Looking to get a ~2000 watt inverter generator.

Interested in a Honda EU2000i. Buy once, cry once right?  Any reason I should look at Yamaha or Subaru instead?

Also what is the cheapest place to buy a Honda? Best I have found is $989.00.


A side note, has anyone tried the Ryobi that home depot sells for $550?

Another random question... are there any comparable DIESEL generators made? I hate carrying more than one type of fuel. I did see that Yamaha makes one that will run on gas and propane for $250 more. I couldn't find any info on propane consumption though...

Get the honda.

Honda, Yamaha and Robin-Subaru are all pretty close in that ~2kw range.

If you're hardcore, you might want to look at those that can run on tri-fuel, to cover all of your bases.  I'm pretty sure the first two are capable.  Also, look for the ones that can be connected together, for double her pleasure.

Chris

All I need is it to start reliably in ultra cold weather, run some lights, laptop, charge phones, and maybe a panini grill, electric blanket and emergency heater if the propane one has an issue.

The Yamahas have a separate fuel cut-off valve, which makes it easier to run the carb bowl dry before storage.

Honda voids their warranty if you install a tri-fuel conversion kit - Yamaha doesn't.

Yamaha repair parts seem to be more readily available on the internet than Honda - and most places that sell Yamaha parts online aren't afraid to list their prices.

I bought the Yamaha 2000 Inverter last year from Generators Direct.  It's worked awesome.  It is really quiet and it ran fine last winter at 35 below zero ice fishing.

I've got a Yamaha 1000w inverter I use to recharge the battery on my pop-up on longer trips.  Bought it at Cabela's, on sale, with a promotion and club points and paid about $350. Hell of a deal on an $800 unit. I wanted a Honda, but I couldn't pass this deal up.  I think they're within a few db of each other, and build quality is similar.

I bought the 2K Yamaha inverter generator.  It's stupid quiet, efficient, and my 70 yr old mother can start it.  The fuel cut off is nice too.  Mine came with 12v alligator clamp adapter for charging battery.  

I think the Hondas are nice too.  I read a bunch of reviews a couple years ago and came to the conclusion the Yamaha was the best and least maintenance involved.  I can run mine for 11 hours on 1 gallon of regular unleaded.

Honda is where it's at. They rarely break down. The Honda inverter generators are the bees knees.

Fuck Propane!!!!

When I was doing some work on my Generac I went to the service center for some parts.

They had a new Propane version of my gas generator.

It all sound good until I read up on the hours out of a 20lb ( grill sized ) tank!!!!!

OUCH!!!!!

I'm sticking with gas for now !!!!!!!


.

That's how I shut down my Generac.

Have owned it 11 years ..... bought it new.

Only work I did on it was replace a few pieces for cosmetic purposes, it is kept outside under a cover and some things got rusty.

It's a workhorse though ........ 8,500 Watt with Surge up to 13,500

I bought a Honda EU3000is for our travel trailer.  We ran it last week with AC, refrigerator, and tv with blue ray running, all at the same time.  Very quiet and am very happy with it.  Most of the time it ran on a low throttle at 49db.

I bought mine from electricgeneratordepot.com,  the cheapest place I could find it.

We own a rental company and specialize in generators and power distro.
We exclusively run Hondas and they're dead reliable. I don't remember the hour meter on our oldest units but they're way up there.
Honda 2k units are a good medium. Big enough to carry a load and small enough for one guy to load by himself. If later down the road you want a larger unit you can actually buy another 2k and buy the parallel kit to make the two units 4000watts total out of single plug. Honestly I wouldn't be scared to buy a used eu2000 on Craigslist if it was in good shape.

If your looking for a cheaper alternative look at the new Hyundai's. I'm extremely interested in them but have to data to give you other than they have a higher wattage and I believe they claimed to be more quiet.

As far as propane. It depends on how often you plan on using the genny, if it's gonna sit in a cabin for a season them sure go with propane. Reason is your gas will never go bad. Buy a couple 10 gallon tanks and leave them up there and the gas is always good. If it's for once a month use than I say stay with gasoline. We've had old units sit for a year or two before being started and they take a minute to crank but they just go!

Diesel genny? Eh... They take a serious tug to get started becuase the compression is so high.

I have 3 Hondas. 1000 and 2 2000's.  I use a 1000 and a 2000.  I have an extra 2000 that has never even been taken out of the box.......it is a spare.
They work well, start on the first 1 or 2 pulls and are damn quiet.

I don't know didly-squat about the Yamaha........but I have been satisfied with the Honda.

I bought my Honda eu2000 companion 2 years ago when Honda was running a sale $899 and 18 months same as cash financing.
Look for another sale.

going to need more than 2k genny for that load.  e/blanket turns on as back up heater is running, POP goes the circuit breaker.  Running  them is different than start up loads.

The Champion generator is an awesome generator as well, and half the cost.

You can get the 3100 Champion inverter with remote start for same price as the Honda, Yamaha 2000 watt.

http://www.amazon.com/Champion-Remote-Wireless-Inverter-Generator/dp/B00JZQUSAC

With a significant electrical load on it, typical fuel consumption of a small-to-mid-sized generator is 0.25 gallons of propane per hour, per KW of electrical power being generated  (i.e., 0.75 gallons per hour when the generator is supplying a load of 3 KW).

Or, if you measure your propane by the pound, that's 1.06 pounds per hour, per KW of power being generated.

1 gallon of propane = 4.24 lbs

A "20 pound" tank of propane is typically filled to around 18 pounds of propane, which is 4.24 gallons.

So, if your generator is powering a 1,500 watt load, it would run around

4.24 gallons / (0.25 gallons per hr x 1.5 KW)  = 11.3 hours on a "20 pound" tank of propane.



In addition to propane, the tri-fuel conversion kits also allow you to run your generator on natural gas, which can be very handy during any extended power outage that doesn't affect the NG supply.

Basically, it's like having an unlimited fuel supply for your generator.