HF 800 Watt Generator (RANT WARNING issued)

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: meep
i'm a fan of small yardwork gennies. i did it to keep my old eu2000i exercised and found it much more convenient than messing with cords. and the small HF units or
congrats on getting it running-- you did good and now have a useful tool!


Thanks, Meep you get it. If I were buying a generator that I needed to depend on to run a house during a natural disaster or make a living with, Harbor Freight would probably be the last place that I would go.
If I wanted to spend more money to trim my hedges, I would either look at a unit the caliber of Honda/Subaru/Yamaha or at least a 5500+ watt unit from one of the home improvement stores.
I just didn't think I wanted to drop a grand or more to trim a couple of hedges or run an occasional power tool in the backyard.

 

[Cujet]

I love those HF 800W generators. But I understand they have many flaws as delivered. Fuel lines, spark plugs, rectifiers, fuel cap gaskets, and more. They are so cheap, it's worth owning if you are mechanically inclined. If not, a Honda is a better bet.

However, many here at bitog are mechanically inclined. Hence my recommendation.

 

[henni]

The only HF engines I've had trouble free operation have been on their sub-$300 chipper. As long as I replace oil every 2nd use and as long as I keep fresh non-ethanol fuel in the tank.

As to generators, I only use Honda inverters (EU6500is, EM7000isa) but have in the past bought smaller EU2000 units from CL locally and all have been trouble-free until the day I sold them (also on CL) to another local buyer.

 

[cronk]

I bought one of the HF 800w generators right after Christmas, had a $50 gift card, they were on sale for $79, so only $29 + tax out of pocket. I have used it for running power tools at camp and in the back yard. So far I have ran a sawzall, heavy duty drill, halogen work lights, even a small pancake air compressor. I have ran about 2 tanks off gas through it and it has ran flawlessly. I did put an NGK spark plug in it, I run premium gas and Stihl Ultra synthetic oil as that is what I also use in me chainsaws and string trimmer.

 

[lars11]

Hm low end issues... Have a china brand 27cc string trimmer that had exactly that problem quirky to start, hestitating, gas hog. Suddenly died completely with no spark.
Checked backwards from plug and found the plug wire to be broken inside the rubber mid wire...
Soldered in a new wire and it starts and runs unbelievably well! Got a NGK plug too when I got it to work.
Took me an hour, feels good to make it work, feels bad to know that it was an stupid fault.

My point here being: We should add plug wire setup to the possible thing to check with small engines and especially low end cheapy stuff.
It's just not only the plug and the ignition core but the wire & hat too.

 

[The_Jeff]

Hmm, plug wire issues abound on chinese 2 stroke motorized bike engines. I had no problems but wanted to head them off at the pass. The stock plug wire has inflexible plasticky insulation and is more or less glued into the coil. I had an old silicone automotive plug wire on the shelf, cut it to length, ripped the OE wire out. The coil had a point like the end of a drywall screw sticking out, I stuck this in the graphite conductor in my plug wire, and screwed it a couple turns clockwise. Chintzy but it seems to work.

 

[Chris142]

I have 2 of those 800W generators. One has over 300 hrs on it and still works great. The 2nd is a spare with only 30 min run time on it.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Hmm, plug wire issues abound on chinese 2 stroke motorized bike engines.


It doesn't stop there. I know with my Kid's Chinese 4-wheeler, you basically had to remove and blue loctite every fastener you could get at. You'll find some may spin off by hand and some might shear off like bubble gum. Never found one cross-threaded though!

Like said, if you've got basic tools, a tube of blue loctite, some cable ties and a willingness to tinker a bit, you can make these things into a decent piece of equipment.

Joel

 

[Ausfahrt]

I've had mine for about two years now and have had no issues. It probably has about 100 hours on it by now and I use the Stihl synthetic 2-stroke oil. Here it is extending my bike wrenching hours by powering a couple of lights, a fan, and a radio in my barn.

 

[Rand]

I bought my Dad one last year at the 89$ sale.

So far we painted a couple outbuildings with it and he uses it while at the farm cabin.(no electricity hookup there)

Maybe you loosened the wire when you changed the OEM sparkplug out?

I think the main thing if you buy one is to use it immediately and make sure you didnt get a dud.. if it works it should continue working.

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: Rand
I bought my Dad one last year at the 89$ sale.

So far we painted a couple outbuildings with it and he uses it while at the farm cabin.(no electricity hookup there)

Maybe you loosened the wire when you changed the OEM sparkplug out?

I think the main thing if you buy one is to use it immediately and make sure you didnt get a dud.. if it works it should continue working.



I got it working the same day. It was the plugwire, where it went into the coil. The plug wire on that generator certainly qualifies as a piece of work.