The Official unofficial CPE 2000i Generator Thread

[pritch272]

8/1/2010 edit: Thread renamed at the suggestion of the Professor.
Renamed from: Champion Inverter and Remote Gens Promo on CPE's web site)

3/22/2011 edit: Thread renamed ...
Renamed from: Official CPE 2000 Watt Inverter Generator Thread

3/23/2011 edit: Thread renamed at the suggestion of the Professor.
Renamed from: (Un)Official CPE 2000 Watt Inverter Generator Thread

Inverter Available August 2010



Remote Available July 2010

[_40Fan]

Check your oil, mungpat. If you have over 10 hours of operation since filling the first time, you need to change it out.

[mungpat]

Hi, this afternoon I was using my cpe 2000i generator to drill holes in granite. It was running on the eco mode but after a while, I decided to turn it off, instead of having the engine going from low speed to hi speed to low speed. After 5 minutes, it stopped and has been really difficult to start after several tries. When I have been able to start it again, I switched on the eco mode. It went OK after this, but I found this to be really strange. Any idea what happened? Thanks.

[greenrvgreen]

Ganderson--

I have called Champion tech support on 2 or 3 occasions (for my 2 CPE gennies), and my experience has been uniformly superb. To be clear, I was a COMPLETE newbie to generators, gasoline engines, and electical systems when I bought my first gennie, the CPE 1200/1500. The guys in Pasadena took the time to explain everything to me, and provided easily twice the purchase price in vaule-added.

Based on those experiences, and on close monitoring of the posts to the CPE thread here, I am confident that many (but not all) negative experiences are from disgruntled whiners who want to steer the process, and are less concerned about results than they are about getting someone to jump at the sound of their voice.

Starting from a state of zero knowledge, I found a great gennie and got my camping electrical needs met for very little money. Honda? What are you willing to do for me?

[ganderson967]

Just curiosity on my part. When you talked to Jim, the CPE tech, did his directions on how to repair the problem involve replacing the o-ring in the petcock?

Did not get that far. I stopped him when he started explaining how to take the case apart. I am not a mechanic.

[byates]

ganderson967 wrote:
I follow this forum everyday but have never felt like I had anything I should to contribute so this is my first post.

I am personally angered that Dennis from CPE would imply that #40Fan is lying about his O ring and gas leak problem. Additionally, his statement about his tec guys and records of calls is a lie.

In April I bought a Champion inverter after reading the positive comments from the Professor and Randall C. I took it out of the box, filled the tank with gas and set it in the basement compartment of my fifth wheel trailer. When we arrived at our camping spot the smell of gas was everywhere. The entire contents of the gas tank had leaked out onto the floor of the trailer. It was really scary and bad.

I immediately called the hotline on my cell and spoke with a guy named Jim Miloto who asked if I had the fuel cap switched to off and the gas valve on the side turned off. I told him I did. Then he told me that the fuel line from the gas tank was probably leaking and began to give directions on how to fix it. I told him I did not have the tools to fix it and would either return it to the store or take it to a repair shop. I gave him my cell phone number and he told me that he would call back within a hour and tell me where to take it for repairs. He never called back so I called the next day and asked to talk to Jim. A guy told he was not there but would be in later. I once again left my phone number and asked for a return call but no call was returned. On day three, I called again and listened to the directory and called his extension. When he answered he had no clue who I was or even remembered talking to me so we went through the whole thing again. He never could give me the name of a repair shop where I could take the thing to get it fixed. That is when I said to myself forget it. I returned the generator to the store as soon as I got home.

This Dennis guy either doesnt know as much about his company and product as he thinks or he is a liar trying to protect his rear end. Without being given a real name to go with the handle how would he know if #40Fan called or not? My name is George Anderson. This Dennis guy needs to do some apologizing.

Just curiosity on my part. When you talked to Jim, the CPE tech, did his directions on how to repair the problem involve replacing the o-ring in the petcock?

[ganderson967]

I follow this forum everyday but have never felt like I had anything I should to contribute so this is my first post.

