Consumer Rpt blesses Harbor Freight generator?

I considered the Predator a year or three ago, but thought it must not be an equal, so spent the money on the Honda (Hey, I had a small windfall at that time -- very small). should have went HF>

 

Several (easy to find) chat groups discuss these engines. It seems that a few are poorly cast or assembled and fail quickly. Most have suitably long service lives.

I believe but cannot prove that such things are fashioned (here) with CNC machines. So all dimensions would be right. Serious parts like rotating shafts or high-stress bolts may occasionally be made from the same 'tofu metal' that dominates socket sets that Harbor Freight imports from...well... here.

Y'all may not believe it, but items intended for export (from here) are made to higher standards than those for domestic market

 

It does seem that the quality of Chinese parts/products has improved in the past 5-10 years as long as you don't go with the super dirt cheap option. Likely out of necessity to meet European/North American standards.

 

I don't put much faith in Consumer Reports reviews on tools (or automobiles, for that matter). I have had good/bad experiences with Harbot Freight tools - some are quite good, some are total crap, and you can't tell from the box. The quality is very inconsistent.

 

I’m certain the CR mailboxes have been full of requests for validation on the harbor freight rigs. People are buying them and talking about them.

From everything I’ve seen (and tried myself) some of their models are okay. You can’t assume everything with the Predator brand is a good unit.

We bought a Honda eu2000i for the beach house, and it’s fantastic. I’ve also worked with the Predator 2kw inverter genny. And it’s pretty good. Not equal, but close enough for many users.

My standby genny is old but not ready to go yet. I’ve been eyeing a Yamaha inverter genny to replace it.

 

The Harbor Freight Earthquake electrical impact guns are reputed to be quite good. A number of professional shops use them.

 

I've come across comparison testing of the HF ratcheting torque wrenches that puts them near the level of major brands.

The secret to long life for any of them is to store them set to zero.

 

TL;DR
1. Buy Predator Generator - or whatever brand you're comfortable with.
2. Run monthly/bi monthly with 4-cycle fuel - NOT GASOLINE.
3. Use Gas during emergency/power outage, then run about a tank of the fancy 4-cycle fuel afterwards.
4. Resume semi-occasional runs.


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My Mom has a 20-year old Honda Generator that's never been out of the box - so....yeah.
In her case the Predator would have been a better buy.
I also have a discarded 25-year-old Honda generator that I recently re-carburetored and am trying to storm-certify.
I don't think that it will make it.

Since I live in Hurricane country, this is a subject that's also near and dear to my heart.
My strategery for the last 30 years has been to evac the family BEFORE contra-flow and sleep in the office and since my work car is a Prius, and since any vehicle that would replace Goofy will have an inverter built-in - then I'm all set for those few hours that I spend @ the house in the aftermath of a large power event.

HOWEVER (comma!)
Retirement loometh, and I will not always be driving a Prius, and I recently made an interesting discovery while repairing my home's HVAC during 100-degree weather:
An 8,000 BTU window unit will keep my modest 2000 square foot home at just about 76 degrees with comfortable humidity levels.

So....
My current plan is to buy a Predator sometime either before or after the next 'big one' and adopt a maintenance schedule as outlined above.
'Slightly used' generators at bargain prices bloom like flowers after a wild-fire around here following a hurricane.

BUY a Honda?

...why?

 

Good grief! I’d never heard of that stuff before, I had to look it up- $30.20 per gallon at my local discount bigbox.

I’m trying to imagine what benefit it might provide vs. ordinary fuel rotation and/or chemical stabilizers. Maybe for a really finicky engine?

 

It won't have ethanol, and shouldn't have the water and other contaminants that gas station fuel has picked up. In my experience with an 18 year old Craftsman mower with B&S engine, that is of little benefit. The only fuel caused issue I ever had was with adding too wet acetone to the tank.

If you want something like that 4 cycle trufuel, check your local speed shop. Around here, they sell 100 octane, ethanol free racing fuel by the jug for $8 to $10 a gallon.

