Claimed noise levels, dB, can be misleading as most manufacturers use the Eco mode dB figure and this is often 5-8 less than when operating at full revs. The problem with running gennie's in the economy mode for long periods is the build up of soot in the muffler which will make the unit very hard, if not impossible, to start.
landy said
09:43 AM Oct 5, 2021
Here you go mike at this price you can afford a couple of spares.
Buyer beware Landy
-- Edited by landy on Tuesday 5th of October 2021 09:45:37 AM
Here you go mike at this price you can afford a couple of spares.
It makes one wonder what their manufacturing cost is?
landy said
03:40 PM Oct 5, 2021
Mike Harding wrote:
landy wrote:
Here you go mike at this price you can afford a couple of spares.
It makes one wonder what their manufacturing cost is?
I think the only manufacturing cost in this case Mike is maybe the cost of the photo plus the Facebook add. One of the comments said they ordered a couple of months ago and hadn't received yet, Maybe the post is just slow but I might give it a miss.
Episode10 said
12:11 AM Jan 4, 2023
Live off grid and have a kings 2kva inverter generator over 3 yrs, bought it
july 2019, it's Jan 2023, it gets left out in the rain, change the oil at 10 hrs, these small motors will wear if you go longer periods, those long service intervals are set by the marketing department, not the engineers, the thing just started last 2 nights after sitting for 9 months, mainly need it when solar collection is poor, use a 24v battery charger to charge the deep cycle Lead Acids, uses little to no fuel in eco mode, only problem I have had with it is some dirt got onto the spring and mechanism between the servo and carby that controls the carby. cleaned it and away it's gone ever since
Cuppa said
09:38 AM Jan 4, 2023
Recently we have been running a smallish generator quite often. The solar system here works well in sunny weather, but with cloudy wet season weather it is marginal. The property owner prefers the battery bank to remain above 80% SoC, so we regularly run the generator 3 or 4 times a week for around 8 hours. It has been used this way since it was bought about 6 years ago. Not just in wet season, but also on occasions when we have up to 10 visitors placing demands on the system. Similarly, before the wet season kicked in we had at least a couple of months of consistent heavy cloud - which helped to keep temperatures down but gave very little solar input.
Personally with plenty of room to fit more solar I think it the obvious thing to do, but it's not up to me.
The generator is a key or pull start Honda EU30is (have never tried the pull start) which I suspect has not had it's oil changed regularly as per the book by a succession of caretakers over it's lifespan to date, & I'd bet that it has had as much 'Black & Gold' (IGA) 20w50 as it has had quality 10w30 over that time, because that is often all that is available. When I arrived there was a half a litre of Honda Brand 10w30, not quite enough for an oil change. The oil was extremely discoloured in the generator & obviously in need of changing, which I did using the Honda oil, with a small amount of the available 20w50 to make up the quantity. Since then I have been able to obtain 5 litres of semi synthetic 10w30, so have given the hard working little generator a 'birthday'.
I very much doubt that this generator has ever had any sort of servicing other than whatever oil changes it's received as there is nowhere which does that sort of work, & any parts needed would need to be mail ordered.
So all in all it is really quite remarkable that it still starts & runs reliably. It is also used regularly to power a bore pump to refill a 5000gallon tank with water. It is a heavy cumbersome thing which younger fitter people can lift on their own. Not me with my back though. I have it mounted in the rear of a ute, & if it needs moving between solar system & bore I drive. One thing I don't understand is the 'eco-throttle' switch it has (like the smaller EU0i). If operated the motor speed varies according to load as expected, but the input into the solar system remains the same & constant as it does when the eco switch is off & the motor running flat out constantly?
In contrast we also have a little Honda EU10i here, which I spent ages trying to get running after replacing the filthy black fuel (no exaggeration) I found in it's tank. I had no luck until I replaced it's carburettor with a $60 aftermarket one bought off ebay. It is used by visiting researchers to run powerful UV lights as part of their night time insect capture process. Some have little idea about how to use a generator & complained that the machine I had got running nicely with the new carby had 'conked out & wouldn't restart' after a couple of hours use. Questioning them about how they had used it revealed that they had surprisingly been able to run the thing on full choke for the entire period (& wondered why it had chewed through so much fuel!). Cleaning up the fouled spark plug was the quick & easy fix, with instructions on how to use the choke being given a second time!
