Generators

Hey Troll 81,
What Model Honda is it and what do you run off it?
The reasons I ask,
1) We need a generator at home for when we have Blackouts to run the Freezer & Fridge, Sometimes we're without power for 12 hours or more.
2) and we what a one to take camping with us.
Just curious as to what size to get.

we don't run aircons or anything off ours so a 10i does the trick for us but if you are going to be running very power hungry things you will have to get the 20i

check the power draw on the compressor for your fridge they have a pretty big start up current.

Cheers for that, no we wont want to run anything else off it.
Some laughed when we had gas lanterns installed with the gas line for the cooktop & stove. It's handy to have a backup system.
While camped we would need to charge the batteries every now & then for the 12v system.
I'm in town tomorrow so I check out some prices.

Cheers

charging the batteries is really all I use it for. I will get a solar setup down the track but that's a discussion for another day. We moved away from gas lighting a long time ago. I run a 240 fluro off my inverter for light and it lights the place up like a stadium. I hate cooking and working in the dark. We normally don't camp in national parks and we always camp well away from people so firing up the gennie for 2-3 hours doesn't bother me and like I said if you put it 20m away you don't even know about it.

I found some info on theTomahawk

Looks like a Chinese import thingy.
Cheap enough. I think It would be best to stay clear of them. That's just my opinion.

I have to admit about 18 months ago I bought an Engel generator (2KW) thinking it was identical to the Honda jobbie, only painted green.

Fuunily enough I have yet to use it.

I have read that the Engel is not sine wave, not he same electronics, etc etc.

Can anyone tell me, from experience, that the Engel genarator I have is not good enough to power fridges, electronics, etc?

Gary,
The definitive answer is, "suck it and see"

What I mean by that is the only true way to answer your question is to start the generator and plug in the appliance and see what happens.

In some really rare cases and the appliance that springs to mind is the Dometic inverter RV washing machine will not run on the Honda generators regardless of their capacity yet it will run on the Yamaha.

That is the only case I know of that the Honda wouldn't run an appliance. That may have changed now as Dometic were looking into their electronics to see if they could make a correction.

Make sure first off that the appliance actually starts then monitor the appliance very carefully for rapid rises in temperature of the electric motor etc.

Be prepared to pull the plug quickly if things just don't seam right.

I know that doesn't sound very scientific but without knowing a whole host of design and performance data on both the generator and the appliance that's the best available to us.

Our main aim in portable generators is to emulate as closely as possible the power that is supplied to our house. As I said above, from my tests with one exception you pretty much get what you pay for in portable generators.

Geoff

Thanks Geoff, good comments.
Mind you, I still paid fairly stiff dollars for a Japanese generator ( Honda motor, Sawafuji electronics) and would expect reasonable performance, possibly better than from China I hope.
Cheers
By the way I'm originally a Novocastrian.

Hi Gary,
And that's what makes my blood boil over Engel.

They are advertising as if they are producing a Rolls Royce but they stopping just short.

That's why everytime this generator debate comes up I mention my actual testing of the Engel and the results I found.

It doesn't mean you won't get excellent results in most applications from the Engel it's just they aren't necessarily delivering what they are insinuating they are delivering.

Like I've said before, for the most part you get what you pay for in the electrical output of these portable generators.

Where abouts in Newcastle did you originally come from?

Geoff

Hi Geoff,
Spent all my school years in Merewether. Moved to Sydney for uni at 18.

My parents moved after 50 years to Lake Macquarie.
cheers
Gary

x2 for the Yammy . Economical ,quiet and starts 1st time.

x3 for the yammy, and i like the colour better than the honda.

Hi Bill

I'm with you in spirit , but need to add a couple of electronic engineering corrections.

I'll leave alone the term generator as it can mean AC or DC , AC does not mean sine wave , square wave is also Alternating current , and there cannot be sorts of sine wave , a sine wave is a sine wave by definition and because of this has the property that its shape cannot be modified by passive components.

Whereas a square can be constructed by adding sine wave of various frequencies together(called harmonics).

On the sound , the power in a sound wave doubles for every 3db i.e. 63 db is twice the power as 60db and 66db is 4 times the sound power of 60db etc.

Gidday bruce

Let’s get serious with the bet. We’ll both toddle off to Siberia for 25 years and see who freezes their arse off first. Since you’re the instigator of the bet, it’s up to you to supply the fuel.

I’ll also require naming rights to the book entitled; ‘But for the lack of warmth, I lay in frozen solitude’.

Now it could be that your $300 Chinese generator may outlast my Honda, which would cause me considerable angst (particularly if the Latte gadget can’t be fired up in the morning).

However, if the Honda comes out on top, I reserve the right to expect your servitude until the cows come home.

LOL

Rregards

Kim

Now now Kim you have to read between the lines (could be like an insurance policy) I have all the say in the rules lol.
Thanks for the come back mate, hope this will get a few more of the other side to put up hahahahah

I was camped at Inskip Point a few weeks ago and there was a Honda 20i running around 50 meters away and it was on or near full throttle and it was bloody noisy a lot more than my CG at the same throttle. May have had a problem......