Generator problem

How long ago did you purchace the Generator? If you have all receipts take it back and try to get a new one.
Sounds like yours is a dud.

Cheers

Hi, as far as I know , If it was a genuine Honda Generator it would be a full "Sine Wave" generator, the other brands are only look- a- like Honda motors, probably made in China, and not very well controlled voltage etc. as you have found out.
Cheers Des,
Retired Honda Mechanic of 26 years

About 8 years ago I noticed on a mates Engel a sticker which stated...Generator compatible. I thought beauty...the kids bought me a $99 GMC genny & I couldn't wait to try it out on my engel whilst away camping. BUT before I did I decided to do a bit of research & first up I phoned Engel as to what I could & couldn't do with their 40 ltr fridge...Reply...."Do not use a two stroke genny to power your fridge...it must be a four stroke & sine wave inverter equiped.....I then rang a generator dealer who sold Yamaha & Honda. I took notice of what he advised & the only genny for me was the Honda 2 because it was more than suitable for what I wanted a genny to do. I also did research on the Internet by using our computer!! Aah....the power of the internet & the phone. I went "fully worded up" on the product I wanted to purchase,so all I had to worry about was what $$$ I was going to haggle Mr Salesman on. I think you mean a 1KVA Dave or is it Maz? Good luck.

A few people have been caught with that Engel stuff - but its quite good for some things though like square wave inverters are.

However I'm suspisous-check that your electrican was using a good "RMS" reading multimeter for his measurement before complaining to hard as a reading of 276 volts is possible with a peak reading type meter , that has a calibration scale for sine wave readings when reading a squarer wave shape.

An easy answer is to run a 240Volt say 20 amp smart charger from the generator to the batteries depending on their size.120 amp is OK

I bought one from a vendor on the AULRO and he assured me it was OK to run on my Yamaha 1000Watt peak non sine wave generator.
Regards Philip A

Good to see it's Solar power winning over petrol power :-)

Maîneÿ . . .

I have been running an Engle fridge of a Yamaha ET 650 (two stroke) for years. No problems at all.
I must agree with one of the previous writers that a load must be put on a generator to accurately measure the voltage.

The below is taken from the article on this site about generators


Battery Charging & Generators
Battery charging outlet Even the under-$100 generators have so-called “12 volt DC” outputs on them - but never connect any 12 volt appliances to them - the output is only suitable for battery charging. The output can be over 20 volts under light load and the output is very rough DC that could damage many appliances.

These charging outputs only give slow charging for car-size batteries - a 1kVA Generator can only provide one tenth of that power from the Charging output. But the biggest concern is that there is NO charge regulation at all, so if you don’t disconnect the charger when your battery approaches full charge, you could destroy an expensive battery!
TIP
For any serious charging you are better off buying an automatic 240 volt charger - you can now get 15 amp Three Stage Chargers for around $100.



In other words, it is very easy to damage a battery from the 12 volt side of a genny'. Almost always a better option to charge through a 240 volt battery charger.

Some generators voltage will settle down once under load, but I believe that some things can be sensitive to the starting voltage.



As far as taking the unit back for refund / exchange.
Your statutory rights say that you can ask for a refund for a number of reasons including;
* Faulty
* Unfit for purpose
* Do not match description or sample shown
If the salesales person tells you that a product will do something "no problems" and doesn't, you are entiltled to a refund or exchange

We have several Honda look-a-like generators. None of them are the genuine thing but copies made in China.

This may not be the case with yours, but it looks like you have been sold an inferior generator and you should have a case to have your money refunded since it doesn't deliver on what was promised.

Solar is a good option - make sure you purchase name brand panels, something like Kyocera.Check out our site.

cheers

Martin

Hi guy's,
many thanks for all of your reply's. this model is made in Japan & is 4 stroke
it shows the "Pure Sin" wave on the machine {~240v} it was tested under load with same results, the electrician is of a very high standard & has been in the industry for 40 yrs plus, so i would assume his test meters would be of the correct type, i have emailed the manufacturer a few days ago, but up to now i have had no response, i am prepaired to give them a week or so for at least some reply even if it's to tell me to get "nicked". it is quite possible that the machine is faulty and i would be willing to let them check it out at their own factory, still see what happens over the next few days

Again, many thanks for all of your thoughts

Regards
Dave & Maz