Hi,good review. Just a heads up,propane forms water droplets when it combusts.Many who only use propane in their generators find out their carb bowl ends up with corrosion. They usually discover this fact after gasoline fails to start the generator and further inspection of the carb bowl reveals the problem. Best to run gasoline(non ethanol) with some stabilizer or cleaner on a regular basis,just alternate. Also good to become familiar with disassembling and cleaning the carb.
Good to know, it probably drains down through the Jets through the air intake on the carburetor! Most gens have an access cover to drain the carb bowl already installed with a drain hose, just loosen the screw to drain the float bowl !!!
@@danielwymer1580 I drain my carb bowls after every run.Some say the water will be expelled out the exhaust.What I know is there are at least a few cases right here on YT where the generators had carb problems when run only on propane.
I've installed meaning of dual and tri-fuel kits. The Vapor base plate is between the carburetor and the engine. I haven't experienced none of this with my generators just running on propane. My carburetor is dry as a bone. And if you pull two engines apart one run on propane and one run on ethanol free gasoline. The gasoline engine has the carbon crud buildup on the valves and pistons. On any vapor fuel engine light propane, natural gas, hydrogen, methane, gasification and more. You never get any black carbon buildup in the engine ever off of a vapor fuel engine ever. With April fools less maintenance, less where, less tear and less oil changes. The spark plug or spark arrestor never gets black and no carbon black buildup crud ever in a engine that runs on vapor fuels. But when you run gasoline you get this black carbon crud buildup on the spark plug, and the spark arrestor, in the combustion chamber, on the vowels, on the piston and more. By running gasoline the black carbon crud buildup causes valves not to seal, piston rings not to spin on the piston. This causes Blow by loss of power eventually not running appliances. Possibly smoking using oil and needing another engine or at that point a whole generator replacement. Were these Chinese made inverter generators generally the inverter board and other things will burn up. I've had two cheap Chinese inverter generators before I went to Honda's. I lost some money but it was a valuable lesson you get what you pay for. What I learned from the cheap Chinese inverter generators. If the red overload light comes on you better cut the engine off immediately. Reduce the appliances and turn back on. If you keep running any inverter generator with the red overload light on or blinking at all definitely the cheap Chinese inverter generators. Running the generator like this will easily burn out the inverter board. They don't blow fuses like they did years ago or resettable breaker. They just slightly burn up I know because I burned up two of them that were brand new. 1 the inverter board burned up. Any other one the engine locked up. It would have cost more to fix than they were worth. Luckily since they were new I replaced them traded one off and sold the other one lost some money. But I never went back to another cheap Chinese inverter generator. Honda is the only one left that's true quality and built to last. You'll cry with a Honda but it'll last you a lifetime. And as I spoke of if you will only run Vapor fuels like propane that I do the generator will last two to three times longer. Because there is no black carbon crud build up in the engine which leads to engine failure. In the inverter boards are pretty strong but don't get me wrong you could still burn out a Honda if you really abused it. But the Honda inverter boards are stronger than anything else out on the market. One Honda has 39,000 hours on it and still running. That's like over 2 years running solid. You'll never get a cheap Chinese inverter generator to even come close. But I am surprised this small champion even run that rooftop air conditioner. But try to test it on a hot day! The hotter the day the more load it takes to start. I'm pretty shocked that this champion started it because in other videos it wouldn't cut it. But sometimes the hotter the weather, how old the air conditioner is, how long the extension cord is, what gauge the extension cord is and so on makes a difference. But when you run all the generators the Honda beats them hands down when it comes to starting larger loads.
So I have a 50 amp interlock inlet, and I know you need a conversion plug for this, 30 amp to 50 amp. I'm assuming this will NOT power a 240v dryer or waterheater right? So i'll have to keep those off in my breaker panel, to prevent damage to the Predator 5000? I really wish it had a 50 Amp version of with the quiet technology. The trifuel is huge, and the 5000 is just the right size!! So sad.
I am wanting a quieter generator and stopped by HF to purchase one of these today. I found out that they were $300 cheaper yesterday. Since I only wanted one and didn't need one, I decided to wait until they go on sale again.
You can usually find a bigger discount and something that is slightly used on Facebook Marketplace. I found one generator lightly used less than half price I couldn't even buy it anymore because no one sells it out there. I found it on Facebook marketplace.
So I usually just run extension cords from the generator to my different appliances. Could I plug in a surge protector that has multiple outlets into the generator and then plug the extension cords into the surge protector?
Thanks for watching! Just make sure the cables you use and surge protector is rated for whatever the amperage and voltage load is that you’re going to out through it
Hmmm, I had the same starter issue with my new Predator 5000, where is seemed that the starter didn't engage the flywheel on a few occasions. I wonder if there is a defect in the starter system.
take it apart. look at how the starter drive is working on the flywheel. add shims, or remove a but of metal to allow the starter drive to connect correctly.
