I'm planning on doing some events this year that do not have electric service at them. I keep seeing the Champion generators on sale . They are about 1/4 the price of the same size Honda. I would be looking for something around 3,000 watts. Any recommendations ? Randy
When procuring generators the old saying seems to apply: You get what you pay for. Mine is a small 2T King Canada unit(same manufacturer as Champion I think), I only paid $139 for it. It works well enough but I had to fix the recoil mechanism the third year I had it. A Honda probably would not have needed repairs so quickly. I would not trust a cheapo generator to run fancy electronics: you want good quality 120V/60Hz stable power to run TVs, computers, HD "personal massagers", etc. Michel
Definitely try to buy a higher quality generator(Honda) as mentioned by Michel. Lower quality provides "dirty power" which can wreak havoc on your gear. Check kijiji and the Toronto area buy and sell, after the recent power failures there are sure to be some good deals on barely used units.
I would be using it to power my house trailer. How can I rough it without my air conditioner & microwave ? Randy
"How can I rough it without my air conditioner & microwave ?" No argument here, not to mention sock warmers, cappuccino machine, electric butter knife and scrambled egg poofer!
Honda makes excellent generators that are very quiet, but it's hard to justify the expense if you're only using it a few times a year. Champions work fine, but are loud like the old Coleman and Briggs gensets. The Hyundai generators are quite a bit quieter, and have a longer warranty. I bought mine about 5 years ago. It probably has about 150 hrs on it, and has been fine. I also have one of those little two stroke gen's with a few hundred hours on it. It's been great, but far too small for what you need.
Another thing...no matter which brand you buy, don't leave it running all night and just let it run out of gas. During the last bit of running the inconsistent RPM, starting, stopping, coughing...really messes with the generator and can wreck it. Ask me how I know... :roll:
I bought a champion on sale. I can buy earplugs if too noisy. I can buy five champions or one Honda. You chose.
In some places noise is not a issue. At a provincial park and at some private camp grounds they would not let you use it. A lot depends where you are going to be.
hey randy for camping a inverter style generator might be better.alot smaller and very portable .you could look at generac brand .but for $300 bucks more you can get a Honda .
Hey Randy I have a 6500 watt Champion I use to power my home. I traded my smaller Honda (2000 watt), plus $200.00 for the new Champion. A client of mine was importing them for a while. The Champion delivers what electricians call "dirty" hydro and I guess I've noticed this when turning on the fluorescent lights (they flash off and on like crazy for a minute or two before lighting up properly). I was told by my client that its no where near as good as a Honda and if I was to use it 24/7, it would most likely quite. Honda's are well built units and will last years, I guess you get what you pay for. For the occasional power failures we have, the Champion is ok. For camping you'll definitely want something much more quiet running (other campers might get pissed off with a noisy unit).
I ended up buying this 2000 watt inverter generator. Its clean power so its better for the electronics in the trailer. You can stack two of them and pair the two together . Very quiet and at a decent sale price.