I am personally angered that Dennis from CPE would imply that #40Fan is lying about his O ring and gas leak problem. Additionally, his statement about his tec guys and records of calls is a lie.

In April I bought a Champion inverter after reading the positive comments from the Professor and Randall C. I took it out of the box, filled the tank with gas and set it in the basement compartment of my fifth wheel trailer. When we arrived at our camping spot the smell of gas was everywhere. The entire contents of the gas tank had leaked out onto the floor of the trailer. It was really scary and bad.

I immediately called the hotline on my cell and spoke with a guy named Jim Miloto who asked if I had the fuel cap switched to off and the gas valve on the side turned off. I told him I did. Then he told me that the fuel line from the gas tank was probably leaking and began to give directions on how to fix it. I told him I did not have the tools to fix it and would either return it to the store or take it to a repair shop. I gave him my cell phone number and he told me that he would call back within a hour and tell me where to take it for repairs. He never called back so I called the next day and asked to talk to Jim. A guy told he was not there but would be in later. I once again left my phone number and asked for a return call but no call was returned. On day three, I called again and listened to the directory and called his extension. When he answered he had no clue who I was or even remembered talking to me so we went through the whole thing again. He never could give me the name of a repair shop where I could take the thing to get it fixed. That is when I said to myself forget it. I returned the generator to the store as soon as I got home.

This Dennis guy either doesnt know as much about his company and product as he thinks or he is a liar trying to protect his rear end. Without being given a real name to go with the handle how would he know if #40Fan called or not? My name is George Anderson. This Dennis guy needs to do some apologizing.

[byates]

Ezbagr wrote:
I really have to wonder what Dennis`s objective was in posting on this forum. He basically came on here and disputed that a couple of people here posted some problems they had and also he did not believe them that they had contacted CPE.
It looks as though one of the big problems is that some of these units do not idle-run very smoothly-something that he did not address at all-for what it is worth I believe he came on here to get this thread back to the top so everyone that comes to this site can see it-it was at least 3-4 pages back before he posted-just my opinion.

My opinion for his appearance is damage control. From what has been posted by him and his thread spokesperson, several thousand units produced and an unknown quantity shipped and purchased had o-rings that are incompatible with E10 gasoline.
I don't know why he is blaming the problem on "the unsustainable fuel additive promoted by EPA - this is poison for ALL small engines and EQPA is now promoting E15".
Ethanol in our fuels has been around for a long time, first introduced as a fuel additive in the 80's in ETBE. Over the years engine manufacturers have redesigned their engines to accomodate these fuels. If manufacturers use materials formulated for use with ethanol and the consumer keeps the product in his/her power equipment fresh, there should be no problem. Ethanol is only poison to small engines if there are incompatible materials used in the engine/fuel delivery system or the user of the engine is lax in storing or using E10.
Is the leaking problem experienced by #40Fan a result of an o-ring incompatible with E10? Maybe. It is true that ethanol can cause a gasket or o-ring to swell if it is not rated to work with ethanol. But a truer statement would be "ethanol can cause a gasket or o-ring to swell and disintegrate". Hopefully that "unknown number of units shipped" won't leak.
Additionally, it's the American Coalition for Ethanol that is promoting E15, not the EPA, and ethanol is a sustainable fuel additive-Brazil comes to mind.
This said, I am not a fan of either ethanol or the EPA, but it's there and we have to live with it until our government wakes up and repeals the legislation mandating the use of ethanol.

"Hi all. I am currently vacationing at Bass Lake, CA and decided to catch up on this forum. I can say there is a lot of misinformation being posted here. I have listed below a few facts that you might be interested in: 1). The only report of a leaky petcock is the one posted here by #40C. ( by the way, we have no record of #40c calling into Champion.). I would like to speak to him personally if he will call into Champion. The picture he posted shows a misaligned petcock. I would guess it was cross threaded. It is possible this could have happened during assembly but every one of our units is run for 10 to 15 minutes so it is certainly strange that it was not caught by QC. 2). In over one year of production of this inverter we have no records of any leaky petcocks and never even replaced one. Of course we would issue a recall and notify the CPSC if ther was any leak problem. 3) The picture of the O-ring postednby #40C is not from a Champion inverter. So, with respect, his post is suspect. No phone call to Champion, which he indicates he did, and a fabricated photo. Please call me. 4) The petcock replacement that we are now conducting with two guys from our factory is because of a possible restriction caused by the swelling of a gasket when contacted with E10 ( the unsustainable fuel additive promoted by EPA - this is poison for ALL small engines and EQPA is now promoting E15)"

