Generator, is this one a good deal?

[woodsman23]

looking at this generator for my uncle (old) and i think it's a good deal what do you guys think... Thanks.

www.maxtool.com/microsite/duromax/generators/nav/XP4400E.asp

 

[fbelec]

good price. it doesn't say or i didn't see anything about who makes the engine. it's prob a cheap all alum engine so just don't work it to hard and give it plenty of air for cooling. it might be the type of engine when it blows you throw it away and get a new one. other than that it has all the safetys and options. for that cheap it's worth it.

 

[begreen]

Similar to a contractor's generator and regardless of marketing, 69 dBA is not quiet. It will also not be the cleanest or most stable AC. You get what you pay for.

 

[Highbeam]

I can recognize that engine as the typical chinese genset that actually gets great reviews and has a very clean sine wave. The RV guys love those gensets which are also sold by cummins/onan and Champion Power equipment. The engine is a honda clone and is excellent. The only troubling thing is that they call it a 4400 watt set when the Champion and onans only rate it for 4000 surge/3500 continuous so I would worry that either they are lying about the rating or that they found some other generator head to use. The old formula of 2HP per KW of generator doesn't support 4400 watts from 6.5 HP.

I own the champion labeled version with the same 6.5 HP engine and that same muffler and find the genset to be very quiet. Much quieter than any generac or other contractor style set but of course it is louder than the very expensive rolls royce inverter sets from Honda and Yamaha.

Don't worry about the engine. The get what you pay for part is the generator head and nobody knows what you're getting here. They are almost all foreign made anyway.

 

[Lucky Phil]

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=98839

This is the one I bought last year, and it's worked well already for when I needed it for 6 hours during a power outage. The one I got is the 98838 model which came with the tire kit, but no battery. It's on sale now at HF for $449.

 

[woodsman23]

Thanks to all for the help. He only needs backup power for his house and needs to have e-start due to his age. My wife and I are buying him this because he has little money and he really needs to have this because no one except my wife, I and a few others even bother to look in on him. It sucks growing old in america it seems everyone is to busy to just check on the elderly... I just want him to be able to turn the key and go i will do all maint and run it from time to time when i stop by to check on him.

 

[begreen]

I've checked at least 5 sites and can not find true specs or a manual for this DuroMax unit. As I can tell it is not an inverter generator and does not provide true sine wave power. But I could be incorrect. If someone has the manual and can check that would be great. My suspicion is that is produces a modified square wave, otherwise they would be marketing this feature heavily. What I did find when checking on the BlueMax 4400 was that although the motor appears to be strong, the generator side has had some issues with bad regulators and expensive stator failures. What is the warranty period on this unit?

Competing with the DuroMax is the Generac 5724 which appears to be the favorite 3.2kw unit out there. It has a 2 yr warranty. Also in this group, the ETQ TG32P is a top reviewer for this category and it does advertise true sine wave output. If you can work with 3.2KW (4kw surge) it's $100 less.
(broken link removed to http://tinyurl.com/yz93j7z)

 

[woodsman23]

I've checked at least 5 sites and can not find true specs or a manual for this DuroMax unit. As I can tell it is not an inverter generator and does not provide true sine wave power. But I could be incorrect. If someone has the manual and can check that would be great. My suspicion is that is produces a modified square wave, otherwise they would be marketing this feature heavily. What I did find when checking on the BlueMax 4400 was that although the motor appears to be strong, the generator side has had some issues with bad regulators and expensive stator failures. What is the warranty period on this unit?

Competing with the DuroMax is the Generac 5724 which appears to be the favorite 3.2kw unit out there. It has a 2 yr warranty. Also in this group, the ETQ TG32P is a top reviewer for this category and it does advertise true sine wave output. If you can work with 3.2KW (4kw surge) it's $100 less.
(broken link removed to http://tinyurl.com/yz93j7z)

Thanks!! that is exactly what we were looking for. I ordered it today, again thanks for the help. I talked with him and he said pull starting it would not be a problem so we shall give it a try.

 

[Highbeam]

It is an easy engine to pull start. The 6.5HP honda clones have an internal compression realease mechanism to make pull starting easier.

I always thought that the only way to create that choppy modified sine wave waveform was to create it with a cheap inverter. Spinning a magnet around a pole to create AC should by default make a nice curvy sine wave.

The market for 3000-4000 watt gensets is dominated by those gensets designed and marketed to the RV crowd since that is the wattage required to run an RV's air conditioning unit. The RV crowd loves the Honda inverter gensets (usually two 2000s paired) and the Champion/onan/oriental chinese generators and odds are very slim that any significant market share is owned by generac except for the likely instance where generac has bought and rebadged one of the chinese gensets with their own label as onan did.

