Now that I have a 16 month old, I can't be out here ruffing it during hurricane season. I want to by a 5500 watt generator and not break the bank doing it. Anything out there in this forum? Or can anyone chime in on some decent brands that are worth the money? I see Craftsman, Champion, Cat, Firman....

Any input would be great

I'd be interested in whole house generators (and how the hell one pays for them!). So any inputs on those would be equally welcome.

Honda portables are good, but pricey. I bought a DuroMax that had good reviews.

Honda eu3000 and a propane kit. Will run fridge, window unit and charge your phone. Propane and it runs every time, no cleanup or storage issues. I use the little eu2200 with propane. Runs one small 6K btu window unit with some to spare.

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I keep seeing commercials for these. Back in the day when I did housing inspections for FEMA I came across a set up in Miami. The lady said it was close to 15k by the time it was set up correctly.

Those are nice, but out of my price range.

I had, actually still have, a Coleman with a 5 hp Briggs and Stratton. Kinda loud, uses a ton of gas, and unless you put them away right you'll regret it, haha. On the other hand, got the job done in '04, when we were out for 10 days, twice. Stick with a name brand, look for a Honda engine, get a pair of 5 gal cans and you'll do fine. Don't forget a long 12 gauge extension cord so you can put that noisy beast as close as possible to the neighbor you don't like.

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My Landlord just told me we are on the Hoover School power grid and we rarely lose power. I remember losing power last year though. I'm leaning towards a Champion brand with electric start, but it doesn't have a fuel gauge.. I guess I'll know I am out of gas when it shuts off! There's always the trusty Craftsman with a Briggs & Stratton engine I can rattle the neighbors house with as well..

I've never owned one but have heard the preditors from harbour freight arent bad for the money if your just looking for hurricane use. I bought a cat rp6500 a few years ago for $550 from lowes, Its perfect for cold beer fridge and window a/c, tv and fans. I think most have the same chinese engines at that level and just branded differently. Just run it every few months or so and run the fuel out of carb and put gas stabilizer in it and your set. Hondas are great but pricey. If you havent bought any new gas cans in awhile your in for a treat, most of them suck with all the new safety bs on the spouts now. Just buy seperate spouts or bypass.

I have Honda 2000 generators and they are great as tom was saying, but expensive. I just use gas in mine but agree that the propane conversion would be the way to go if it was mainly used for hurricane power.

Buddies have the Harbor Freight Predator 3500 generators they are really happy with them. I know they have used them everything from A/C to computers with no issues. One uses it to run his remote vaca home that is off the grid, he doesn't need AC (in the cool mountains) and uses gas for cooking, so the 3500 is just powering lights and stuff like that.

My next generator will probably be the Predator 3500.



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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC - KV

Amen on the gas cans. Buy a big funnel at the autoparts store and just pour straight out of the can. Good grief those new spouts are ANNOYING! Forgot to add above, some of the newer "generators" are actually "inverters". If your budget can stand it, they're a better option. Google.

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Edited: 07/25/2020 at 04:53 AM by tom

Yeah, normally I wouldnt endorse anything Harbor Freight, but I have a friend who got one of those Predators and gave it good reviews. Im considering one, as how often am I going to use it (hopefully never

LOL, yeah...Harbor Freight...nobody likes to be seen going into that store!

But, they have some things that are really good. No shame in buying a the predator gens,. Also their aluminum floor jacks are popular. Go to Orlando Speed World on a drag night and you'll see a truckload of them being used to swap out tires (I have two). The earthquake impact drivers are good, and i recently did home paint job that required an airless sprayer and got theirs for 160 bucks or so. Painted a crap load of stuff with it and it works great for the weekend home warrior and are easy to clean. Lastly their torque wrenches are good for the price. I have good torque wrenches, but got one each of their 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2" torque wrenches on sale. Took them to a cal lab with a torque analyzer and they were all within the same spec as snap-on wrenches. Feels cheap and rough, but the numbers don't lie and I'd use them.
Some of their other stuff is still really crappy, but sometimes that is all you need.


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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC - KV

Oh yeah. I'm not a snob (nor a pro-mechanic).... I have some tools from there, including some of the tools you listed (all those torque wrenches, and a large Pittsburgh floor jack).... If its a tool you just need to use a few times then it's worth it. If it's something you need to feed your family and pay the bills, prob best to spend a few more $ elsewhere just got a chainsaw wheel for my grinder... we'll see how it goes (didnt want to doll out the $$ for real one until I at least tried carving with it first)

What's funny is my GF spouts out Harbor Freight soon as we started talking about buying a generator and I couldn't get the word "NO" out fast enough! Back when I had a saltwater aquarium I used to buy their sump pumps and they actually worked great and quarter the cost of ones sold at Lowes. I may go this route with the generator.

I guess the next questions would be how much run time do you get out of a propane cylinder? Are we talking the 20lb I use for my grill? Is propane going to be hard to find refills during cane season compared to gas?

I use 2 Honda EU2200, one for the freezer and refrigerator and the other for the 5000 btu emergency a/c, tv and battery chargers. I use a five gallon container to feed both of them using extended run caps and outboard motor fuel hoses and primer bulbs. I store 30 gallons of non ethanol fuel through hurricane season and burn it through my truck in the winter. I can go almost a week running the generators twelve hours a day each. If you do run them for several days, don't forget to change the oil every fifty hours of run time.

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As fas as propane goes, it is clean and easy. It will also store forever. It doesn't have the same energy as gasoline though. It think it is around 80% of gasoline.

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There really isn't a benefit from a fuel economy standpoint. Propane has less BTUs per pound so it isn't as efficient. How long a 20 pound tank would last depends on the generator size and load. I'd guess for the Predator3500 12+ hours??

The real benefits come from less maintenance, reliability, and availability (if you are plumbed for natural gas)
Propane/natural gas burns cleaner and doesn't gum up the system like liquid fuel will do if it isn't stored correctly.
Also, if your home is plumbed for natural gas you can use that. During hurricanes natural gas hardly ever is shut off, so it would be like having an endless fuel supply when gasoline is hard to get, and you don't even have to store as it is piped into your home. This would be the ideal situation.


(oops, I see that Retired45 beat me...yeah what he said.)



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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC - KV


Edited: 07/28/2020 at 10:49 AM by Bamboo

For your wife to work out on:



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