"Funny you should make this post today.
I learned today that there were a bunch of new units received in California from the factory in China that had the same problem. Before CPE Tech Support discovered the problem an unknown number (maybe 200?) were shipped out to suppliers and sold to customers. When they discovered the problem they began a process of replacing the petcock on several thousand new units still in the warehouse. A rather daunting task.
Anyway - CPE is aware of the problem and will gladly replace or repair any unit that has the leak you described. You apparently were the recipient of some of the bad units."

[_40Fan]

Extension 161 is the direct line to Paul, correct, Dennis?

Maybe I was the unlucky one that got two in a row that had leaky petcocks. So be it.

They are fixed. Generators work great. Couldn't be happier!

Would you still be willing to post a picture of your o-ring though?

[DrBaker]

There was some mention (many pages ago) about future inverter generators from CPE. Has anyone heard anything lately about this possibility?

Any 3k or bigger units planned? Inverter genny with remote start?

[DennisCPE]

All - I posted for the reasons I indicated. Regarding the rough idle or burping issue I am collecting info from my engineering team and will post that next week when I am back in the office.
Regarding #C40fan, I have asked him to call me when I am back in the office.

[Ezbagr]

I really have to wonder what Dennis`s objective was in posting on this forum. He basically came on here and disputed that a couple of people here posted some problems they had and also he did not believe them that they had contacted CPE.
It looks as though one of the big problems is that some of these units do not idle-run very smoothly-something that he did not address at all-for what it is worth I believe he came on here to get this thread back to the top so everyone that comes to this site can see it-it was at least 3-4 pages back before he posted-just my opinion.

[Five_Nine]

bradyk wrote:
Dennis maybe can add to the burping issue on our gennys, Seems pretty common out there that no one has a magic answer for. I didn't notice it so much but the wife pointed out to me last weekend. I wouldn't put it in the deal breaker category but is it something that is going to get worse or maybe an internal component going to fail down the road. Maybe Dennis can read many of those posts and throw us some ideas.

I too would be interested in knowing the cause and fix for this. Both mine and a friend's 2000i have this "hiccup" or missing sound. I believe I read in an earlier post that a higher heat range plug could be used. I don't know if this was a CPE recommendation or just something that a poster did to help remedy the problem.

[DBH_MI]

I think it's great that a CPE representative would show up on this topic concerning their product. Having represented my employer before the public, I know that there is always a degree of uncertainty regarding the outcome of any open forum. Dennis, you are to be commended. Keep up the good work. It will make the product better and provide us RV users with first hand information.

[PrivatePilot]

bradyk wrote:
Dennis maybe can add to the burping issue on our gennys, Seems pretty common out there that no one has a magic answer for. I didn't notice it so much but the wife pointed out to me last weekend. I wouldn't put it in the deal breaker category but is it something that is going to get worse or maybe an internal component going to fail down the road. Maybe Dennis can read many of those posts and throw us some ideas.

It's nearing the "it's going back to the store" category for me, depending on how it behaves this weekend at a outdoor jamboree we are attending. It'll probably be running about 16 hours a day for 3 days - if at the end it's still burping and wandering it's idle all over the map I think mine will be going back in the box and back to Costco.

I love the little Champ when it's running right, but this burping and wandering throttle issue *IS* a deal breaker for me.

[bradyk]

Dennis maybe can add to the burping issue on our gennys, Seems pretty common out there that no one has a magic answer for. I didn't notice it so much but the wife pointed out to me last weekend. I wouldn't put it in the deal breaker category but is it something that is going to get worse or maybe an internal component going to fail down the road. Maybe Dennis can read many of those posts and throw us some ideas.