westinghouse 2500 inverter generator , looking for comments

I decided on a 2200-Watt B&S Inverter generator. I have used it to run a 65"TV, 2 Box fans, several light and my computer. I also run the refrigerator after shutting down the TV. I run the refrig till it stops and restart the other stuff. The Gen will run ~ 6 hours at 80 % load. Ed
 
I bought this exact generator last year to use with our travel trailer. It works fine and is very quiet on the eco setting under low load, not so quiet when running under load. Toss the POS spark plug before you ever start it and get an NGK or whatever. Only complaint is it has a high pitched whistling noise, maybe more electronic than whistling that must be something in the generator side. Not real loud but it's there. I've had it partially apart checking for anything loose. No idea if they all would do it. That's a great price, I paid $599. I'd buy it again.
 
the WEN looks good, even the next size price is good! with so many things electronics come into play + an inverter gen that makes CLEAN power is important!
 
At that price you have little to lose. Go for it and tell us how you like it. As stated above, toss the original plug ASAP and put in a quality NGK plug.
 
I'm a bit late to the party, but figured I'd add my thoughts on this machine, in case someone stumbles upon this thread that's looking into buying this.

The Igen2500 is a good machine. I had to return my first one because it leaked fuel and had other issues right out of the box. The second one has been solid so far.

Pros:

Super quiet
Does 2000W faithfully. Anything more than that and it sounds too strained.
Front panel is it's best feature -- fuel remaining (in liters), power output, time left on fuel, built in hour meter, etc. is absolutely priceless and I've not been able to find a comparable generator with these features.
Reliable so far. I've used it for a few hours straight in 90+F temps, and 0-10F temps. Generator doesn't care and always runs and puts out power.
[I've only got about 20 hours on it, so this is far from a long-term review]

Cons:

Does not ramp up quickly enough, even with ECO disabled; performs poorly at peak/starting loads. I'll elaborate:

I tried running my 32' fifth wheel air conditioner off it. Doesn't have enough giddyup to get it started. I've had no trouble with other smaller inverter generators, Honda 2200 comes to mind. With the Westinghouse it will struggle and trip the breaker. If you're insistent/patient you can reset the breaker two or three times quickly, and the A/C will eventually start, but probably not good on the starting capacitor/AC unit. Once the AC is started, at that point it's a normal 1400W load that the generator handles fine-- until the AC thermostat shuts it off and wants to restart again. I think the 2500W starting rating is dubious at best.

It won't run my portable welder, which is a HF Unlimited 200. Even if I turn the settings down quite a bit (running tiny wire at low speed/volts), the generator just won't react quick enough and will produce a fault on the welder. I know for a fact this welder is not drawing anywhere near 2000 running / 2500 starting watts at the settings I'm using. Just poor circuitry in the generator that can't handle sudden loads is the only thing I can chalk this up to. Again, a Honda 2200 inverter generator runs this welder, even with the welder turned up to max (for 120V). My Westinghouse Wgen9500 generator also has no trouble with this welder, using 240V input at max settings, which is somewhere near 8 KW of power demand.

If let set for long periods (3+ months) it can be stubborn to start. I make it a point to run it every couple months at least, and it's not been too much trouble, usually 3-5 pulls gets it going.

Conclusion:

I basically purchased this for long duration power outages where I might have to run my fridge/freezer and other low(er) power gadgets for long periods. My larger generator would eat me alive in fuel costs if I were to try to run it for days on end. I suspect the IGen2500 will work fine for this purpose. I also wanted something portable I could take on camping trips, or even to distant places on the property where I don't want to drag an electrical cord to. For $450, I think I got my money's worth.

If getting my A/C unit and/or welder to work with it was crucial (it's not), I'd pony up for a Honda or something higher quality.
 
I went the other way and bought the WGEN9500DF for $1000. Used a $300 cash back bonus card to knock it down to 700. :)

I have it wired into my breaker box with a 50A breaker and a interlock plate. Works great! I can run my AC no problem. Only issue is running big loads on the 20lb propane tanks. They will freeze over unless you wrap then with an electric blanket or put them in a pool of warm water. I keep about 20 gallons of non-ethanol gas in the garage and cycle through it every year. A small engine guy on youtube demonstrated most gas will go at least a year (He went 18 months from jan 2020 to summer 2021) with no treatment at all even sitting in a tank of a OPE and left outside the while time. Even if was buried in snow. !!

No fears of it going bad. I dont use stabilizer since he showed that the stabilizer didnt do much and sometime made it worse. Stabil 360 seems to be the best.

No problems and I can go several days with a comfortable house and no extension cords.

Now the big thing is the 25% THD which had be concerned, I looked at it with an oscilloscope and it was a sine wave with some higher frequency ripple on it. nothing too bad compare to my modified sine wave UPS. it was essentially a square wave and my 99% power factor antec power supply in my computer doesn't mind it at all.
 
I went the other way and bought the WGEN9500DF for $1000.

I bought 2 of those. Both are good running, dependable machines. I use non Ethanol 93 Octane fuel in them, treated with a healthy dose of Pri-G fuel stabilizer. Both start easily, and run like scalded dogs.

obk60HW.jpg
 
I bought 2 of those. Both are good running, dependable machines. I use non Ethanol 93 Octane fuel in them, treated with a healthy dose of Pri-G fuel stabilizer. Both start easily, and run like scalded dogs.

obk60HW.jpg
That's what I have.

Runs 2500sqft house with 4 ton AC. I did install a hyperengineering soft start box to reduce the startup surge (confirmed it works with a scope and current probe) and it works fine. no issue flickering lights with the AC turning on and off.
 
Are soft starts expensive?
mine for a 4-ton single phase was $250. Further research shows that a "hardstart" would also do the job just not as good as the softstart. the hard start is just a cap and a relay. really cheap at about $30 but will reduce the startup current spike a fair amount. The Softstart greatly reduced it to very near the stready state run current.

In hindsight I should have given it a try without the softstart but I wanted the install to be once and done. Softstart was insurance. I was nervious that the 9500 would not be able to handle the load. its a moose though.
 
I picked up the iGen 2200 a few months back when Sam’s had them on sale for $349. We got it in case of an extended power outage to keep our two chest freezers running. I’ve used it to run a small heater and sweeper to help break it in, and it seems to run just fine.

L8R,
Matt
 
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