What I am most concerned about is changing frequency.

According to my Kill- A- Watt the frequency varies from 61-72 changing every second or so.

It does it on 2 Kill-A-Watt meters and both show rock steady when connected to house current.

Will this much change in frequency damage electrical devices plugged into the generator?

No. Some clocks rely on an accurate 60 Hz line frequency to keep good time, but the average device couldn't care less if the frequency is somewhat above 60 Hz.

possibly..... if the voltage is too low...check it with a multimeter with the plug barley out of the extension cord to expose enough metal to make contact with the leads. But for short runs (a few days to a week) I say you should be fine.

How big of a fridge are you running, give us the amp rating on the sticker (it's inside the door, or back of fridge next to compressor).

Using a top-quality extension cord (12 or 10 gauge wire) - in the shortest length that will reach - can help a lot in starting and running heavy loads like refrigerators. Most folks like to buy the cheapest 100 foot 18 gauge cord they can find, and then can't figure out why the voltage is so low at the far end of it...

6.5 FULL LOAD AMPS

Well hurricane season is starting on Tuesday June 1st, so it is time to take the generator out of hibernation for some routine running.

I bought the generator at the end of January, I lost count of the run time but it is somewhere in the area of 40 hours of total run time. So far so good.

My "generator" gas cans:



These are supplement to my 10 nato fuel cans which I used for long term storage. I prefer to bring these plastic cans to the gas station to fill up rather than the nato gas cans. I don't get as many strange looks with the johnny homeowner plastic cans





A couple notes:

The engine starts easier than it did when new.

As noted on my earlier post, the engine starts to idle better after 10hr of run time.

Run time has improved as well, averaging about 6 hours a tank (1 gallon) at about 3/4 load.

Overall, I am bumping my original rating of 3 out of 5, to 3.5 out of five.

here's my little review.

i was home on leave last month and used the coupon from field and stream and got it for $79 plus tax. the manager was running the register and told me about the in-store replacement plan. now, i've never bought a service plan or extended warranty or any of that before, but i couldn't resist this one. for $20, i have 2 full years for replacement. he said it didn't matter if i dropped it, ran over it, or just plain blew it up, they'd replace it.

i used it for about 12 hours a day for a week, running the camper on it. everything was smooth it ran well for me. 3 or so pulls on the cord at each start. it ran longer than expected on a tank of fuel. i don't recall the exact number, but it ran a couple of hours more than the specs on 91 octane mix at a little over half load.

At first when I saw the title of this thread I was like

But then I started reading and now I'm like

I think I want one too, just to play with. Right now, if a storm knocks out our power, I am limited to what I can run off of a deep cycle battery and an 800W inverter. So this might be a good foot in the door to generator preps.

Thanks for this thread and product review, OP.

I am thinking I might buy a 600 watt microwave just to use with this small generator. Maybe after I get the thing and make sure it runs, a few smaller appliances like a small microwave would be handy. They would still be a good idea for when I get my yamaha when I have more money to spend.


Another great use for this generator long term would be for running my grain grinder once I get a motor for it and for running the big mixer for making big batches of bread.

ETA: I could probably run my large toaster oven off this little grinder. It would be very easy to use for baking bread in a pinch for as long as the gas holds out. Good thing we will have a decent amount on hand. I will check its wattage rating when I get back to the shop.

Over on the RVNet forums, several folks have reported that this trick only works with the "inverter" microwaves - and only then at some power settings. Conventional (non-inverter) microwaves operate at full power, but cycle the magnetron on and off to achieve lower average power settings.

I bought one today. In fact, they rung up the purchase and forgot to add the 20% discount. I pointed that out and they supposedly voided out the first transaction and did a whole new one. Just checked my bank account and both transactions went through, which means that not only did I get the good price, but I also paid the higher price as well, and only got one generator!!! I will call them in the morning.

I did get a chance to fire it up and play with it a little. it started on the 3rd pull. The idle seemed a little rough at first, with it calming down nicely once it got warmed up. Once a load was added it smoothed right out. All I had to test it with as a work light were I was at. The 75 watt bulb was enough load to really tell a difference.

The "hunting" that was described earlier was pretty accurate. It seems the idle changes rpm a little while it has no load. Almost like its trying to find one. Once it has a load it just seemed to hum right a long.


Tomorrow morning I am going to try plugging in my regular TV and direct TV receiver into it and see if that works okay. Then I will take it to the shop and try it with a harbor freight angle grinder and what ever else I can find to play with!

I appreciate the OP bringing this to our attention. I think this little genny will really come in handy.


ETA: I took the printout of the online price and then used the 20% coupon on top of that.

I am breaking my generator in right now with a 500 watt work light. This genny idles roughly until it gets warmed up. Right now it is humming right along and sounds great. I can barely hear it outside.

When I first fired it up, the light was fluctuating a little. Now its rock steady and everything looks great. Tomorrow morning I will fire it up and see if it smooths out any on the idle as it breaks in.


I bought a couple extra plugs today. My autoparts guy cross referenced the plug and it was supposed to be a N12YC. He gave me Autolite 65 plugs for replacement. I am guessing the hotter heat range will result in the plug staying cleaner in the two stroke. I was surprised that they could cross reference the chinese plug.


This thing definitely likes to run with a load. I just killed the light to see what would happen. The idle surged a few times and then settled into a very slightly rough idle. Not bad. It is definitely smoothing out. I just don't want to run any later tonight. I have neighbors that I would like to keep happy and they have windows open.


ETA: The manual said that the genny should run for 3 mins to warm up before connecting a load. Makes sense seeing what happened today.