Best & quietest generator?

[RockSee]

Thanks for being here.

We are new owners of 2007 27ft Rockwood 2603 and so far we love the RV experience. Age does help one to appreciate creature comforts. And on that note, we'd love to do more remote camping and would appreciate your input on the quietest, most efficient portable generator. We have 30amp connection. Also have inverter onboard. Would you still recommend "inverter generator" over "regular"?

Thank you very much for your help. We are beginning a life journey and glad we are not alone.

RockSee

[bikendan]

Honda or Yamaha 3000w inverter generators, period.

are you sure your trailer has an inverter? they don't come standard on your trailer. are you sure you don't mean "converter"?
many newbies get the two mixed up. all RV's come with "converters", but very few come with "inverters".

anyway, an onboard inverter has nothing to do with an inverter generator.
a regular generator will easily be 10x louder than an inverter generator.

[Oakman]

X2 what bikendan said. Honda and Yamaha are dependable and efficient.

If the 3000 watt genny is too heavy for your liking and you won’t need to run your air conditioner then you might consider a lighter 2000 watt inverter generator by Honda or Yamaha.
Another, but more expensive option would be to parallel two 2000 watt generators giving you plenty of power.

[fmc]

We use a Dometic 3000 and it works great. If you shop around you can find one new for about $750.

[checca]

Dual yamaha ef2000si ... Check out the link where I got mine!

Yamaha Generators | Yamaha Inverters | Best Online Deals

Or honda ... But who likes red anyway?

[TURBS]

Here's hours of reading with a simple frf search.
http://www.google.com/search?q=gener...W_enUS514US514


Turbs

[KyDan]

Hi RockSee- Welcome to FRF!!

Just an FYI to further clarify-
An INverter takes DC (either battery power or generator power) and
Inverts it into 120 V AC household type power.

A CONverter takes household power like you get from the power pole
at a campground and Converts it to 12v DC to charge your batteries and
power many of the devices in your trailer.

You will get many opinions here as to what generator but we can give
more specific advice if you tell us what you hope to accomplish with
a genny.
Do you want to run your roof air conditioner?

If you are comfortable with most everything working in your trailer
EXCEPT the roof AC then you can get a smaller, lighter, cheaper, quieter
genny.

What weight can you safely lift out of your truck and put back?
If you can't lift it- it won't do you much good!
Cost and power output make the 3 major concerns when shopping for
a genny.
Make that 4-- noise rating is very important too.

Again, welcome to the group and to the RVing community at large!

[RickV]

I bought two of the Champion 2000 watt inverter generators. They work great. Almost half of what the Honda's or Yamaha's cost. I did a lot of reading on them before I bought them. Here are a couple of links.

Video of them in action:

Champion 2000 Watt Inverter Generator - Love Your RV review article | Love Your RV!

Lots of positive posts:

Woodalls Open Roads Forum: Tech Issues: The Official unofficial CPE 2000i Generator Thread

[KyDan]

A bit more on inverters and generators--

Most lower priced non-inverter generators produce 60 cycle AC current directly
by turning at a very specific speed. This means the engine on a
non-inverter genny must run at full speed all the time- even if there is nothing connected to it. This makes more noise and burns more fuel.

Some higher priced inverter generators produce DC current which is
electronically inverted to 60 cycle AC power.
This means the engine does not have to run at a specific speed.
For this reason when the generator is under light load the engine can run
at a lower speed. This is often quieter and more fuel efficient.

NOTE: Honda calls this eco mode or something. I'm not sure that all
inverter gennys have the low speed under light load option so you might
want to check before you purchase one.
Also these more expensive inverter gennys typically have better mufflers.
They are pretty quiet but I disagree with folks who say they can't hear
them run!! I CAN HEAR A HONDA from across the road no problem!
They ARE quieter than most others tho.....

Finally, some campgrounds don't allow generators during certain hours.
Even the quiet ones are not allowed in some areas.

Hope this helps a bit!
and happy camping!

[bikendan]

though i have no problems with Chinese-made inverter generators, like the Dometic or the Champion, the OP asked for the "Best and Quietest".
neither of these two brand of inverter generators have been around much more than 2 years and can hardly be considered "Best" or "Quietest".

are they decent inverter generators, especially for the price, YES. but they haven't been around long enough to really see if they last long. Champion has shown a great customer support system but the Dometic hasn't had these out that long or sold that many to see how good their support system is.

but when someone asks for the "Best" generators, the vast majority would answer Honda or Yamaha.

[Dabmeb]

We have a 3600 Kipor. Park approved, It is 65 dbs and we have 6 years of operation on it now. With a max load it will run almost 7 hours.
It has an Eco mode with auto load sensing.
We did need a new battery for it and could not find one the right size($160.00). Found one a little bigger for $50.00 and removed one battery tray edge, fits fine and no one can tell the difference.

[Great Horned Owl]

I agree that the Honda and Yamaha might be a little better than the Champion, Kipor, Lifan, or any of several other similar inverter generators. However, at nearly twice the price, it is hard to imagine that they are twice as good.

