Filmed almost 7 years ago and still one of the best reviews for this type of generator on RU-vid. I have an old Generac powered by a Honda 8HP OHV that is about as loud as your military generator. When it was new, I made the mistake of tinkering with it under load for about 10 minutes without hearing protection. My ears were ringing for two days. I have one of those Black & Decker Alligators and it's one of the best tools I've ever bought!
I have watched at least 6 other videos on this generator and this is by far the most informative so far , i have a fault with mine but this has pointed me the way to resolve it. Thanks Bob
Bob I've been watching your Vids for a while, I just wanted to say it's a pleasure coming to your vids and using your reiews to help make an honest decision on a potential purchases. I'm in Va. and we just experienced some violent weather leaving large patches without power across the state into DC and Maryland. Keep up the great work.."keepem comin".
A good review. I have a 4 stroke 909 brand 1100w. I am often amazed at other reviews that say that "all you can run off these is a small fan & a light or two" You can run sizable power tools including circular saws of these & they work very well indeed. Mine runs my 550 watt pool transfer water pump with ease. Similar concept to this one but 4 stroke. It also runs my hard start 1200W angle grinder with ease. I also use my hedge trimmer & small chainsaw with it.
Thanks man! The comment that made the decisive blow, was the 'not regulated, no electronics' one. It's an awesome device for the price. Perhaps I can find a good power regulator on the cheap somewhere.
Thanks bob for taking the time to make this review i picked one for 20 bucks with about 12 hours on it but sat for 4 years and after using it for a one hour i could hear a hiss sound coming from the bearing if i didn't see this video i would have ran it till it locked up.
I've used mine for 3 years running a Monitor, CPU, 1400 W speakers, modem AND wireless router. I also use an AVR to surge protector for some sort of power management. I never had a problem. But I wouldn't connect it directly to the computer by any means.
You can use these for laptops and computers. To clean up the power and spikes you can buy an inverter seperate. That plus a surge protector should be enough for sure. These are underrated machines and you can use them for more than what most people use them for.
Thank you for your review. I plan to use this generator I bought in my camper and for my emergency ham radio set up. My radios all work from a battery bank that this generator will be used to charge up and NOT to power any electronic equipment direct. We live in North Pole, Alaska and where we camp there is no power so the light weight will be great for hauling this little unit in the pick up camper. My only gripe is that we bought it off a craigslist ad and paid $300.oo for it and then found out they sell for $100 to 140.00 ... it is brand new so I need to fuel it up and run it in and check the AC frequency and the DC output. I suppose that in the future when things go tits up the proce we paid will not be so ugly as we feel about it today?? Let the buyer beware. Keep warm and may God richly bless you sir. I subscribed to your channel because you have such great info ... I too have a channel you may wish to look at; the airplane I'm building will be moved up here to Alaska this year and I'll finish building it and fly it and post videos from here ...
Hey there Bob, great video my friend. I have one very similar to the one you have in this video. It's called a performance power 780/1,000 watt machine. I also have a rockworth 1.1kva 4 stroke which I am about to restore. Keep up the great work. Paul.
I used it non-stop for one week at the Broken Spoke (now the FTS) in Sturgis. It ran all week and never skipped a beat, except for refueling which was few and far between. Got mine for 75 bucks. Money well spent.
I had one, bought it new for 70, sold it at a yard sale for 50, I thought it was noisy, hard starting, and weak for the 1k rating, as you said, and my chock was miss marked too. A friend of mine bought one at the same time, his popped a piston ring in the first month, making it junk, I never trusted or liked it much, and since it has such a limited use, I found it not worth keeping, I was glad the day we parted, I don’t miss mine at all. Good honest review though.
You would be surprised what you can power with one of these if you backfeed it through you house. I do this with my same model 900w generator and I was amazed. I can run every ceiling fan and light in my house and my fridge OR window A/C at the same time when i back feed it through my garage outlet. 900 watts goes alot farther then you think when it is available to your mains at your house. Stuff like my central air, electric range and water heater are WAY out of the caliber for this little guy, but modern loads like flat screen tvs or CFLs etc which your house is probably already laden with this little generator goes a long way. My whole house has CFLs, save for my back spot lights which is 2 halogen spot lights, and even then it powers those and the whole house lights no problem. matter of fact, save for big ticket items like the dryer, range, water heater, central air, washing machine I can run everything in my house at once with this little genny save for the fidge and window a/c.....I can only run one or the other...good enough for me.
I wonder if the lack of activity means this jerk hooked his generator up to his house wiring and killed an electric company employee,and is now busy being all the bunkmate he can be in lockup.
i think most problems are very few people know the proper way to break in a small engine. add a tablespoon of 2 stroke in the spark plug hole then slowly turn over the eng so it is lubed up. then run at 32-1 during break in. then put it thru heat cycles before ever loading it up.
