[ranger1968]

I have a WEN 2250 inverter gen that starts on the first or second pull, every time, is light enough to pick up and move, and gets 7 or so hours of run time on single gallon of fuel; the power is very clean, and that gen will run a full sized fridge, a small window AC unit, a couple of fans, and some lights ( LEDs) with no trouble on that single gallon. For most things that's sufficient for us; for larger loads we have a large dual fuel generator, but the Wen is the workhorse, and it's just so handy.

 

[cowboy1964]

Honda is still the gold standard of generators. They will outlast the cheap ones by a huge margin and if they need parts or service, it's not a problem. But, if all you need is an occasional use backup genny, get a cheap inverter. Realize though that its money down the drain. They are worthless in the used market, A Honda will always bring top dollar.

Even a Honda is going to lose a significant portion of the original price (maybe most of the entire cost of a cheap generator), so that argument is a bit silly.

BTW, this is a data point of one, but I've had several cheap lawn mowers that started easier/faster than my Honda lawn mower. I thought Honda engines were king of the hill?

 

[Teecher45]

Thanks for all of your help guys, I appreciate it and you gave me a lot to think about.
I also watched videos most of the night and morning.
As I stated earlier, I am usually a “buy once, cry once” type.
I went with the Honda.
My bookkeeper/accountant/general decision-maker (that I’m married to) just rolled her eyes and said “merry Christmas, happy birthday, anniversary, and Father’s Day.
Lol. I’ll take it for the piece of mind.
Now the problem became finding one.
We live in W Ky and have been affected by last week’s tornados, no generators (except names I’ve never heard of) within an hour from us.
Bad timing.
I kept expanding my search radius and found one a couple of hours away. Drove to pick it up and will start the break-in process tomorrow.
The owner’s manual doesn’t mention anything about synthetic?
Suggestions?

Now (blows)…
Fuel storage concerns…
Gotta figure out how much gas I should keep on-hand.


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[Wakeboardaddict]

Aluminum Mess Free Oil Change Funnel for Honda EU2200i Inverter Generator~ | eBay Get yourself one of these. Makes changing the oil less messy

 

[nitesit(+ an e)]

Thanks for all of your help guys, I appreciate it and you gave me a lot to think about.
I also watched videos most of the night and morning.
As I stated earlier, I am usually a “buy once, cry once” type.
I went with the Honda.
My bookkeeper/accountant/general decision-maker (that I’m married to) just rolled her eyes and said “merry Christmas, happy birthday, anniversary, and Father’s Day.
Lol. I’ll take it for the piece of mind.
Now the problem became finding one.
We live in W Ky and have been affected by last week’s tornados, no generators (except names I’ve never heard of) within an hour from us.
Bad timing.
I kept expanding my search radius and found one a couple of hours away. Drove to pick it up and will start the break-in process tomorrow.
The owner’s manual doesn’t mention anything about synthetic?
Suggestions?

Now (blows)…
Fuel storage concerns…
Gotta figure out how much gas I should keep on-hand.


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My suggestion is to use break in oil for however long it takes for a Mason jar of gasoline to run itself dry.

Then drain that oil and put in something that is going to protect your engine for at least 50 hours. Straight 30W is probably OK. I live in the South and I started to use Diesel oil because of the added friction modifiers.

Congrats on being a Honda generator owner. You done good son........

Gasoline is gonna cost a fortune when you add in the steel gas cans @ $59.99 for a 5-gallon gas can, and then filling ethanol free gasoline you fill them with, and the Sta-Bil. All that will cost you half as much as the Honda generator.

Isn't this FUN?????

 

[Sharkey]

I just tried to order a carburetor from the Champion website - no place to select the item, no fitment information, no pricing- then the page crashed. Maybe the parts for Champion are available - I couldn’t find out from their website. I doubt the HF (and similar) parts are.

Yamaha’s are popular for small RV’ers, and other dual fuel applications.

I had to order a carb for one of mine in April of this year (my fault). I just called the 800 # on the manual and ordered on the phone. It was $38 if I recall. Buddy put it on with no issue. I needed two gaskets as well. I had everything in about 10 days.

 

[Wake_jumper]

Even a Honda is going to lose a significant portion of the original price (maybe most of the entire cost of a cheap generator), so that argument is a bit silly.

BTW, this is a data point of one, but I've had several cheap lawn mowers that started easier/faster than my Honda lawn mower. I thought Honda engines were king of the hill?

