Hard Start Capacitor and Gennie

[Bigtee4]

Hello everyone. I am posting this because I have not found a complete answer to my concern. I have a 2018 Forest River 258RKS. I have added a hard start capacitor to the A/C system.
My question is now that I have added the capacitor, can the size of the generator be reduced (i.e. Champion 4300 vs. Honda EU2200) or will I still need a full size unit?

[Mike134]

Full size generator still needed. Hard start capacitors work to help when there are issues with low voltage "shore power" but small generators are a different animal. I've heard good things about the micro air easy start.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by Mike134

Full size generator still needed. Hard start capacitors work to help when there are issues with low voltage "shore power" but small generators are a different animal. I've heard good things about the micro air easy start.

Yes!

[wanderingbob]

Try the smaller gen , it might surprise ya ! The small Honda will run mine if I shut every thing off !

[emm-dee]

I put a hard start capacitor on my previous rig (13k ac) and about half the time it would trip the generator cb on the Honda 2000. Replaced it with an Easy Start and it worked great. The only problem was the generator ran high enough to have an irritating noise level. So, I always ran the two Honda 2k generators in parallel. Much quieter.

[wreld1]

https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect...QaAuLqEALw_wcB

https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Col...MaAlgeEALw_wcB

This combination ran a 15000 btu unit plus tv , lights . had to do some amp management but worked fine for boondocking in a Kodiak TT

[Swampy]

Originally Posted by Bigtee4

Hello everyone. I am posting this because I have not found a complete answer to my concern. I have a 2018 Forest River 258RKS. I have added a hard start capacitor to the A/C system.
My question is now that I have added the capacitor, can the size of the generator be reduced (i.e. Champion 4300 vs. Honda EU2200) or will I still need a full size unit?

Bigtee4; The short answer is NO! Adding a larger capacitor will not reduce the starting current of the compressor, in fact it will cause it to increase because you are charging a larger capacitor than the normal start capacitor. What you need to do is to reduce the starting current on the A/C compressor. You do this with a reduced voltage starter like the MicroAir or RV Softstart. These starters start the motor in steps of increasing voltage until the motor is up to full speed thus allowing you to start & run an A/C on a 2000W generator without tripping it off. Starting currents on across the line starters (not the step type starters) can be as much as 12 times the full load running currents ... that's why they bog down and trip the smaller generators.

[Daycruiser]

Toss the Hardstart Cap in the trash and spend the $250 for the Micro-Air EasyStart and install that. Everything they say is true, my Honda 2200 will run that Dometic 15K unit all day.

[HangDiver]

Following....

[itat]

There are lots of threads here lauding the Micro-Air EasyStart. Maybe some of you that use one on your AC and a 2000 watt generator can comment on what you can run at the same time as the AC with that small generator.

[Mike134]

Originally Posted by itat

There are lots of threads here lauding the Micro-Air EasyStart. Maybe some of you that use one on your AC and a 2000 watt generator can comment on what you can run at the same time as the AC with that small generator.

If your running a 13.5 BTU A/C you'll use about 1600 watts, so a couple of lights in the Trailer. Turn off the a/c if you need to use the microwave, till your done with it. It's a balancing act with small generators.

[emm-dee]

Originally Posted by itat

There are lots of threads here lauding the Micro-Air EasyStart. Maybe some of you that use one on your AC and a 2000 watt generator can comment on what you can run at the same time as the AC with that small generator.

I only have three items that require 120 vac—A/C, microwave and converter. Everything else is 12 VDC. When using the microwave it would be necessary to take the A/C offline.

But, as I said earlier, I always run two units in order to have less noise. Also, there are reports that the Easy Start should prolong generator life.

[TowPro]

I would go correct size generator.

Running a cub 9600 btu in my puckup camper on a honda 2000 AC would start but gen was running hard and loud.
Even with hot water and refregerator on gas, plus battery charger converter turned off, Everytime ac started the satellite system would reboot (and take 10 minutes to restart). I had to put sat system on an inverter to solve that problem.
All these problems were solved when i got the harborfreight 3500

Now the harborfreight also runs my 15k in my MBS with no problems