Ryobi 900 Watt Propane Generator

[vermilye]

I am interested in any experience with the Ryobi 900 watt propane generator. I generally run on solar only, but am looking at something to top off the batteries after a few cloudy days. Would probably only use it once or twice on a 6 month trip, so gasoline would be a PIA.

I dry camp for months at a time, and like the propane only as well as small size/weight of this generator. Listed as an inverter generator, but I can't find any sound pressure levels for loudness.

Thanks in advance...

[burningman]

You guys are calculating a battery charger at it’s absolute maximum possible charging current, and your numbers are correct.
But, in reality that almost never happens.

The solution for carb gumming in a Honda is to install a separate kill switch and unplug the kill switch plug from the original on/off switch, which is a combination ignition and fuel switch.
Then the original switch is only a fuel on/off, and you can shut that off and let the generator run the extra minute or two while it sucks the carb dry and shuts off.
You can stop it anytime with the new kill switch while you’re on an outing where you’ll be starting and stopping it more often.
There’s even just for this, though it’s an ultra-simple mod.

[dclark1946]

I purchased one of these over a year ago because I wanted a low cost not too loud unit for occasional use that did not require drainig the fuel between uses. It seems to work fine but have only used it in several loaded test runs. We have a couple of EU1000s for our extended dry camping and a couple of EU2000s for home use in case of power outages. I use Stabil marine in the fuel but do not leave fuel in the tank or carb for more than a month now. Have had to do a couple of carb jobs due to leaving fuel with stabilizer too long in the generator.

[time2roll]

On sale today $249.... that is $50 off. Was $299 while we were talking about it.
I think I am in on this.

[time2roll]

Maybe the 61 is not so bad if that compares to 59 at rated power.
If the 61 is idle it would be significantly louder than the 53.

[pnichols]

time2roll wrote:
42-50 did seem low. Can you remind us what it was before?

I "think" that the original noise spec for the EU1000i was 53-59 dB, but at what distance I'm not quite sure now. I seem to recall that some generator manufacturer (maybe Honda?) used to state in print that their noise level specificaitons were in the range of 21-23 feet away.

Onan specifies in print that the noise levels for their Onan RV generators are at 10 feet away. The National Park Service maximum generator noise level rating is for 50 feet away.

The newer lower Honda lower noise level claims are from a "3rd Party Tested" chart that Honda publishes. At the bottom of the chart in very fine print it states that the testing was done in accordance with ISO 9416-2 at a distance of 23 feet.

Now I'm really curious to find out what a fully rev'd up Honda EU1000i sounds like. I sure don't care for the racket that a fully rev'd up EU2000i makes when it's running out in the open. Idling it's OK, but wide open is something else ... they're spinning above 4000 RPM then.

[time2roll]

42-50 did seem low. Can you remind us what it was before?

[pnichols]

time2roll wrote:

vermilye wrote:
, but I can't find any sound pressure levels for loudness.

Thanks in advance...

Box on youtube says 61 dB.
Seems like a lot compared to Honda 1000 at 42 dB (1/4) to 50 dB (rated power).
I am losing interest.

Hmmm ... right you are regarding Honda now publishing that as the latest noise spec on their EU1000i. I wonder how/when they came up with that as compared to the higher spec that they used to show for it?

As I recall, Honda didn't used to publish that low of a noise spec for their EU1000i. I also notice that Honda's published noise spec for their EU2200i is now showing lower than their previous EU2000i 53-59dB noise spec. :h

Did Honda recalibrate their engineering lab's dB meters ... or did they add (more) sound insulation to their generators' cabinet interiors? :S

[DrewE]

time2roll wrote:

DrewE wrote:
40A x 14.4V is 576W. 576W at 0.8 power factor is 720 VA.

/ .8 efficiency = 900VA

Xantrex white paper on power factor

You're right...I forgot to include the efficiency along with the power factor. :S I blame it being too late at night to do math when I wrote that.

Xantrex's numbers in their white paper are probably a bit overstated, in as much as they seem to be comparing themselves at their very best to their poorest competitor at the competitor's very worse. 80% efficiency and 0.8 PF are fairly reasonable worst-case estimates for many modern converters, though. In practice, I would expect the 900W generator to be (barely) sufficient for a 30A or 35A converter, even with hungry batteries...and possibly a 40A or 45A converter in some installations.

Progressive Dynamics lists the power consumption of the PD9245 as 725W, and the input current at rated output as "approximately 8.3A". With the remote dongle, one could keep it from putting out the full rated power and probably get by through manual intervention.

[time2roll]

DrewE wrote:
40A x 14.4V is 576W. 576W at 0.8 power factor is 720 VA.

/ .8 efficiency = 900VA

Xantrex white paper on power factor

[burningman]

And that’s absolute max.
Seems to me that thing should run it.

[MrWizard]

and thats running, not power on surge although if 'Nothing' else is plugged in
900VA peak should handle the surge

regardless of lableing, when it comes to generators, "It Is VA" not watts

[DrewE]

40A x 14.4V is 576W. 576W at 0.8 power factor is 720 VA.

[burningman]

How can a 30 or 40 amp charger overload a 700 watt generator?

[time2roll]

vermilye wrote:
, but I can't find any sound pressure levels for loudness.

Thanks in advance...

Box on youtube says 61 dB.
Seems like a lot compared to Honda 1000 at 42 dB (1/4) to 50 dB (rated power).
I am losing interest.

[MrWizard]

TWZMYJP
I'm referring to overloading the generator