In my experience, Honda generators have the lowest cost of ownership. A clapped out, non running Honda is still worth half it's original price (because it can be rebuilt). And, that Honda likely has 1000's of hours and years of use on it. But I get it. A $550.00 Champion generator is pretty tempting when the Honda is $1100.00.

Here's something to think about. When the Chinese copy an engine, they copy Honda.

Cheap stuff is attractive and popular. It's the reason Harbor Freight has stores in every city. But, cheap stuff is, well, cheap.

It's the same question about guns. Why spend $600.00 for a Glock 19 when a $179.00 Hy-Point C9 will do the same job?

 

[Daveyboy]

Gasoline is gonna cost a fortune when you add in the steel gas cans @ $59.99 for a 5-gallon gas can, and then filling ethanol free gasoline you fill them with, and the Sta-Bil. All that will cost you half as much as the Honda generator.

Isn't this FUN?????

That is part of the reason I have hesitated in buying a generator.

I keep a few jugs of gas and diesel on hand, but don’t want to store even more.

I have a 500 gal buried propane tank at my house and a buried 1000 gal tank at the BOL, but need to research how hard/easy it would be to tap those for a generator.

 

[Wake_jumper]

Thanks for all of your help guys, I appreciate it and you gave me a lot to think about.
I also watched videos most of the night and morning.
As I stated earlier, I am usually a “buy once, cry once” type.
I went with the Honda.
My bookkeeper/accountant/general decision-maker (that I’m married to) just rolled her eyes and said “merry Christmas, happy birthday, anniversary, and Father’s Day.
Lol. I’ll take it for the piece of mind.
Now the problem became finding one.
We live in W Ky and have been affected by last week’s tornados, no generators (except names I’ve never heard of) within an hour from us.
Bad timing.
I kept expanding my search radius and found one a couple of hours away. Drove to pick it up and will start the break-in process tomorrow.
The owner’s manual doesn’t mention anything about synthetic?
Suggestions?

Now (blows)…
Fuel storage concerns…
Gotta figure out how much gas I should keep on-hand.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congratulations! And Merry Christmas! You will never regret buying the Honda. It is an amazing piece of engineering.

Oh boy, oil. Everyone has an opinion on that. Break it in on any 10w-30 ( I like Rotella T-5). After that, you can switch to a full synthetic or keep using the Rotella which is a semi-synthetic. I use the Rotella for everything unless I'm going to be in really cold (below 0F) then I use synthetic. It only holds 14oz, so you're not going to break the bank with oil.

What ever you do, don't buy one of those silly magnetic drain plugs. It's not needed and the magnet has been known to fall off and will ruin the engine. The extended oil drain tube is OK, but I don't think it is needed. It became popular on the original EU2000, but when Honda came out with the EU2200, they re-designed the oil fill spout and made draining the oil easier.

When you put it up for storage, run it empty of fuel and don't forget to drain the fuel out of the carburetor bowl. Honda put a valve (a screw) at the very bottom to get every drop of fuel out. They even attached a hose to it so the fuel runs out on the ground and not inside the housing. It's in the owners manual on page 68.

It's a cool little genny, have fun with it!

 

[Teecher45]

In my experience, Honda generators have the lowest cost of ownership. A clapped out, non running Honda is still worth half it's original price (because it can be rebuilt). And, that Honda likely has 1000's of hours and years of use on it. But I get it. A $550.00 Champion generator is pretty tempting when the Honda is $1100.00.

Here's something to think about. When the Chinese copy an engine, they copy Honda.

Cheap stuff is attractive and popular. It's the reason Harbor Freight has stores in every city. But, cheap stuff is, well, cheap.

It's the same question about guns. Why spend $600.00 for a Glock 19 when a $179.00 Hy-Point C9 will do the same job?

I found two Honda 2000 generators for sale last night on marketplace, fairly local. Both were listed for $800 and both were gone this morning when I got up.
Got my 2200 for $999, so in the end, I am glad they were gone.


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[PEC-Memphis]

I had to order a carb for one of mine in April of this year (my fault). I just called the 800 # on the manual and ordered on the phone. It was $38 if I recall. Buddy put it on with no issue. I needed two gaskets as well. I had everything in about 10 days.

My Honda generators are 16+ years old. Zero parts replaced. I’ve had to clean a carburetor once. Otherwise, just change the oil and use sta-bil.

Last winter I had to start one at -9*F. It didn’t start on the first pull. A squirt of gasoline in the intake, and it started on 2nd pull after priming.