-- Edited by Cuppa on Wednesday 4th of January 2023 09:43:51 AM
valiant81 said
10:26 AM Jan 4, 2023
Hi all; I up graded my caravan's 12 Volt battery from one 100Ah Agm battery to two 220 Ah agm batteries. Solar input mainly looks after the batteries. But i do have a 30 Amp smart charger and a small Gentrex 2Kva petrol generator and connected to the mains input of the caravan. This works well and so far after two years of ownership i have not had a problem with the generator starting or running. I payed $350 for the generator. It was brand new and had never been started, no oil in the sump and no fuel had been put in the fuel tank ( i did check ). It was bought by the previous owner but never used and thats how i come i come across it. So far, so good. When at home our caravan is plugged into the mains and the smart charger takes over, and charges if needed.
-- Edited by valiant81 on Wednesday 4th of January 2023 10:27:37 AM
KJB said
10:48 AM Jan 4, 2023
I have a Honda EU30IS as a permanently plugged in "power unit" for our Fifth Wheeler (I do not have any Solar).
I bought it second hand from EBay. It has been super reliable and also super quiet (compared to smaller units) as it generally operates at a fast idle.
Biggest improvement I did was convert it to a "Remote Start" system and can now be started at anytime from anywhere within ~100m. radius by simply pressing the Button on a Remote Fob (I have several Fobs attached via Velcro in places where 240volt power is needed)
It has been a very "cost effective" and convenient system for the type of use it has had for the past 9 years.
Whenarewethere said
11:17 AM Jan 4, 2023
Having good home/caravan/car charging is handy (also having redundancy is a bonus). I have had a 10 amp Victron bluetooth charger for a few years, it's been very handy.
I bought a Victron 30 amp charger so if I use the car's 3 ARB compressors for cleaning around the home, I have 30% duty cycle in relation to the batteries. The compressors themselves have 100% duty cycle.
I may buy another 30 amp charger as you can parallel up to 10 chargers for 300 amps. I need about 90 amps, but 60 amps would be enough for my duty cycle requirements. I also have additional fan cooling on the compressors.
The 10 amp charger has a much better bluetooth signal range than the 30 amp charger, but it is handy in my situation but not critical, saves walking closer to our garage in our block of units. I can get the 10 amp charger bluetooth signal if I open the fly screen door.
Charging up 4 x 26AH gel batteries starts at 13.8 amps. So not a lot above a 10 amp charger.
So if you are in a caravan park & you need/want to charge a large battery setup. String a few chargers together.
Other options are a decent or additional alternator on the car. Depending on model my Land Rover has 180 - 210 amp alternator, which is handy. Even more useful is to stick a DC-DC charger on the end of long wiring looms (ie for caravan).
Buyer beware Landy
-- Edited by landy on Tuesday 5th of October 2021 09:45:37 AM
It makes one wonder what their manufacturing cost is?
I think the only manufacturing cost in this case Mike is maybe the cost of the photo plus the Facebook add. One of the comments said they ordered a couple of months ago
and hadn't received yet, Maybe the post is just slow but I might give it a miss.
Live off grid and have a kings 2kva inverter generator over 3 yrs, bought it
july 2019, it's Jan 2023, it gets left out in the rain, change the oil at 10 hrs, these small motors will wear if you go longer periods, those long service intervals are set by the marketing department, not the engineers, the thing just started last 2 nights after sitting for 9 months, mainly need it when solar collection is poor, use a 24v battery charger to charge the deep cycle Lead Acids, uses little to no fuel in eco mode, only problem I have had with it is some dirt got onto the spring and mechanism between the servo and carby that controls the carby. cleaned it and away it's gone ever since
Recently we have been running a smallish generator quite often. The solar system here works well in sunny weather, but with cloudy wet season weather it is marginal. The property owner prefers the battery bank to remain above 80% SoC, so we regularly run the generator 3 or 4 times a week for around 8 hours. It has been used this way since it was bought about 6 years ago. Not just in wet season, but also on occasions when we have up to 10 visitors placing demands on the system. Similarly, before the wet season kicked in we had at least a couple of months of consistent heavy cloud - which helped to keep temperatures down but gave very little solar input.
Personally with plenty of room to fit more solar I think it the obvious thing to do, but it's not up to me.
