Backup Generator - Yamaha EF2000Is - Thoughts?

Yeah inverters are big f'in bucks! I found that out first hand. Although I've bogged this sucker down many times by accident, still works great. Has 20 something hours on it with all peak loads - well pump, microwave, fridge, oil burner, etc. After frying a few things around the house with a $300 gen last time, I went 180° the other way & went overboard with this one. I plan on having it for many decades ... but I better shut my mouth right now about that ... No need for a jinx right now ....

This post is courtesy of that very unit right this second.

Ran out of gas already today. Went over the neighbors & pounded beers all day and forgot the little wifey was here with the gen running. Then my phone died so she couldn't get ahold of me when the lights went out for a second time. Guess I gotta be nice to her tomorrow ....

After seeing an antique Lister diesel generator running at the Agricultural Fair when I was a kid, I've always wanted one.

http://listerengine.com/smf/
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=290760
http://www.utterpower.com/

2001Sierra wrote:Motors are not fond of inverter generators. Pure sine wave are better. Motors tend to hum with modified sine wave generators. In my shop I hooked up a simple electric cooling fan to a UPS that outputs a modifed sine wave and the fan complained simply by it's noise.

The Yamaha EF2000iS is a pure sine wave generator, NOT modified sine wave. The only real issue is does it have the "guts" to handle non-linear loads.

My GUESS is that it does, but watch what other loads you add!

gerry

Look at http://www.duropower.com, my parents just ordered a 10,000 watt from them after the big NE storm the other week. 10,000 electirc start w/battery included for $1050 delivered. I have had a Duropower 3500 in my racecar trailer for the last 3 years and love it.
Jim

If you ask too much of either Yamaha, it will light the "overload" light, & immediately kill all the power. The only way to reset it is to kill the engine & restart. I'm fairly certain these Yamaha's aren't as fragile as you guys say inverters inherently are. If they were built by GM then maybe I'd agree with you.

Although I can't speak for anything built after '09 ... seems like quality in everything went down the toilet after that year model. Chevy trucks were burning a quart of oil every 100 miles right off the assembly line, Yamaha Star motorcycles wearing out valve guides & blowing second gear ... etc.

I ran my clothes dryer for an hour with my 6300. Took everything it had just to get the drum turning, but once it was going it stayed going for an hour. I did turn the heat down to ultra low, only because my mickey mouse quickie wiring job was melting the wire nuts. Label on the Maytag says 5,500W - pretty close to everything my Yamaha has.

SMITTY wrote:I ran my clothes dryer for an hour with my 6300. Took everything it had just to get the drum turning, but once it was going it stayed going for an hour.

It's all about starting surge, and split-phase motors (which is what likely is turning the dryer drum) are the absolute worst for huge starting demands. I built a generator using a 3.2 kW head and a Chang Fa (Chinese) 8 hp single cylinder hopper cooled diesel engine.
The generator is rated at 13 amps @ 240VAC. I have a 1/2 hp submersible well pump that is around 6 or 7 amps @ 240V. I figured I'd have no problem running it. HAH! Even with the huge flywheel mass on the engine, when I tried to start the pump it just rolled over and *censored* the bed. I even tried starting the pump with less than 10 psi in the pressure tank and no dice.

On the flip side, the generator has no problem starting my 1-1/2 hp table saw or 1 hp air compressor at 120V!!!. And that is with the generator wired for 240/120V so I'm only using 1/2 the output capacity rather than having both windings in parallel. Both motors in this case are capacitor start.

I did some research on the well pump issue and found that my pump requires something like 45 amps at 240V for starting surge, which is almost 4X the rated generator output. I would need a much larger generator to handle the starting surge, but it would then be way oversized for the rest of the loads. I have no problem running the gas furnace, fridge, freezer, lights, stoves, etc. in any combination. Just the well kicks it's butt.

[quote="SMITTY"]If you ask too much of either Yamaha, it will light the "overload" light, & immediately kill all the power. The only way to reset it is to kill the engine & restart. I'm fairly certain these Yamaha's aren't as fragile as you guys say inverters inherently are. /quote]

A few inverter generators have a battery to deal with surges, most lightweight ones do not thus have a serious surge issue which causes the overload trip. Wattage is usually not the issue, surge or peak non sine wave amperage of the particular load is. This is nearly impossible to spec since loads vary so much!

gerry

The local cost of the Yamaha 2000 inverter style is $989.99. I cannot find it cheaper anyplace,shipping is always the deal breaker. Just yesterday in a local farm store they had a 2600 inverter style no name chinese for $649.99. The store claimed that they are made by china's largest small engine maker. Can these be any good? 600 more watts and $340. less dollars. What to do,what to do! Mike

stovepipemike wrote:The local cost of the Yamaha 2000 inverter style is $989.99. I cannot find it cheaper anyplace,shipping is always the deal breaker. Just yesterday in a local farm store they had a 2600 inverter style no name chinese for $649.99. The store claimed that they are made by china's largest small engine maker. Can these be any good? 600 more watts and $340. less dollars. What to do,what to do! Mike

dont buy it. save the 340 up and buy the known good unit.

look at it this way....when you really NEED the thing to work it better work

like needing a colt or smith & wesson to fire and your holding a "larson" or china junk and it goes...click, click,click

right at that very moment you say...dang I shoulda bought the better one

get a good one that can start and run all neccessary loads... key word neccessary

cause like one of mine it is way big enough but costs 40 bucks a day to run in gas

latley the power companies take 3 times as long to do thier jobs and it sucks spending a weeks pay to keep the fridge running a week.......

stovepipemike wrote:The local cost of the Yamaha 2000 inverter style is $989.99. I cannot find it cheaper anyplace,shipping is always the deal breaker. Just yesterday in a local farm store they had a 2600 inverter style no name chinese for $649.99. The store claimed that they are made by china's largest small engine maker. Can these be any good? 600 more watts and $340. less dollars. What to do,what to do! Mike

Smaller inverter generators are aimed at a consumer market for convenience, NOT power quality under switched or peak clipping loads loads.

You can get a Yamaha EF2600 (conventional) for $855.00 including free liftgate shipping at:

http://www.yamahagenerators.com/home.php

or for $854.99 with free shipping (not free liftgate but the generator is only 90 lbs.) at

http://www.a-chainsaw.com/generators-yamaha-c-7_10.html

This is a very high end design. It's brushless alternator design means the generator part is nearly immune to corrosion or wear, just take care of the very high quality Yamaha Engine.

Being a conventional design, it also doesn't suffer surge current limiter cut outs that inverter generators do and the heavier rotor (vs inverter designs) stores more dynamic energy (rotating mass) to cope with surges than any inverter design.

Many other brands are fine, just be sure where you get them serviced and really make sure they they have automatic voltage regulation (AVR). If they have brushes USE them every few months and don't use them in sandy places or store them in corrosive locations.

gerry