Iv ran mine for days camping, always did a good job. Only had to take carburetor apart once and replace spark plug, they are great. Just like the video says you just have to do a few fixes when you get them out of the box.
Instead of taking out the bearing could you just avoid running it too long? What maximum length of time would you recommend running it to avoid overheating that bearing?
Question for CatusBob :I just picked up one of these little generators and so far it's a hoot. Watched your video and caught the warning about bearing failure in the gen. Do you think I should preemptive remove the bearing and lube it with a known good grease or just wait a couple of years and lube it as part of maintenance? How hard is it to get the bearing out and what are the chances of damaging it while taking it apart. Do you think McMaster-Carr or a bearing shop would carry a replacement?
@oneworldkingdom Actually I mean an AVR, not an inverter. A Voltage Regulator (AVR) offers voltage regulation to your gen and makes it user friendly for sensitive electronics.
I used this same generator for 48 hours straight during hurricane Irma at 600 watt load. This generator earned my respect. We neighbors with generacs,Coleman's and a few others that didn't run as reliable as this 100$ "piece of shit" I love it. When I say I ran it for 48 hours straight I mean it! It may have ran out of gas a few times before I refilled it with 5min down time. My mom and step dad are currently using it now until their power gets restored
Hello, Do you know the torque spec for the head? I have several under different brand names. My first one I have had many years and identical to yours from HL America. I have 2 from American Power 1200 watt. It runs good but i noticed while some cleaning and maintenance due to a basement flood one of the head bolts were loose. When I get a new one I go through it and have found various issues such as over torqued and stripped screws where the carb attaches I also found the opposite where they will come loose ironically they last enough to run fine during warranty. Any way I agree with you these are great units. I always break them in use high quality 2 stroke oil and premium fuel. I have a 10K I would run for a while to charge up the well tank and so on. Of course I have installed a manual transfer switch. During the day one of these small 2 stroke units will power my fridge and even a small coffee maker. If you know the spec for head bolt torque please inform I can probably just tighten it. I am hoping there has been no damage due to this issue. Thanks! Frank
@jasonmoore1900 Some people do (and you did it ) . i would not power anything with electronics in it . this generator has no voltage regulator and a crude governor so it's CPS (cycles per second ) can be as low as 40 and high as 80 . voltage can be down to 90 or jump to 160 when a load is switched off . this is more than a lot of equipment can handle . but for lights , appliances , power tools and the stuff you really NEED ! it will do the job
Most informative video I have seen on these generators.. Thanks for all the tips. I believe these are going on sale at Harbor Freight in the next month or so, they had an ad posted of upcoming sales. Thanks for posting the video.
Shut fuel off and allow it to run the carb empty Will keep carb clean Even my 1993 9.9hp boat motor is 2 stroke and still runs like new today but carb is always ran dry before I leave the water
Sir, great explanation! I was about to buy this generator to use it as a power surge for a laptop, cellphones and floor fans until I saw this video. So, (not regulated means no electronics) but can I use it for the floor home fans?
Great review. but keep in mind if take the ball bearing out you should pull on the two rings or on the ring that "hold" the bearing in place. Because if you aren't do that you can also destroy the bearing. If you puled out the seal you should put fat in it more regulary. It is just my way of thinking. I have also one and i like it a lot.
The case doesn't have that 2 screws this video shows to remove it any more. Someone else said the bearing is cheap and a good idea to replace it, I'd say if one was going to open the case to pull off the dust seal and grease the bearing you may as well just remove the bearing and put in a quality made bearing instead.
I have a Harbor Freight 800-900 watt generator and I use it everyday. Today, it has lost 80% of it's power. I cleaned the bowl out - replaced the spark plug - shot carb cleaner into the carb and still no power - Do these things just wear out over time? It was running fine yesterday. Any suggestions?
Got mine from harbor frieght for $86, ran my gas furnace for 3 day last year when we lost out power from the big snow storm. That rear bearing, is it easy remove once the cover is off? Great info,Thanks.
I have a Master Craft 2 cycle (1200 peak/ 850 rated watts) right now I'm using regular fuel but I'm thinking about using premium... Will the premium fuel damage the engine or will it make it work better
Hey, Bob, do you have any thoughts on gas/oil mixes? My Chinese generator says 50:1, but that seems like an awfully lean recommendation. It would be very convenient if I could run it on 32:1 like my mower and snow thrower. Bad idea?
I had one of those run 2 fridges and lights and tv and did excellent job. Gallon of fuel lasted for about 20 h running 2 fridges and i was out of power for over a week after Sandy and was running constantly.
they do sort of self destruct and take themselves apart slowly if you don't check them for loose bits once and a while. best time is at refueling. if you keep everything tight it will just keep going and going.