The generator is a key or pull start Honda EU30is (have never tried the pull start) which I suspect has not had it's oil changed regularly as per the book by a succession of caretakers over it's lifespan to date, & I'd bet that it has had as much 'Black & Gold' (IGA) 20w50 as it has had quality 10w30 over that time, because that is often all that is available. When I arrived there was a half a litre of Honda Brand 10w30, not quite enough for an oil change. The oil was extremely discoloured in the generator & obviously in need of changing, which I did using the Honda oil, with a small amount of the available 20w50 to make up the quantity. Since then I have been able to obtain 5 litres of semi synthetic 10w30, so have given the hard working little generator a 'birthday'.
I very much doubt that this generator has ever had any sort of servicing other than whatever oil changes it's received as there is nowhere which does that sort of work, & any parts needed would need to be mail ordered.
So all in all it is really quite remarkable that it still starts & runs reliably. It is also used regularly to power a bore pump to refill a 5000gallon tank with water. It is a heavy cumbersome thing which younger fitter people can lift on their own. Not me with my back though. I have it mounted in the rear of a ute, & if it needs moving between solar system & bore I drive. One thing I don't understand is the 'eco-throttle' switch it has (like the smaller EU0i). If operated the motor speed varies according to load as expected, but the input into the solar system remains the same & constant as it does when the eco switch is off & the motor running flat out constantly?
In contrast we also have a little Honda EU10i here, which I spent ages trying to get running after replacing the filthy black fuel (no exaggeration) I found in it's tank. I had no luck until I replaced it's carburettor with a $60 aftermarket one bought off ebay. It is used by visiting researchers to run powerful UV lights as part of their night time insect capture process. Some have little idea about how to use a generator & complained that the machine I had got running nicely with the new carby had 'conked out & wouldn't restart' after a couple of hours use. Questioning them about how they had used it revealed that they had surprisingly been able to run the thing on full choke for the entire period (& wondered why it had chewed through so much fuel!). Cleaning up the fouled spark plug was the quick & easy fix, with instructions on how to use the choke being given a second time!
-- Edited by Cuppa on Wednesday 4th of January 2023 09:43:51 AM
Hi all; I up graded my caravan's 12 Volt battery from one 100Ah Agm battery to two 220 Ah agm batteries. Solar input mainly looks after the batteries. But i do have a 30 Amp smart charger and a small Gentrex 2Kva petrol generator and connected to the mains input of the caravan. This works well and so far after two years of ownership i have not had a problem with the generator starting or running. I payed $350 for the generator. It was brand new and had never been started, no oil in the sump and no fuel had been put in the fuel tank ( i did check ). It was bought by the previous owner but never used and thats how i come i come across it. So far, so good. When at home our caravan is plugged into the mains and the smart charger takes over, and charges if needed.
-- Edited by valiant81 on Wednesday 4th of January 2023 10:27:37 AM
I have a Honda EU30IS as a permanently plugged in "power unit" for our Fifth Wheeler (I do not have any Solar).
I bought it second hand from EBay. It has been super reliable and also super quiet (compared to smaller units) as it generally operates at a fast idle.
Biggest improvement I did was convert it to a "Remote Start" system and can now be started at anytime from anywhere within ~100m. radius by simply pressing the Button on a Remote Fob (I have several Fobs attached via Velcro in places where 240volt power is needed)
It has been a very "cost effective" and convenient system for the type of use it has had for the past 9 years.
Having good home/caravan/car charging is handy (also having redundancy is a bonus). I have had a 10 amp Victron bluetooth charger for a few years, it's been very handy.
I bought a Victron 30 amp charger so if I use the car's 3 ARB compressors for cleaning around the home, I have 30% duty cycle in relation to the batteries. The compressors themselves have 100% duty cycle.
I may buy another 30 amp charger as you can parallel up to 10 chargers for 300 amps. I need about 90 amps, but 60 amps would be enough for my duty cycle requirements. I also have additional fan cooling on the compressors.
The 10 amp charger has a much better bluetooth signal range than the 30 amp charger, but it is handy in my situation but not critical, saves walking closer to our garage in our block of units. I can get the 10 amp charger bluetooth signal if I open the fly screen door.
Charging up 4 x 26AH gel batteries starts at 13.8 amps. So not a lot above a 10 amp charger.
So if you are in a caravan park & you need/want to charge a large battery setup. String a few chargers together.
Other options are a decent or additional alternator on the car. Depending on model my Land Rover has 180 - 210 amp alternator, which is handy. Even more useful is to stick a DC-DC charger on the end of long wiring looms (ie for caravan).
You may be able to avoid packing a generator.