned off to isolate his home from the incoming utility power before setting up the generator on the front porch. Otherwise I'm glad I wasn't a lineman working in the area. Dangerous stuff.?

When he said "just to run a few things", I took that to mean he just ran extension cords into the house instead of hooking up through the house's electrical system. I'm just guessing.

[edatlanta]

I hope he had a transfer switch at his home that he turned off to isolate his home from the incoming utility power before setting up the generator on the front porch. Otherwise I'm glad I wasn't a lineman working in the area. Dangerous stuff.?

[DFord]

2oldman, It was the Harbor Freight Predator. It was much noisier than I had expected and rattled. The HF ad compared their cheapo to the Honda but it really wasn't comparable. I ended up buying a Ryobi 2200 watt inverter generator from Home Depot on sale for the same price HF got for theirs on sale. We only use if for boondocking and love the way it idles down while providing enough power to top-off the batteries, run the refrigerator and power the TV & satellite system plus warm our bed by powering our electric blanket. It runs for hours on a gallon of gas. I used to bring a 5 gallon gas can with us to make up what the on board Onan generator that used a gallon of gas an hour under the same loads while spinning at a constant speed (3600 rpm) and making enough noise you and the neighbors knew it was running.

From my experience, any generator under maximum load is going to sound bad.

There's no excuse why Onan hasn't come out with a new inverter model generator like most manufacturers have instead of continuing to make the same tired 50 year old constant speed design they are. They're way late to market with them.

[2oldman]

Generac sounds pretty bad. Yeah, it's smaller, but what a racket. Sounds more like an open-frame generator.

DFord wrote:
I bought one of the 2000 watt models two years ago .

Which brand?

[Lwiddis]

Its not a "poor" test. The Predator is very quiet under an AC load. He doesn't claim he proved anything but that.