Your the man Bob! Got one out the door for $ 82.00. Didn't know they were unregulated good thing to remember. My AC meter on the gen shows 200 volts all the time, that little gen screams, but the all lights are BRIGHT! I can adjust the RPM at the Carb and watch the volts go down to 120vac but the gem starts to pulse. How do you adjust it down to 110-120VAC and keep it steady? Great video!
Some of them are real easy , after you remove the dust cover on some you can see the back of the bearing , with a pick you can remove the grease seal and repack without ever removing the bearing from its holder . on the older ones you must remove the 4 long bolts that hold the generator part together , is a little bit of a pain . but check yours first , you might be lucky
Thank you for your review! As a more experienced person to generators could you do a small video or instruction how to set the govenor or idle screw you mentioned on the left side under the gas tank? I think mine puts out a too high voltage and i wan't to readjust it a little back to normal with a multimeter or one of those "watt testers" which can be inlined to the power outlet. Thank you!
Excellent information Bob, and you deserve a medal for getting 250 hours from the generator. Seems you are using the machine and respecting it's limitations. You don't expect it to run 24/7 at 800 watts. I like your idea of dropping the "working Chinese spark plug on the concrete," so you can try out a new NGK plug. I am notoriously "thrifty" myself.
hi i have like this one with 950 w 220v/50Hz... how i can clean it especially that i keep gas on it .second thing i note a few drop of oil under the muffler .. what to do ? and using UPS to regulate the output is useful ? or it will decrease the power ... how to know when it on max load ???? i note the sound of this .. can i know by measuring the output V ... when its drop under 200 for example .. thanks for your videos
Hey I have had a harbor freight version of the same generator and i will say if you turn the fuel off a minute before you cut the engine off those little suckers will last I have well over 2500 hours on mine and its still kicking I have ran saws, fridges, window air conditioner and many other things, it is the best $80 I have ever spent
Thank you for the 2stroke maintanence video Very informative and Looks like bullit Mcqueen is ignorant on the subject of maintenance My name is also McQueen however I KNOW things need to be LOOKED AFTER
@@CactusBobsPlace Believe it or not I just "found" one of these that I knew I had, but couldn't find it. It's never been started. Still in the box after 8 yrs. I had opened the box yrs ago, so can't find any literature on it. I saved your video. Very informative. Thanks for creating it. I'd be interested in seeing a more in depth video on how to do the preventative maintenance you mentioned.
I have A True Life 1280 generator 2 stroke. Its alot like yours in the video. I CAN'T get mine started at all. I have spark and when I take my spark plug out its wet from fuel so I know its also getting fuel. It doesnt even run with starting fluid sprayed into it. It ran fine one day then just died the next. Any idea on what it could possably be?
Hi Im really please with your review, you seem to be an expect on this, I would like to know, if i can use that type of generator with my desktop computer. but i will set it up like this --- generator------ Automatic Voltage regulator 500W---- Desktop computer... since the current from the generator is passing to an AVR system will it provide stable voltage? Please advise i need help.
@grazatfahrer If you're going to connect electronics to this, you should do so with surge protector. You should never direct connect any electronics to any generator.
Hey Bob, Great video. I have the exact model from Heartland America. I broke it in with no load to light load with extra synthetic 2 stroke oil. I have had mine for 5 years and it runs great. I generally run a "richer" oil mix and wondering if this is bad.I imagine it may quench the catalytic system. Did you ever clean the combustion chamber?. I also have repacked "sealed bearings" and various pieced equipment.with good success. Thanks again for the video. Frank
I got a similar cheap Chinese generator like this. I picked it up used for cheap and ran fine. but now I need it like 8 months later it won't start. guessing what you said about leaving gas in it will gunk up the carb came true. now I gotta figure out how to take it apart.
That's true of all carb engines if you leave the fuel in long enough to go stale, the orifices are needle sized, it doesn't take much crud to clog so small a hole up.
Not sure why he was saying the military generator was useless. We ran out entire compound in Iraq for years off of two 30kw generators. The only problem we had was when the guys forgot to put fuel in it. Maybe THAT one he has is junk.
What did I say right at the end of this video? " the gen set does NOT have a voltage regulator so do not use with electronics" Most normal 2 or 4 stroke gen sets use the RPM of the engine to regulate the voltage and CPS (60hz) of the output If you plan to run A modern battery charger or other electronics you should invest in a "INVERTER GENERATOR", the problem with these is COST ! This little gen set still gets the job done for lights a fridge or small power tools , at a fair price .
you are right cactus bob my generator same like but that but its 4 stroke is a 1000 watts but the rated output is 0.8VA and is about 800 watts and the max output is 1.0Kva is about 1000 watts same like your generator :-)
@CactusBobsPlace what about powering a playstation and a tv with one of these?i did that for hours on end with no problems. by sensitive electroncis you mean computers?