 

[ROGER4314]

Fresh fuel for my generators is not a problem. I have 4 metal five gallon cans and rotate them through the summer for two tractors, a zero turn mower, three walk behind mowers, 4 grass trimmers and chain saws. When a storm is coming, I top off the cans and I'm ready to go. The gas is made right here and we get it fresher than most areas.

Flash

 

[PEC-Memphis]

In my experience, Honda generators have the lowest cost of ownership. A clapped out, non running Honda is still worth half it's original price (because it can be rebuilt). And, that Honda likely has 1000's of hours and years of use on it. But I get it. A $550.00 Champion generator is pretty tempting when the Honda is $1100.00.

Here's something to think about. When the Chinese copy an engine, they copy Honda.

Cheap stuff is attractive and popular. It's the reason Harbor Freight has stores in every city. But, cheap stuff is, well, cheap.

It's the same question about guns. Why spend $600.00 for a Glock 19 when a $179.00 Hy-Point C9 will do the same job?

I used to work for an Indy Car promoter (the company that “owns” a particular race(es). Of course Handa was a major sponsor. The vast majority of the remote camera/monitors/telemetry/etc equipment is powered by (you guessed it) Honda generators. They get 1000’s of hours per season, and it is critical that they don’t fail.

I worked the St Pete GP. I’ve talked to the generator crews (that keep them fueled) and they have said that they very rarely swap out a generator the week of the race. They change the oil between races, run them for test and put them back in the trailer for the next race.

 

[PEC-Memphis]

To me, either buy the Honda, or just pick one of the others as the rest are all about the same. I picked up one last summer at Aldi(of all places) for $350, and it works fine.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/aldi-2000w-inverter-generator.402585/

I’m still kicking myself in the *** for not buying a 2kw inverter generator at Aldi for $199. I didn’t need it, but for $200 …..

 

[Wake_jumper]

I found two Honda 2000 generators for sale last night on marketplace, fairly local. Both were listed for $800 and both were gone this morning when I got up.
Got my 2200 for $999, so in the end, I am glad they were gone.


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$999.00 is a great deal! Good job!

 

[Z71bill]

Congratulations! And Merry Christmas! You will never regret buying the Honda. It is an amazing piece of engineering.

Oh boy, oil. Everyone has an opinion on that. Break it in on any 10w-30 ( I like Rotella T-5). After that, you can switch to a full synthetic or keep using the Rotella which is a semi-synthetic. I use the Rotella for everything unless I'm going to be in really cold (below 0F) then I use synthetic. It only holds 14oz, so you're not going to break the bank with oil.

What ever you do, don't buy one of those silly magnetic drain plugs. It's not needed and the magnet has been known to fall off and will ruin the engine. The extended oil drain tube is OK, but I don't think it is needed. It became popular on the original EU2000, but when Honda came out with the EU2200, they re-designed the oil fill spout and made draining the oil easier.

When you put it up for storage, run it empty of fuel and don't forget to drain the fuel out of the carburetor bowl. Honda put a valve (a screw) at the very bottom to get every drop of fuel out. They even attached a hose to it so the fuel runs out on the ground and not inside the housing. It's in the owners manual on page 68.

It's a cool little genny, have fun with it!

I don't think Rotella T-5 meets the Honda warranty requirement. Not saying it is not a good oil - most likely better than Honda 10W30 that Honda recommends -

Can Honda tell if an engine that has blow up used the wrong oil? IDN - but I usually run what meets the spec until warranty is over.

With my Honda EG2800i - purchased in January 2018 and first started up in February 2021 that 3 year warranty was not very long!

I am all over the board on generator oil -

I have a bunch of 5W30 full synthetic, a 4 quart jug of 5W40 Chevron DELO full synthetic, a 4 quart jug of 15W40 Chevron semi synthetic, an 8 quart jug of SuperTec 15W40 conventional, and a little bit of 10w30 in various flavors.

Honda ER2800i inverter will get 5W30 full synthetic unless is is really hot out - then I may use something with a 40 in it.

The AiPower SUA 2000 inverter will get one of the ?w40 oils unless it is cold out then 5w30 synthetic

Wen Power Pro 3500 conventional Chinese noise maker will most likely get the SuperTec 15W40 unless it is cold - then it is 5w30 synthetic.

This is after I said I was going to get down to one oil for all my OPE -- I am a sucker for a sale and when I saw some of these jugs in the clearance rack I just couldn't help myself!

