I found a good deal a few year ago on Craigslist. A 5500 watt North Star Generator with a Honda engine. Nice generator, but got an electrician to install a hookup now, since my first power outage, I saw it was a pain to run extension cords. The electrician told me I needed an adaptor to connect the 20 amp outlet into the 30 amp hookup. I was thinking of just getting a bigger generator instead. What brands are good brands. Why are Hondas a lot more money?
What brand generators are good?
- Thread starter NH73
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If your generator meets your needs don't bother upsizing. I'm confident you could find a premade cord for your particular outlet-inlet scenario.
The approximate hierarchy are:
-- single cylinder, 3600 RPM gas engine
-- single cylinder inverter gas engine
-- twin cylinder 3600 RPM gas/ natural gas
-- twin cylinder 1800 RPM gas/ natural gas
-- twin cylinder 1800 RPM diesel
Running a huge generator at light load is not great for the motor, particularly diesel, and you're stuck finding more fuel in a scenario where fuel may be hard to come by.
What are you trying to accomplish? Do you want to run the clothes dryer after a hurricane?
Hondas are expensive for the name recognition. The engine sides of generators are mostly established if you maintain them.
The approximate hierarchy are:
-- single cylinder, 3600 RPM gas engine
-- single cylinder inverter gas engine
-- twin cylinder 3600 RPM gas/ natural gas
-- twin cylinder 1800 RPM gas/ natural gas
-- twin cylinder 1800 RPM diesel
Running a huge generator at light load is not great for the motor, particularly diesel, and you're stuck finding more fuel in a scenario where fuel may be hard to come by.
What are you trying to accomplish? Do you want to run the clothes dryer after a hurricane?
Hondas are expensive for the name recognition. The engine sides of generators are mostly established if you maintain them.
Honda is overrated.
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Confused - a home tends to have at least 200 amp panels - and generator switch gear 100 amps or more - what is the question on 30 amps x 240V - Perhaps that little of amps belongs on cords:
(what I have on WGen9500DF)
(what I have on WGen9500DF)
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So many factors to consider! Power requirements, fuel, weight, etc.
If your electrician said you can use an adapter, maybe try that first to see if it meets all power requirements for your use. Then you have a backup when you buy the new one.
I just went through this as we moved and left the old portable behind. Had electrician add 30A inlet and interlock. Ended up buying a Champion 240v enclosed inverter on sale. 3 year warranty, quiet, dual fuel, runs 12 hours on a 20lb bbq LP tank (or 5 gallons of gas) and has electric start so my wife can fire it up. Model 201175. Actually bought a Predator first and returned it unopened because I just couldn't get comfortable with 90 day warranty and lack of parts support. If I'd already had a spare (like you will) I probably would have kept it.
When we're older we will go full auto backup gen with big LP tank.
If your electrician said you can use an adapter, maybe try that first to see if it meets all power requirements for your use. Then you have a backup when you buy the new one.
I just went through this as we moved and left the old portable behind. Had electrician add 30A inlet and interlock. Ended up buying a Champion 240v enclosed inverter on sale. 3 year warranty, quiet, dual fuel, runs 12 hours on a 20lb bbq LP tank (or 5 gallons of gas) and has electric start so my wife can fire it up. Model 201175. Actually bought a Predator first and returned it unopened because I just couldn't get comfortable with 90 day warranty and lack of parts support. If I'd already had a spare (like you will) I probably would have kept it.
When we're older we will go full auto backup gen with big LP tank.
A house doesn't use 200 amps at a time, unless you're growing a lot of "hippie hay." OPs question probably relates to the NEMA connections and their max ratings. It's ok to oversize these.
Sizing a generator means sizing the loads you want to use, accounting for inrush current. A kill-a-watt meter is good for the 120V stuff; assume that 240 takes "a lot". Read the name plates, too. My fridge supposedly needs 7.1 amps, which would be 887 watts, but the kill-a-watt shows it really only uses 125 or so, unless the compressor is starting up or it's defrosting.
I've got my house so it will run all essentials off a single 120v/15a plug via a 6-breaker "sidecar" transfer switch. I took the extension cord, looped it around into an unincluded circuit, flipped the breakers to generator, and used the kill-a-watt to see what my essential loads were. One should size the generator to be about double this, so it's running at 50% load. This accounts for startup loads and provides efficiency.
Sizing a generator means sizing the loads you want to use, accounting for inrush current. A kill-a-watt meter is good for the 120V stuff; assume that 240 takes "a lot". Read the name plates, too. My fridge supposedly needs 7.1 amps, which would be 887 watts, but the kill-a-watt shows it really only uses 125 or so, unless the compressor is starting up or it's defrosting.
I've got my house so it will run all essentials off a single 120v/15a plug via a 6-breaker "sidecar" transfer switch. I took the extension cord, looped it around into an unincluded circuit, flipped the breakers to generator, and used the kill-a-watt to see what my essential loads were. One should size the generator to be about double this, so it's running at 50% load. This accounts for startup loads and provides efficiency.