His wasn’t a starter issue it still had air in the line and if you listen closely you can here the engine attempt to fire up and kicked the stater out how it’s supposed to
@@Outdoor_Prepper Maybe I was Wong about the start button? Now I’ll have to test it again. I know for sure that if you start with the keyfob, it will try several times… 4 or 5?
Thanks for watching I haven’t swapped the plug out so I’m not positive on the exact NGK one but will update when I find the right one and make the change
Is that a standard quick connect or a proprietary connector? What is the black thing between the hose and regulator? Is it really needed? I want to mount one of these on the back of my RV and plumb it in correctly.
I use rebel race gas in my generators. 100 octane. Smells wonderful. Changed to NGK Iridium plug. Drain the carb after use. Propane is overrated, pain in the butt. Dont be cheap. 9.50 a gallon at rebel……
Even at $1,099 it’s a great deal. I also have a Honda EU3000i (2000 watts less output) for $2,700. The Predator runs one of my workshops as well as my Honda runs my out building. They are definitely comparable as far as fuel economy and quietness. Amazingly almost interchangeable as far as function and reliability. Looking at a NG converter for the propane system. I have seen RU-vid users create a NG system, but looks invasive and figure someone would come up with a conversion to Natural Gas installing a jet or similar like my dryer or bbq soon.
I've had the Predator 3500 for several years and use it frequently. I work on my own engines and can tell you from experience that the carburetor in the 3500 is awesome. If it has a problem, it's probably not the carburetor. I'm a big believer in only running 100% gas in small engines (because of carb gumming), but in a pinch I've had to run regular 10% ethanol gas several times without fuel stabilizer. It sat in the tank (and inside the carb) for an extended period of time. It fires right up for me just about every time. The only times it hasn't fired up, has been a failure of the ignition module. It seems like the voltage regulators burn up. They're designed for a heat sink, and I think that's one of the places they went cheap to keep the cost down. The modules are inexpensive though, so I keep a spare on hand. I'm watching your video because I want to upgrade to the 5K. I'm hoping it's built similarly to the 3.5.
Thanks for watching! I’m going to do some more videos on it and more testing. Hopefully we get a real power outage and I can test it in an extended runtime scenario
Could you tell me if it has an hour gauge, I see it has a run time and I also seem to see that it does but I am not sure. If it does, I have it on 18 hours so far. Thanks.
People can say what they want about Predator generators for what they cost compared to the Honda’s if you take care of it they are great. My buddy has three 3500’s that are 10 years old and has used them everyday and they are still going strong.
Bought one yesterday with a 25% off any item coupon they emailed to me. Great deal. Run it on gasoline and propane to test it though. Always use 2 year fuel stabilizer since it won't gum up. New gas has less lubricity than the fuel from the past so I would recommend adding a little Lucas fuel treatment to protect the entire fuel system. I have used it for decades and it has never failed me. Marvel Mystery Oil is fantastic as well.
Maybe some things to get into seeing you are going this direction with your other videos on the home backup power prep route anyway: 1. With the Bluetti stuff, try to run the whole kitchen off of the Bluetti. See how far each unit goes running your appliances and the fridge at the same time. Obviously you can't turn everything on all at once, but say can you get the fridge and toaster oven or the fridge and microwave to work at the same time or does it overload? I am thinking the smaller of the two you tested will overload easily, but the bigger one will be able to get some useful stuff done for preparing meals. 2. Run the same tests with this generator both on ECO mode and regular mode. A lot of people still have hard starting fridges, which yours does not seem to be, so I think you will be OK on ECO mode and the fridge while other people will have problems with it. I expect other things like the microwave oven and maybe even the toaster oven will be a problem with the generator due to large, abrupt changes in demand where the larger Bluetti will sail right through the tests. Also try these things with the Bluetti plugged into the generator. Part of this is to show what are limits and what are not limits with the generator and to see how much using both of these can better solve the issues you may hit powering your home and living in your home at the same time during a power outage. After all, food sitting in the fridge is only so helpful if your other stuff to prepare it to eat doesn't work. 3. Operating on this small scale of a generator, maybe show how well a window or portable AC works with this. I have run my small generator with an inverter based heat pump and it was fine as the inverter soft starts the motor and slowly ramps it up. An older / cheap window or portable "single stage" AC I expect will not work well with this generator due to hard starting, at least not without some modification to soft start. I have to wonder if one of these hard starting AC units will also overload even the bigger of the two Bluetti units. 4. Hook up a surge protector with the generator / outlet tester. Also hook up to the Bluetti. As a big reason to go for an inverter generator is clean power for electronics, show us what happens, especially as there is a label on the outlet of the generator stating this is a "floating neutral" generator while I don't see any label on the Bluetti. I found with my inverter generator even though there was no label, it is also a floating neutral generator, which is a NEC code violation to not have. A surge protector cannot work without a ground - neutral bond. What I did in my case was to make a ground - neutral bonded pass-through TT-30 adapter cable. The idea being don't chop up my long TT-30 cable as then it can only be used with the generator as it is against NEC codes to have two or more ground - neutral bonds. The bonded pass-through cable is designed to only be used with the generator. Maybe also something to show with your home transfer switch setup as usually those are hooked with with a ground - neutral bond in the system. If the Bluetti is ground - neutral bonded, then you may have actually violated NEC codes by plugging it into your transfer switch. In this case with the right equipment and a load, you may be able to show current flowing through the ground wire during normal operation, which is never supposed to be the case during normal operation. You could also try rigging up a GFCI in this case and show that it trips as it detects a differential over the neutral and hot wires as the ground wire would also be carrying a load at that point. 