 

[Highbeam]

Ha ha! Generac has also bought the chinese genset and put their name on it. Check it out!

http://www.generac.com/Portables/GP/Products/GP_3250/

Like everyone else, they paint it a different color and put their name on the same old chinese genset.

 

[woodsman23]

Yep your right just a different color.. I wonder how much $???

 

[BrotherBart]

I have one of those Honda knock-off engines on my splitter for the last three years and that sucker is super. As to sine waves this place has run for seven days one time and four days the next time with a bottom of the barrel genset and nothing has fried yet.

In fact one Dell desktop died the day before the last power failure and one that never got turned on during the power failure smoked up the whole house six days after the last one.

 

[JustWood]

I have one of those Honda knock-off engines on my splitter for the last three years and that sucker is super. As to sine waves this place has run for seven days one time and four days the next time with a bottom of the barrel genset and nothing has fried yet.

In fact one Dell desktop died the day before the last power failure and one that never got turned on during the power failure smoked up the whole house six days after the last one.

Yur hard on puters!

 

[fbelec]

It is an easy engine to pull start. The 6.5HP honda clones have an internal compression realease mechanism to make pull starting easier.

I always thought that the only way to create that choppy modified sine wave waveform was to create it with a cheap inverter. Spinning a magnet around a pole to create AC should by default make a nice curvy sine wave.

The market for 3000-4000 watt gensets is dominated by those gensets designed and marketed to the RV crowd since that is the wattage required to run an RV's air conditioning unit. The RV crowd loves the Honda inverter gensets (usually two 2000s paired) and the Champion/onan/oriental chinese generators and odds are very slim that any significant market share is owned by generac except for the likely instance where generac has bought and rebadged one of the chinese gensets with their own label as onan did.

yep square wave is made by electronics. aka inverter. a generator head is a electric motor with something else turning it.
there is a couple a differences between gen power and utility power. the utility has a bigger generator head and most of the harmonics are filtered thru the transformers. otherwise like you said turning a magnet inside of wire coils makes a sinewave. now speed regulators is a different story and frequency.

 

[begreen]

None of our UPSs would accept power from the contractor generator we had (Coleman) which was a drag because I needed to recharge them. We ended up going for a modified gas/propane generator. Propane will keep for a very long time, gas won't. Last power outage, the gas stations were out for several days. When they got power, they were out again in 24 hrs. only this time they were out of gas. We need to think earthquake here. If a serious one hits, we might be on our own for several weeks. So a very efficient, quiet generator that works week after week and runs everything is a priority.

 

[fbelec]

None of our UPSs would accept power from the contractor generator we had (Coleman) which was a drag because I needed to recharge them. We ended up going for a modified gas/propane generator. Propane will keep for a very long time, gas won't. Last power outage, the gas stations were out for several days. When they got power, they were out again in 24 hrs. only this time they were out of gas. We need to think earthquake here. If a serious one hits, we might be on our own for several weeks. So a very efficient, quiet generator that works week after week and runs everything is a priority.

hey begreen

what do you mean when you say modified? agreed propane or nat gas powered generators are much quieter running. if you really get down to it the internal combustion engine was really made to run on a gas not a liquid, that's why the same generator runs quieter on propane or nat gas.

 

[Highbeam]

You can buy relatively cheap kits to convert any of these gensets into propane or dual fuel propane and gasoline. Even the inverter hondas. If I had a large LPG tank onsite or NG service then I would for sure modify my genset to use those fuels. Are the gas powered sets really quieter? I can't imagine why but that would be another benefit.

 

[fbelec]

You can buy relatively cheap kits to convert any of these gensets into propane or dual fuel propane and gasoline. Even the inverter hondas. If I had a large LPG tank onsite or NG service then I would for sure modify my genset to use those fuels. Are the gas powered sets really quieter? I can't imagine why but that would be another benefit.

it's noticable. not super quiet, but quieter. the engine runs smoother so it's quieter that way. and because it runs smoother you actually get a little more life out of the engine. the exhaust is quieter. and the smell won't peel the paint like gasoline if you know what i mean. the hotter the fuel burns the more noise it makes. nat gas and propane don't burn as hot as gasoline does. if you ever seen those early 80 chevy trucks or ford cars or the cars like ford crown vic with the nat gas option it's ever so slight but gasoline makes more power than nat gas or propane.

 

[begreen]

My understanding is that it also burns cleaner which is noticeable in the oil staying cleaner, longer.

 

[fbelec]

My understanding is that it also burns cleaner which is noticeable in the oil staying cleaner, longer.

definitely. i used to work in a lumber yard where we had propane powered fork lifts, one had a ford straight six and the other had a chrysler slant six both run all day right to 9 at night. pull the oil stick to check it, it looked as clean as if it were just put in.