expired Posted by Rokket | Staff • Jul 10, 2024
Jul 10, 2024 7:04 AM
Item 1 of 1
expired Posted by Rokket | Staff • Jul 10, 2024
Jul 10, 2024 7:04 AM
Prime Members: Champion 8750W Open Frame Inverter Electric Start Generator
+ Free Shipping$781
$1,579
50% offAmazon
Visit AmazonGood Deal
Bad Deal
Save
Share
Leave a Comment
Top Comments
Pretty nice unit. I use it to run my house when storms take us down.
Some of my notes from owning it for a year:
- Plenty of power, will run most small appliances and can start a heat pump. I haven't tried starting both pumps, if power is down that long I just leave upstairs breaker off.
- A 50 amp plug would be nice, but for the price I was okay with 30A - it at least provides 220. I use an adapter to switch to my house inlet, no issues so far.
- This generator is loud. It's advertised as quieter and lighter, but it's still loud and heavy. It is what it is, it's a lot of power for an inverter and it's open frame. Be ready for this though. It's loud enough I am considering building an enclosure. It has an eco mode where it will run at a lower RPM, but it's going to throttle up aggressively when demand hits and make a ton of noise anyways.
- Electric start is great, starts easy even after sitting all winter with gas in it. (I do run ethanol free gas, I suggest you do too)
-It hasn't blown up any of my sensitive electronics (Several PCs, network cameras, smart TV's, home audio)
- Dual fuel is a commonly desired features on generators this big, it would have been nice to have. There are aftermarket kits for this model (snorkel kits). They are around $200. If you do this, buy a reputable one and not some cheap no-name Chinese brand from Amazon.
If you have a big house with a lot of demand, and are okay with noise and running on gas, this is a good deal. If you do not need to run large things like starting a heat pump and generally just having almost every breaker on for comfort, consider a quieter and smaller generator. After my research last go around, when the budget is <$1,000, this is hard to find if 220 is a must.
60 Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Also, if you don't plan on getting a transfer switch or plug into your panel, do plan on picking up a 30A plug to take advantage of that side. I didn't and was only able to run on the regular 15A plugs which meant I could only power 3 space heater and some intermittent small appliances before tripping the breakers on the generator. If I had picked up a 50A, 30A and use the other plugs at the beginning, I could have run just about anything by taking full advantage of the power at hand. Had to source items in an ice storm.
I cannot believe the people in Harris county are going on day 4 of no electricity.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Also, if you don't plan on getting a transfer switch or plug into your panel, do plan on picking up a 30A plug to take advantage of that side. I didn't and was only able to run on the regular 15A plugs which meant I could only power 3 space heater and some intermittent small appliances before tripping the breakers on the generator. If I had picked up a 50A, 30A and use the other plugs at the beginning, I could have run just about anything by taking full advantage of the power at hand. Had to source items in an ice storm.
Yes you lose about a third of the power but that is stated and expected. Good luck finding propane or gasoline during an emergency. Let alone getting to it.
A perfect device would have an option to connect an external battery bank to handle low loads and it would start the motor to charge the battery or when more power is needed. Big gens are extremely inefficient under low load.
Basically needs to work like a hybrid car. Where is that? Toyota? Hmmm?!?
Ran it on gasoline from Monday morning until yesterday evening when our electric service finally came back on. With the load that I put on it, I got about 10 hrs of run time. That was a couple of fridges, a chest freezer, TV's and PC's. Basically everything but my pool equipment and central AC's. I had just finished installing a window AC unit for our bedroom to provide a cool space in the house - that would have cut the run time to probably more like 7-8 hrs based on the estimate load I was putting on it.
It is loud - you're not taking this to a campsite. But, when the neighborhood has no power, everyone is lighting up generators, whether portables like this, or full size Generac standby units. So, as a backup power source, the noise wasn't a big concern for me.
I did get a 30 amp plug added to the house feeding into my panel and an interlock so that the main breaker and the breaker for the generator feed can't be active at the same time. Made it very easy to feed power in. Just switched off breakers to the circuits I don't want powered and didn't have to run a tangle of extensions cords into the house.
Obviously, not as convenient as a Generac standby, but, for the limited amount of use and the price difference, I've been pretty pleased with it and this first big test of powering the house while Centerpoint was trying to figure out how to get power back on to Houston.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Leave a Comment