I change the oil in my generator EVERY DAY. I pick a convenient time when I need to fill up with gas. It takes me about 5 minutes - and while the old oil is draining I fill the gas tank -

If you look closely at many owners manuals it will say something like change oil every 25 hours under continuous use or in high outside temperatures. Such a small amount of oil it seems like a poor choice to scrimp on oil changes.

The one big advantage the open frame inverter generator has over the suitcase type models - easier to change the oil.

 

[Z71bill]

I would figure out which spark plug your generator uses and buy a spare. I like NGK.

 

[G29guy06]

@Deltic

You may be correct. You probably are. However, my WEN 4500W gasoline generators which have 4-gal capacity fuel tanks are stated to run 13.5-hours on 50% load. That is just 1-gal per three hours of use.

Just sayin'........

I agree w/ deltic that tandem 2 lesser generators is best bang for buck. Overall no one has a problem running a generator for 4-6hrs…it’s when power is out for 7-10days that problems begin. That’s how I approach it

 

[Wake_jumper]

I don't think Rotella T-5 meets the Honda warranty requirement. Not saying it is not a good oil - most likely better than Honda 10W30 that Honda recommends -

Can Honda tell if an engine that has blow up used the wrong oil? IDN - but I usually run what meets the spec until warranty is over.

With my Honda EG2800i - purchased in January 2018 and first started up in February 2021 that 3 year warranty was not very long!

I am all over the board on generator oil -

I have a bunch of 5W30 full synthetic, a 4 quart jug of 5W40 Chevron DELO full synthetic, a 4 quart jug of 15W40 Chevron semi synthetic, an 8 quart jug of SuperTec 15W40 conventional, and a little bit of 10w30 in various flavors.

Honda ER2800i inverter will get 5W30 full synthetic unless is is really hot out - then I may use something with a 40 in it.

The AiPower SUA 2000 inverter will get one of the ?w40 oils unless it is cold out then 5w30 synthetic

Wen Power Pro 3500 conventional Chinese noise maker will most likely get the SuperTec 15W40 unless it is cold - then it is 5w30 synthetic.

This is after I said I was going to get down to one oil for all my OPE -- I am a sucker for a sale and when I saw some of these jugs in the clearance rack I just couldn't help myself!

I change the oil in my generator EVERY DAY. I pick a convenient time when I need to fill up with gas. It takes me about 5 minutes - and while the old oil is draining I fill the gas tank -

If you look closely at many owners manuals it will say something like change oil every 25 hours under continuous use or in high outside temperatures. Such a small amount of oil it seems like a poor choice to scrimp on oil changes.

The one big advantage the open frame inverter generator has over the suitcase type models - easier to change the oil.

Wow. You should change your name to Bill is the oil guy!

In the EU2200i owners manual on page 14, Honda says they recommend 10W-30 API-SJ rated oil. The SJ spec is from 1997. I think oil has improved a bit since then and any modern oil will meet warranty requirements.

 

[Teecher45]

I agree w/ deltic that tandem 2 lesser generators is best bang for buck. Overall no one has a problem running a generator for 4-6hrs…it’s when power is out for 7-10days that problems begin. That’s how I approach it

I agree, if the power is out for a few hours it’s no sweat.
I approach the whole 7-10 days the same.
This little generator will be used sparingly, it’ll keep the food cold during power outages and for lights, charging phones, that type of thing. We will also use it some for hunting/camping. The house is pretty well set-up.
In 2009 we had an ice storm of a lifetime, no power for a month and no water for almost 2 weeks. When the water went we headed north to the in-laws, wife was 8 and 3/4 months pregnant. We learned from that and now have a 1,000 gallon propane tank (filled every summer). Attached to the propane is the stove/oven, wall heaters, and the water heater.
About 4 years ago (iirc) we had 2 feet of snow in a couple of days, you weren’t going to town unless you drove one of the tractors, and even if you did, there was no gas.
Now, 1 week ago today, EF-4’s tore through our area and decimated everything in it’s path.
It was as time to get a generator.
I’m tired of living through “once in a lifetime storms”.
So, why did I ultimately decided to pay $1,000 for a generator that will be used so little? I wanted one that’ll have the best chance of working when we need it the most.

Now. Under the circumstances I’ve laid out, how much fuel would you recommend I keep on-hand?
We are constantly moving/working on the farm, I won’t have an issue rotating the gas. We have ATV’s and power equipment that we use year-round.
Thanks for all of your help guys, y’all are great!


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