For anyone interested who hasn’t picked one up, Harbor Freight just sent out an email blast with a coupon for the Predator 3500 Inverter Generator for $699.99, regularly $799.99.
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For anyone interested who hasn’t picked one up, Harbor Freight just sent out an email blast with a coupon for the Predator 3500 Inverter Generator for $699.99, regularly $799.99.
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https://www.cabelas.com/product/CHAM...2.uts?slotId=0
Champion 2000 watt inverter on sale at Cabela's, $399 instead of $499. Not sure where Champion stands in the pantheon of generators though. And, we're heading down to HF shortly to grab a Predator 3500. Many thanks to LL for starting the thread, and to those who have contributed. It was invaluable to us.
OK, here's an important shopping tip: don't head down to HF to grab a Predator 3500 without remembering that PG&E has announced planned power shutdowns for roughly 2.5 million people due to record high winds causing extreme risk of wildland fire. Power lines have been the cause of a number of very large fires over the last few years. PG&E faces tons of cost due to liability so they've started preventative shutdowns of their system when the wind/fire risk looks bad. Generators have been largely emptied out all the way over here in Reno. %$#&* Californians mess up everything!
So, we ordered our generator online from Harbor Freight since none were to be found in Reno due to the CA blackouts. It was promptly shipped. From a warehouse in Riverside, CA.
A local guy has a couple used Predator 3500's for sale. $500 each. I'm thinking of picking one up. Use would be to keep the fan in the gas furnace running and the refrigerator during a winter outage. Yes or no?
You're probably OK but it's hard to say without access to the data plate for the appliances. We're using it to back up a chest freezer and the furnace fan. It will easily handle the running load, but the starting load can be a challenge. Compressors in particular can hit the power supply pretty hard at startup. For our freezer, I had to look all over for the plate that had the motor manufacturer, find the exact model of the freezer, and then ask Lord Google for sources of intel on the power requirements. It should be a simple "read the spec plate on the freezer" but it wasn't. The furnace was a little easier but still not truly obvious. In my case, if both units start up at exactly the same time they will be close to the generator's limit, but still within spec. Simultaneous startup is unlikely so I'm confident. The running load is no problem. This is for a chest freezer about 20 years old, about six feet long (pretty big) and an oil burning furnace for a 1700 square foot house, about 15 years old.
Check and see if you can use a hard start capacitor on your compressor items, it reduces the voltage/amp load required to start them. Its a common thing to use according the the info ive seen, electricians use them regularly. I added one to my small window AC unit in my truck so the small honda gen would run it on eco mode, it does fine. The capacitor was about $12 locally, and plugs in piggyback on the existing start or run capacitor and give supposedly 500% more start power. The RV and boat living crowd have been dong it so they dont overload the ability of their generators to run their AC and other stuff, and not have to size up the gen to handle start loads.
Another option. A little more running watts than the Predator.
https://tools.woot.com/offers/wen-56...5080_454880230
Less fuel capacity so shorter run times.
So that deal is sold out, but they appear to have two versions on Amazon, and open frame and closed frame
https://www.amazon.com/WEN-56380i-38...07PTNTRRJ?th=1
I'm assuming that the closed frame is the quieter option...