This is a demonstration of a Harbor Freight 800 watt generator connected to an electric heater. I upgraded the spark plug based on the vast number of recommendation floating around on the internet.
I purchased my blue one three and a half years ago for $20. It needed a new starter recoil assembly, I sourced that on amazon for $15. Ran excellent for two years, I replaced the carburetor after I stored it full of gas for 6 months (duhhh!) easy to find and cheap $12 on amazon. Got it all buttoned up and it still runs like a top! Previous owner used it for squidding, so it had well over 100 hours when I got it and I’ve put over 100 hours on it myself just using it around the property. We had a power outage one day and this ran the fridge WiFi modem, a lamp a laptop charger and two phone chargers for about 5 hours straight without skipping a beat. For a grand total of $47 I think I got my money’s worth and then some, looking for another one currently to have as a spare! Would definitely recommend!
I'm amazed that it ran that long at full load and the breaker didn't trip. That's got to be hammering the heck out of the coil. 600 Watts over max. I actually managed to trip it on mine at a lower max load. They're great little generators though. Had mine for about a year or more now.
We are having a cold snap. And I have no electricity on my farm. So my little hf generator is running continuously. I hooked in a large fuel tank. And I use saber 2 stroke oil. It will be on another 120 hours before it goes above 40 degrees here
personally i liked the blue version better (chicago electric one you have here, vs the red one). you could consistently exceed the load ratings without any issue at all. it saved my ass during hurricane sandy b/c it was all i had at the time. my house has natural gas w/ gas stove and gas boiler so my electrical requirements for basics are not that much. this generator was able to power all essentials (not at the same time) for a full 4 1/2 days. i ran it non stop. as long as there wasn't an additional load, it could handle the compressor surge of my full size 18 cu-f fridge. i used regular gas and 2 stroke supertech from walmart. once i got power back i ran it dry and followed all of the instructions for long term storage. a few months later when i went to use it again, it ran for a bit then blew out and it was kaput. i had about 50 solid run time hrs on it prior to sandy. put on another 150 hrs, so 200 hrs total. i used an autolite spark plug obviously since the OEM one is crap. took it back to Harbor Freight since it was still under the extended warranty. it was replaced with the red one which cannot handle the compressor surge of my fridge. i definitely got my money's worth out of the blue one for $95 (gen price + warranty) but i'm pissed that the red one isn't as good
I have a couple of questions. How easy was the generator to start? What was your real world usage on the fuel? Why did you mention the spark plug? Dies it not come with a spark plug or was their's bad?
It starts about the same as a well maintained weed eater. I changed the spark plug based on the vast number recommendation floating around on the internet. As for fuel use, I do not have sufficient data at this time. The manual says it will run 5 hours at half load.
nice little set up but hat wood burner is too close to flamables. extreamly dangerous. also that propain heater needs to have fresh air vented in or you could get hurt from the burn off fumes.
