What 4 stroke generators make up the sweet spot for reliability,

Generac 3300.. 400 bucks at lowes, use it for my rv and i cant hear it inside.

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>>918330

Honda and Yamaha generators are more or less considered the best.

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>>918452
>Honda and Yamaha generators are more or less considered the best.
Correct, also the most expensive by a large margin. They are built well though.

>>918340
>Generac
Good value for the money IMO. I have an older iX2000, the newer iQ2000's run even quieter and are parallelable if you need more power than one can provide. A little more picky on carb tuning and fuel octane/quality than the hondamahas.

If you're /out/, consider a propane camp stove instead of electric appliances. Lighter, easier to deal with innawoods, and far more efficient.
If you're looking for a standby genset for the house, i'd size something at least 5kW.

Whatever you get needs maintenance - run it periodically, oil change and air filter cleaning at least yearly. Install an hour meter to track its runtime. It's not the same as utility power, let it warm up before you apply load, and let it run for a few minutes with no-load before you shut it down. The engine and electronics will thank you.

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>>918340
>Generac 3300.. 400 bucks at lowes
at $400, that's probably an open-frame generator... they're loud and inefficient. Good when you need a lot of power (more than 5kW) and for something that can handle inductive loads (saws/drills, etc).
Inverter-type generators are more efficient, they can throttle the engine RPM dependent on load so they'll run with less fuel. They're also safer for electronics like TVs or battery chargers. A "true sine wave" or "pure sine" inverter is the best, most are modified-square wave outputs. Modern switch-mode power supplies are fairly tolerant of that, but some devices do have trouble handling that weird waveform.

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>>918475
>>Honda and Yamaha generators are more or less considered the best.
>Correct, also the most expensive by a large margin. They are built well though.

Several years back, we had the power knocked out after a storm (all too common in this 1950s neighborhood with huge trees) and after the 2nd day of no power, I went out and bought a Ryobi 2000 watt generator from Homey Despot for $550. This is essentiality a Honda knock-off that doesn’t cost $1200.

Sure enough, I only needed the generator for a couple of hours before the power came back on, so I drained the gas and put it away.

A few of months later, the power went out again and I ran the generator, only for it to die after a 1/2 hour and when I checked it out, I discovered crankcase oil all over the drip pan (it’s got a low oil automatic shut-off).

Of course the return-for-refund warranty was only good for 30 days and I had to call Ryobi and they said to take it to a local yard equipment dealer / repair shop (Bid's Service on 10 Mile in Warren MI) that was authorized by Ryobi to fix their stuff.

Next thing I know, the repair joint calls me and says the main oil seals are blown and Ryobi refuses to honor the warranty and send them the parts to fix it, so I spend the next couple of days playing phone tag with Ryobi and bitching them out until they finally send out the parts (they wanted me to ship the generator, at MY expense, to their facility in Indiana!).

The repair shop eventually fixes the generator and I get it back and after writing a scathing negative review on the Homey Despot web site, I scroll thru other comments and find several other consumers who had the oil drain plug come loose and leak crankcase oil everywhere.

My guess is that the repair joint was pulling a scam and claiming blown oil seals when all it was, was a loose oil drain plug and that’s why Ryobi was giving me shit about shipping back the generator.

Only used once since then for a couple of hours and it ran fine.

>>918452

This. My senpai owns a place in the country (northern alberta) and the only brand of generator you see in the whole fucking country is Honda.

>>918452
trust me I worked in winters in mining camps on computers running off generators in -20C to -40C. Honda's and Yamaha's ARE the best.

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I can't afford a Honda generator. How do the Harbor Freight clones compare?

I've heard good things about their Predator engines.

>>919917

Fuck you.

Seriously. You want people to tell you the cheapest shit on the market isn't the worst shit on the market?

Just.fuck.off.

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>>919917
Then I'd go with a Generac or Champion.
I wouldn't waste my time/money on a gen from HFT.