Do you have natural gas to the house?
I ran my old house on a 90's Craftsman BS powered 5600w//8000w surge gen. set. It had a percentage meter on it. Rarely saw 50% on the built-in load meter. Oil burner fired hot water, hot water loop in boiler, well, fridge, tv's, lights (all LED) no problem. Only the microwave put a big load on it when you heard it grunt under that load.
BS remote outside connection transfer switch 30A to plug gen set into outside. No stupid back feeding for me so wife could power up the house in my absence with the E start gen. easily.
Just sold that generator as new place is Generac stationary. Old unit kept me powered up for 11 days after Sandy and never used a drop of oil in that stretch. 5 gal. of gas per day running nonstop though. That BS Sears unit was top notch for me.
BS remote outside connection transfer switch 30A to plug gen set into outside. No stupid back feeding for me so wife could power up the house in my absence with the E start gen. easily.
Just sold that generator as new place is Generac stationary. Old unit kept me powered up for 11 days after Sandy and never used a drop of oil in that stretch. 5 gal. of gas per day running nonstop though. That BS Sears unit was top notch for me.
Depends on your budget and how much you use it.
If you have regular, lengthy outages, an inverter generator costs more but uses a lot less fuel. Honda and Yamaha make inverters with 240V but they are very expensive. The EU7000iS is fuel injected and costs $4,500!
https://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu7000is
Champion and the Harbor Freight Predator series are much less expensive and seem to hold up better than expected. Some friends who do a lot of glamping use them a ton.
We have a Briggs & Stratton inverter, but it is manual start only - not good if family members need to start it.
https://www.harborfreight.com/gener...enerator-with-co-secure-technology-57080.html
If you have regular, lengthy outages, an inverter generator costs more but uses a lot less fuel. Honda and Yamaha make inverters with 240V but they are very expensive. The EU7000iS is fuel injected and costs $4,500!
https://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu7000is
Champion and the Harbor Freight Predator series are much less expensive and seem to hold up better than expected. Some friends who do a lot of glamping use them a ton.
We have a Briggs & Stratton inverter, but it is manual start only - not good if family members need to start it.
https://www.harborfreight.com/gener...enerator-with-co-secure-technology-57080.html
My Duromax 13000HXT has been stellar.
I don't know how good they are, but I would investigate Generac simply due to it's huge support network.
I bought a Generac Inverter generator . I took it back to the dealer four times while under warranty because it ran poorly . Thy finally got it to run right but they were never able to explain what they did to it . I was just glad to get it running . The dealer network for their portables is not very impressive . Everybody wants to sell and service the big whole house units but for the portables your choices are more limited . If I had to do it again I would buy something else and save the money .
Hondas are terribly expensive but good units. Buy a brand that has warranty repair facility available to you. Champion seems to have a repair network in place. A lot of the generators available are made in the far east. Many of them are identical but sold under different brand names (Duramax, Westinghouse, Ford, Pulsar and others). You might find it difficult to find anyone who will work on them if something goes wrong.
I got a small champion does the job keeping the essentials going. Big is not better trying to feed it gas for two weeks with most gas stations closed and long lines on the ones open.
Agreed, Duromax is awesome. We have an XP13000EH (dual fuel) and it's been great for us. Ran the whole house through Hurricane Beryl non-stop, only turning it off to change oil and fuel it up. Bought it for $700 last year on Chinazon, worth every penny.
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I know all that - so you tell us what he’s trying to do - that’s the question - nobody does 30 amp whole house gens …
(Said he didn’t like dragging cords) …
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Why don’t you list everything you plan to run simultaneously during an outage …
I always recommend a Honda powered portable open frame, conventional generator. Great engines, easily repairable/available parts, easy to service and store in the garage plus plenty of surge power for starting well pumps/motors. If in the off chance the gen-head goes bad, just purchase a Mecc-Alte replacement.
I love and own inverter units too. But they won't save you fuel when running household loads, they do fail and are expensive to repair.
For years I suggested the Northstar Honda 390cc powered generator. Enough power to run a water heater OR well pump, plus fridge, lights and window AC at the same time. They've buffed up the product, and jacked up the price. But still a great unit.
https://www.northerntool.com/produc...-watts-6600-rated-watts-model-1654403-1654403
I love and own inverter units too. But they won't save you fuel when running household loads, they do fail and are expensive to repair.
For years I suggested the Northstar Honda 390cc powered generator. Enough power to run a water heater OR well pump, plus fridge, lights and window AC at the same time. They've buffed up the product, and jacked up the price. But still a great unit.
https://www.northerntool.com/produc...-watts-6600-rated-watts-model-1654403-1654403
The biggest advantage of an inverter unit is when you go to bed and use only a few hundred watts running the fridge/ furnace off and on, it'll throttle down and save some fuel via pumping losses. The difference in consumption between inverters and traditional 3600 RPM generators at higher loads with the same engine style (eg Honda OHV) is small to non-existent.
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