As for quiet, they all have exactly the same noise spec. I bought two of the 2000W Champions, and am quite pleased with them.

Joel

[grayfox]

Have 2 Honda 2000 run parallel with an extended run fuel system.

powerequipment.honda.com/generators

[KyDan]

Originally Posted by Great Horned Owl

I agree that the Honda and Yamaha might be a little better than the Champion, Kipor, Lifan, or any of several other similar inverter generators. However, at nearly twice the price, it is hard to imagine that they are twice as good.
As for quiet, they all have exactly the same noise spec. I bought two of the 2000W Champions, and am quite pleased with them.
Joel

I am not a Honda fanatic! I have a Honda 2000 but if I could get half
my money back and trade it for a Champion I would definitely consider it.
I'd want to hear the Champion run under load first but I totally believe you!

Furthermore- I bought the Honda B 4 a long trip out west where we'd be
boondocking several days at different locations. We only used the microwave
once during that time. We could have done easily with a lighter slightly
cheaper Honda 1000. If I'd bought a Champion 1000 it would have saved
me a bunch! (I understand that a 1000 won't power a microwave- even
a smaller one like we have.)

I mainly need mine to charge batteries and I typically use a 25 amp charger
and a 1000 watt genny is plenty for that. In fact it's practically loafing when
I'm charging batteries.

[JFM-jr]

Originally Posted by Great Horned Owl

I agree that the Honda and Yamaha might be a little better than the Championl

Theres no "Might" be better after watching this video. Are they worth twice the price thats debatable but as for performance that seems pretty clear.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="Review CPE Generator 2000 watt inverter VS Honda EU2000i - YouTube" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[DDC]

Originally Posted by JFM-jr

Theres no "Might" be better after watching this video. Are they worth twice the price thats debatable but as for performance that seems pretty clear.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="Review CPE Generator 2000 watt inverter VS Honda EU2000i - YouTube" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This was very helpful as I was leaning toward the Champion and thought that the power output was the same, I guess you get what you pay for.

[uncle46]

I have had a Honda EU 3000 IS since 2004, used it to power a 57 FT houseboat in Silver Glen Springs during the summer months from May through September for 3 years, it would give us 120 V to power a 3000 watt inverter charger to charge our 8 6v batteries power our 4 ceiling fans TV and what ever else we wanted to do. It cost us $1500.00 new and I will buy another one when this one wears out. At night during those months it would also power a 9000 BTU stand alone AC unit to cool our bedroom. The Boat had a 12KW gen set that we only had to run to heat water or cool the boat down using the 4 ton AC Unit. The Honda is well Maintained using only Mobil 1 10-30 after 40 hour of running. I must say it took allot of energy management when the inverter was on high charge but we learned what we could run and in what combination. I am sold on the quality of the Honda and in my mind it was worth every dollar I paid for it.

[checca]

Originally Posted by JFM-jr

Theres no "Might" be better after watching this video. Are they worth twice the price thats debatable but as for performance that seems pretty clear.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="Review CPE Generator 2000 watt inverter VS Honda EU2000i - YouTube" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Great video ... we camp every year with a large group (over 80 people for 10 days of boon docking) ... we have several non HONDA / YAMAHA brand generators in the group and we have seen the same thing. HONDA / YAMAHA can handle surge much better than any of the other brands. That's one reason I when with the Yamaha 2000is pair. The other main reason was weight, at 44lbs each my wife can move them around without issue.

[RickV]

The Champion's are actually only 1600W continuous, 2000W surge. I don't plan on using them to do anything other then power my 5ver I have a bigger, noisy genny for emergencies and other off shore power things. I have two with the parallel cable. I hooked them to the 5ver and was able to run anything I wanted. Not saying they are as good as the Name Brand ones but I am happy with them and saved some $$$$.

[KyDan]

The Honda "2000" is only rated at 1600 continuous watts also.
If you're going to be using your genny at near max load that is a factor also.
Mine is just loafing most all the time.

Don't let folks scare you away from a Champion. If I was going to use
a genny long term such as on a houseboat or full time boondocking sure
I'd probably stick with a honda but ME-- I just use mine to charge batteries
so I've over spent. If I could do it over again, I'd get a Champion 1000.

Generators are all about what you want them to do. What are you trying
to power??

For me it's all about charging batteries.
12v x 25amp charger = 300 watts. Add 25% for heat loss etc and
I'm still running a "big" honda 2000 to generate only 400 watts.
OTOH it runs on eco, idle mode when I'm doing that.

I started out with a little 2 cycle. Cost just a tad over $100 and would
charge my batteries fine BUT it was SO LOUD.
Gave it away and got a Honda. Wish I'd done more research.
Wife was urging me to "get a good one". It's always easier to spend money
when your wife is in the background saying "do it"!!
Also I had hoped it might run my roof AC. It actually did start the compressor
one time at 400 feet above sea level on a mild spring day. Once we got
warmer and higher it couldn't do it.