 

I can see using the ethanol-free for small engines. That was always an easy sell on me logically, it was just too long of a drive to actually get the stuff. Now there’s a new Wawa across town with one e0 pump, much closer.

I guess I’m having a similarly positive experience with my 16 year old B&S genny… it has about 1050 hours on it and it’s never needed a third rip to get going at any temperature.

 

The pollution controlled Chinese inverter generators only start above 70F and require He Man to pull on the cord half an hour, the best mod is to remove the fuel injection and put on a good ol carb

(My father bought one, reliable but only when it’s running absolute pain to start)

 

You lucky SOB. The Philly metro area means only RFG with ethanol is available here without a drive or paying for racing fuel. Would like the experiment with ethanol free in the car, but likely wouldn't bother for power equipment. I drain the tank and run dry the two cycle equipment after use. The same with the mower at the end of the season. Which is what the manual says to do even when using the specified E0 midgrade. At the start of the season, I add some 91% rubbing alcohol or acetone to the mower to clear out any water that might be in the carb. This year, I'm getting by with an electric weed whacker and reel mower though.

 

Over 40 years living on the gulf coast and having dodged many bullets from numerous tropical storms and a few hurricanes, we've never ever owned a generator until..... one isolated heavy thunder/windstorm at the beginning of this summer knocked out the power for several days during 100f heat. That was the final straw.

I had this champion 2000 watt on my Amazon wishlist for over 4 years but a couple of clicks and less than 24 hrs later it was on my doorstep getting oil and gas added!



Individually (as in one at a time), it will easily run either our fridge, secondary freezer, or an aux. small window a/c each at 1/2 speed (econ mode) which gives me about 8-9 hrs/gallon burn rate. It's Champions quiet line but runs a few dB's above the premium competition (Honda, Yamaha). It has a reasonable amount of good reviews for me to chance it as a backup source but if I was a heavy user (off grid cabin, lots of camping/RV or frequent power outages), I'd go with a premium brand.

I've got 10 gallons of ethanol free "pure gas" with sta-bil added on standby in the shed plus we keep the cars full when something's cooking out in the gulf. One thing I need to do is get a couple of spare sparkplugs as cheap insurance in case of fouling/start up issues even though I do follow proper shut down procedure in running both the tank and carb dry.

 

I only fill my jugs for the stormiest half of the year. Rather than stabilizing it, I top up the cars and refill the jugs with fresh gas.

One of the best accessories I got for my rig was a plastic tub that holds the spare spark plugs, air filters, the cable to connect to my house, starting ether and a quart bottle of oil for top-ups, odds and ends like that. It’s convenient having it all in one spot.

Then I set up a solar-powered outdoor floodlight on the back of the house, so I can see what I’m doing while trying to start it or refuel it in weather/night etc.

 

End of the season, I just fed the lawn equipment fuel to the cars. Even the mixed 2-stroke stuff, since I never had more than a gallon at a time.

 

Leftover two.cycle mix always goes in the cars. Just bought a harbor freight electric pump for ten dollars. The 2000 watt inverter is too heavy for me to lift to drain out gas. The pump is fantastic. I am now using it for all fuel transfers. Two d batteries. Working great as an arm problem is inhibiting heavy lifts. Kris

 

Not an HF model, but I bought cheap CHONDA engine generator by Sportsman. I picked the model based on the price and size but mainly due to the ability to take dual fuel, gas or propane. They also make a tri-fuel model that can also take natural gas, but we have no natural gas here. I have a few HF tools including Predator model gas-powered auger. For the money, they work fine for me.

 

One of my recent torque wrench purchases said to store it set to 10 foot/pounds, it's lowest setting. I've adopted that with all my torque wrenches, not sure if it's good for all of them (a 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2").

Googling a bit, I see a lot suggestions to set and lock wrench on "lowest setting".

Huh, this link, item 3, advocates lowest setting and against setting to zero:

Torque Wrench Storage and 7 Things to Know About Your Torque Wrenches | Tube Tools, Pipe Tools, Hydraulic and Pneumatic Tools

Apologies for the topic drift.