Too cheap to buy a genset?

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Quetzalsailor
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Too cheap to buy a genset?

Post by Quetzalsailor »

How about those little Honda generators: 12v DC w/120v AC inverters? Nice looking, relatively quiet, carryable, self contained, compact. But a drawback, besides the cost, is one won't run a hot air gun. They thought of that and they'll sell you two, which are designed to be ganged together, and then the pair will run the hot air gun (or larger tool). I thought that that would be the perfect way to do brightwork while out on the mooring.

But, see my rant in 'Ramblings'.
Oscar
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Re: Too cheap to buy a genset?

Post by Oscar »

I have one and love it. It is relatively quiet, although it does throat up when the load increases. One very nice feature is the "ECO" button that adjusts RPM based on need, iow when you shut down the tool it goes to a low idle and is barely heard..... A gallon of gas lasts for 4-6 hours!!! As I said, it's 110 on demand about as pleasant as it gets. Google around, $800 should get you one.

Yes, two will get you 3200W continuous. The 2000 gives 1600W continuous, two 13A outlets, 1200W max on one). I made a combiner plug that parallels the two outlets, and I get about 1500W out of that.....(To run AC in the camper, during generator hours) I checked with Honda, the two outlets ARE in phase.
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ghostwriter247
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Re: Too cheap to buy a genset?

Post by ghostwriter247 »

If you are looking at the honda, check out the Yamaha super quiet version as well. About the same price, but its very impressive! Most people i talk to rave about one or the other and of course know why the other isnt quite as good, which tells me both are prolly bout the same and very impressive.
So It Goes
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Re: Too cheap to buy a genset?

Post by So It Goes »

We have been using a Honda 2000 for almost six years now and if marine stuff was made half as well we'd ALL be very happy campers.

In our case we use it as the basis of our "poor mans" hybrid electric propulsion system on our CAL 34 and it has worked really well in this regard.Throw in the fact that you can run any tool that you have onboard and for us fix it ourselves types it has paid for itself many many times over.

As for the noise issue... The Honda 1000 and 2000 are very quiet and twenty five feet behind the boat you cannot actually tell if the Honda is on when it is running and for the record the guy anchored 100 yards away from us with his Air Marine wind generator we can hear all too clearly and same for the guy with the diesel genset who is anchored about fifty feet away. That said we keep good care of our Honda and it is well maintained so that may be part of the keeping the Honda quiet thing. We also never run the Honda at night or in crowded anchorages as it is just simply good manners.

But the fact is the Honda or reasonable facsimile makes way more sense than a marine genset as all of the people we know with so called marine gensets have more than a few problems ( spelled costly repairs) and these days most cruising boats we know with gensets also have Hondas... Kind of makes you think!
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