3kva Generator

Kime please post more information:

What will it be used for?
Do you want to mount it permantly in a vehicle or dismount to be used?
What will it be powering?
What budget?
What about noise level required?

Buy a Yamaha or a Honda and you can't go wrong - but you will have to fork out a bit more than $1800.
Most people don't need 3kva.
A 2.4 kva should be adequate for most caravan airconditioners.
A 2 kva will not run a lot of the bigger vans aircondaitioners.

Hi Kime

I too question your need for 3 kva. When we purchased the very popular (and fairly quiet) Honda 2 kva to run our air conditioner, we asked the dealer about a 3 kva or alternatively running two x 2 kva in tandem, and he assured us the 2 kva would do the job and it did. However for those who are in tropical temperatures in summer, the Honda may trip off on the air conditioner in which case the Yamaha 2.4 kva is the best choice. There are cheap gennies around which may do the job for occasional use, but it will be frustrating if they fail when you are out bush on a holiday. We were using a near new medium range 4.4 kva cheapie during our recent power failure and on the third day it failed to start - back to the Honda. Our son has a 2 kva Kipor for occasional camping and it has not let him down, but he is able to fix anything if need be.

Motherhen

Hi, Agree with your need for a larger gennie. Ours has to do double duty. Small enough to take travelling but also as a house backup. Looked into all sorts. The small 2.2kva we had was too small for the house so bought a cheap 5kva off the net. Great for the house but too big for travelling. Sold that. Finally found a 4.4 kva that looks like fitting the bill. Pure sine wave, eco run, manual,key & remaote start (suits me with a hardly operating shoulder) 8hrs running on a tank of fuel, quiet (58 db) 29 kg so can be lifted off the truck, 10 amp direct battery charging. $649 delivered.
Haven't used it camping yet but have cut at least 1.5 tonne of firewood this year running a large stihl electric chain saw with no problems. Even if it only lasts a couple of years I can afford to buy a couple more if they give up the ghost. Probably use it for another year or two then onsell while it is still running & buy a new one.
Don't use a gennie too much camping. Mainlly for the baking days & charging batteries when the sun don't shine. Solar & batteries the rest of the time. Bill

Kime

Dude! your the only one that knows how many KVA's you need and if it is 3KVA then thats it. Don't let anybody else tell you any different.

Now having said that, the comments above re size, weight, storage etc etc are valid and should be considered when you purchase your gennie.

I have a Honda 2.0i which masquerades as a 2KVA device and will output that on load being applied, however then likes to sit between 1.6 and 1.8KVA.

Turn a toaster on and see how fast it trips the overload switch. The said toaster pulls 2400W (ie 2.4KVA) so using that as an example you should be able to workout what you need for your setup.

Identify the Watt usage/rating of each item that you intend to use on 230/240V power, then have a guesstimate of what items you anticipate will/may be used simultaneously, add the wattage of these beasties and convert it to KVA's.

Eg. 5600watts in total = 5.6KVA. Now I must point out at this time that this is a 'rule of thumb' method that will get you so close to the actual KVA's required, that it is not worth bothering wasting your good time, effort and money, obtaining an electrical engineering degree to spout off about me being a poofteenth out either side of the equation. (LOL)

The above Honda by the way will not run the air conditioner on my Jayco Base Station. But will run the aircondition on a friends Jayco Sterling (Later Model)

Just as an aside, ALDI about 2 years ago were selling 2.4KVA Generators for $390 from memory and I bought one to see if it would run the Base Station Aircon. Not a problem and the interesting thing is, I used to use a 850W GMC generator from Bunnings for onsite power tool usage. It worked ok for the power tools however when placed on a multimeter it used to range from 205V to 260V output with the meter doing a St Vitus dance trying to keep up. This little piece of Chit also burnt out a guy's battery charger who plugged same into it.

The ALDI one is as smooth as silk even when a load is applied. I use it quite a lot whilst free camping. The only down side is that it is way bigger and heavier than the Honda. Yep! use it for charging/running computers, smart phones, Samsung Tablet, LED TV, VAST Satcom receiver etc etc plus runs Microwave, wife's coffee machine, battery chargers for Van batteries without a hiccup or damage to any of the said appliances.

3KVAand above tend to come with wheels on them these days which makes things much easier, however it is like most things - 'horses for course'.

Good luck with whatever you purchase, just make sure you get whats right for you and no body else. Also overestimate just a tad on what you reckon will be your requirements as that little extra can go a long way on the odd occasion.

Regards

DD

Not 100% on topic but....

We routinely run $500,000 worth of sensitive electronics off of a pair of Honda EU65I's (6.5kva). The gear is in a TV outside broadcast truck. The Honda's are awesome and worth every extra dollar in terms of build quality and reliability in my humble opinion. Both units have over 300 hours on them now, often running for 10 hour stretches at a time. All we do is routine filter and oil changes, albiet we like to do them at 1/2 the scheduled intervals just for peace of mind. They never miss a beat even when loaded close to capacity and the power produced is measurably cleaner than the mains.

I just wish someone would bring out the extended range fuel cap that you can get for the smaller models where you run them in tandem with boat fuel tanks and lines. There are LPG conversion kits for them in the states too.

Pat

Would that be a Genquip? This is the model that is on my hit list but I don`t know if they are ok or not. Only weigh 30 odd kg. Regards G.T.

We have had our 2kva kipor for a long time. When we bought it we only used it for charging batteries or run engle fridges in our camper. But now its useless on our basestation. When we can afford it we would like 2x2kva hondas. Reason being i can carry one at a time. Only need to run both joined with an $80 lead when we want to run the air cond and microwave. Im thinking while cooking using the kettle, someone on computer, air cond on then some one flush the toilet anything smaller would fail.
Sharon

Kime
Have a YAMAHA EF2800i Inverter Generator Use this when out free camping runs the A/C no worries also runs an electric fan heater no problems handles the jug or toaster
Dry weight 29 Kg tank capacity 11Lts a little bit heavy to lift in or out of the vehicle but would not be with out it what I plug into it it seems to handle. Used it 18 months ago on the road for six months never had a problem with it
PS not all the above together but will run the A/C AND THE JUG TOGETHER
Terry