Harbor Freight Generator $99.99

[brassburnz]

Harbor Freight has these on sale right now for $99.99 with a coupon. I need a little generator for my tankless water heater and to keep laptop, phone, etc. charged. Reviews seem to be good. Thinking about picking one up. They usually have flyers and coupons in the store.

http://www.harborfreight.com/900-peak700-running-watts-2-hp-63cc-2-cycle-gas-recreational-generator-60338.html

[jeremyy]

Those things are noisy

[bohoki]

do they actually sell those in california stores?

[Beercandan]

Noisy and we're $89 month ago

[kelvin232]

Mine never works when I need it, but my friends works flawlessly. It's not a huge investment.

[M1NM]

How did they get CARB approval for a 2 cycle?

[brassburnz]

Mine never works when I need it, but my friends works flawlessly. It's not a huge investment.

The reviews are like your post. Either they work well or they don't work at all. I guess it's a crapshoot. Gotta pick up some other stuff at HF and I'll take a look at these things and decide. I really just need something for my tankless water heater, but I need dependability more than power. Maybe I'll pick up an inverter and run that from from my car.

[Beercandan]

They are really good at taking stuff back, no questions asked with receipt

[wtfh4xx]

Dont buy this junk.
You want a generator then go get a genuine Honda.

[Catch]

High risk of having to buy twice.

[h0use]

I have had one for over 4 years and still use it today for my airstream

[Latebraker]

If you want to charge cell phone, laptop, etc.. go with a small solar pad. When I see a RV with a Harbor Freight genny at the races we camp far far away b/c of the rediculous noise levels. Personally, I would never do that to my neighbors.

[nbk9nbk]

you could buy 9 harbor freights for the price of a Honda 1000
that said they are louder and heavy and not as safe to use on laptops or cell phones.
that said you can buy a Honda muffler and weld/bolt it on to the harbor freight generator and make a lot quieter. Or build a noise isolating box to quiet it down.
that said i would not buy a harbor freight one sorta like the off brand quads

[Beercandan]

Friend uses one for the desert so doesn't mind the sound

[bruss01]

Is your tankless hot water heater under 700 watts? That is what this generator puts out, regular. If you are lucky it will kick-off when you over load it. If you are unlucky you will burn it out.

700 watts is useful if you want to watch a bit of tv or charge a phone or run a laptop. It's not useful if you want to use it for household appliances because the wattage requirements are generally higher. Also there is the fact that others mentioned, a lot of cheap generators do not put out clean power. They are hard on electronics, control circuitry and to a lesser degree on motors and solenoids. So the question then becomes, is it worth losing a $500 - $800 fridge because you ran it for two days on crappy power? Is it worth losing that $$$$ big-screen TV from crappy power? To save a few hundred on an el Cheapo generator?

I bought two Honda EU2000i generators and I think it's one of the best prepping power investments I've made. I've had them for over five years and used them a good bit, they still work like champs. I hook them together using the "bridge" and can supply 30-amp service to our camping trailer - which will run the on-board AC and charge the battery banks. The generators are 2000w each, so 4000 peak, and they just barely start the AC on a hot day but once you get it all on-line it will run all day. They automatically throttle back when the load is low, to conserve fuel, and then ramp up as load increases. They provide clean power which is safe for high-tech electronics. At home, I can power our washing machine, refrigerator, central furnace (gas) and dryer (gas) all at the same time with the caveat that you start the dryer first because that startup load is pretty big. But once it's started you can bring everything else on line. I test these generators twice a year and run them only on Sta-Bil treated fuel. They have never failed to start. Yes they do cost some money. I really believe that this is a case of getting what you pay for. I will say this, no matter what you get, pay attention to routine maintenance. Anything will suck if neglected badly enough. Test twice a year, minimum, under a bit of load (space heater or some such). Change oil at regular intervals, clean plugs, air filters, etc. If you get a generator it is comforting to have but it is another thing to keep up on... not just something to stash in a dank corner for ten years until the day comes you actually need it, because I guarantee you when that day comes if you haven't done your job it won't do it's. It's a case of getting what you pay for, and also of getting out what you put in.

At home, I have 560 watts of solar panels on the roof (off-grid) tied into a bank of 4 golf cart batteries. That is my primary back-up power. This is sufficient for some emergency refrigeration, charging batteries for cordless devices, and some television for info/entertainment. It's not enough to run the house on, not by a long way. The generators are useful in a prolonged outage to charge up the battery banks if they start getting low, in case power is being consumed faster than the solar panels can replenish them. It's advantageous to do most of the consuming power tasks during daylight because the process of converting electricity into battery power is lossy - probably about 75-80% efficient.

My concerns about your tankless setup are do you know the voltage and the wattage? Many tankless heaters use above normal household current (110-120v) and instead operate in the 220-240v range. This generator is only designed for normal household voltage appliances with standard plugs. Do you have a way to plug-in your tankless, or is it hard-wired into the house circuits? If hard-wired, do you know what it'll cost to get an alternate hookup installed? Figure that into the cost of your plan.