5. If you are really looking to show preparedness for an extended outage, what about getting bigger propane tanks? For this generator just to get up to the run time on propane as gasoline, you need to go up to 30 lbs. Also a good size for taking it to a local propane refueling station as some of these places have a minimum charge for refueling a propane tank. Maybe hook up to a 100 lb tank and have some extra oil so you can stop the generator and change the oil once the run time is reached. My generator actually shows current and total run time on the screen, which makes these maintenance intervals a lot easier to track. Getting back to propane, a particular idea I like for this sized generator is to have a couple of smaller, easier to use for anything tanks like two 30# tanks and then a single 100# tank for an extended outage. The idea with the two 30# tanks is normally you only end up using part of a tank in an outage and then the lights come back on. If you do other things with propane, you will likely only use part of the tank and a 30# tank is easy enough to move around and transport. So you can slowly draw one tank down to zero and then swap out for the other 30# tank and take the first back to be refilled. Only if things end up dragging on for a while do you finally pull out the big, heavy 100# tank and start cranking away. 6. With the Bluetti, it would be interesting to see you rig it up to some solar panels for your testing. Try to run on a day with that and only turn on the generator when you need to. 7. Take all of this stuff camping and see what all works out as a comfortable way of doing things without pissing off your neighbors too much / violating national park regulations. 8. Maybe get into grounding this stuff to house ground. Easy enough with a transfer switch, but for my extension cord setup, I ended up making a custom cable to carry the ground to house ground with lighted plugs so I can see when I have generator power and house power and when they are out. This is as in one plug has two cables coming out, a regular 3-wire cable going to another plug and a singular ground wire that went to a second plug with a light on it that only lights when grid power comes back. The thought I had is to have all ground and neutral at the same reference ground voltage. Just thinking, you have some good toys, I mean tools, to play with with real power outage use cases and even cases for a camping trip. Make some good use of this, see how it shakes out, and put out some videos.
Thanks for watching and good idea! I actually ordered a 30lb tank with gauge so will do a runtime test on that tank at some point and post the results as well
Why is it "more safe" to have the propane cylinder farther from the generator? It seems to me that it's easier to trip on and break the propane line when it's farther from the generator. Also, if it leaks "over there", it will leak when it is closer. "Just, you know, for safety" would be to check the connections for leaks with soap & water or a leak detector. Don't believe and propagate everything you hear; turning the tank on quickly causes absolutely no issues whatsoever. There is nothing in the regulator or the generator which would stop the flow of gas if you do. The only way the flow would be stopped is if you invert these newer OPD tanks. What are "sensitive electronics"? - certainly not devices with switching supplies in them like computers, TVs, Blu-Ray players, phone wall-wart chargers, etc. that can accept any kind of AC -noisy or not- from 90-265 volts. So I get 18 hours of run time on a full tank of gasoline and 10 hours on 20 lbs. of propane regardless of whether it is fully loaded or lightly loaded? You say you can scroll through the display to read different "data sets" - so, the screen has a history function showing a whole data set for each individual parameter it displays? How would one hook up the "travel trailer" connection to a transfer switch, since this is a 120V output only, and household transfer switches would be 240V?
One year old 5000 with under 400 hours total use. Fuel selector valve defective. Discovered when float bowl stuck and could not turn off fuel! It even leaks in the propane position! Knob is not loose. Can feel detents as it is switched. Will have to add a cutoff valve. Otherwise, the thing will leak gas. Will it be burning propane and gasoline at the same time?
i do not know. but do to the way the two fuels feed and burn. i would say NO but you do not get as must power out of propane. but propane stores for decades.
@@monams2514 No,you are fine.They were recalled in 2023 for a problem with the propane/fuel connection.They were back in stores at the end of 2023 with the problem corrected.
Nice video. I'm using Ethanol free fuel in my 2000 watt Predator. I'd prefer to use gas whenever possible. LP is a great option for sure. For every kilogram of propane burnt, 1.64 kg of water is produced as the carbon in the fuel combines with oxygen in the air. This can cause corrosion in the carb. So I'd keep that in mind indeed. I'd like to get this for my trailer in NE PA as a backup. Thanks for sharing. :)
I was going to buy this same generator but then I started doing some research and there having alot of problems with these ...good look...I ordered a champion 4650 inverter instead
Nice review of this new generator. Than you for sharing. I anticipate new equipment to work flawlessly so would be interested in annual review(s) to see how it works for you over the next few years of use. I have a 16 year old Honda(open frame) and would love a "quiet" generator.
