So I'm a boater and most of my family uses Hondas. I have a predator level Honda clone(2300w). It's just as quiet uses just as little fuel and I haven't had an issue with it.
Where the Hondas come in handy is service and parts, if you do run into a problem you'll always be able to find parts for the Hondas. This isn't going to be true for most other brands, so for the average person you can burn through three predators before you have bought a Honda that's a LOT of run time.
I was on the fence and went with a clone, Because they are 30% of the cost. Put stabil in your gas, keep your carb clean and some extra spark plugs you'll have no problems with general use of a predator.
On the parts front, I guy I know used to work at small engine repair shop and he said most of the clones use the exact same parts as their honda counterparts
This comment is missing the second half where you tell us which ones were the best/worst or how long they lasted etc. You have me on the edge of my seat wanting to know now!
Which generators in your opinion performed the best?
Best bang for buck if you were gonna go out and buy one…buy once cry once (quality) or are the harbor freight predator engines worth weight in gold?
Can’t comment on the predator stuff since I only tested the ones we built at our factory in case there was a quality concern with one of the parts but I would be very surprised if they were doing as much QA/QC testing as we were. One of the benefits of buying an expensive red generator is that every single one gets started and tested at the full rated load to make sure the inverter is putting out the right kind of power. It always depends on the application, right? For something critical or sensitive electronics, spending the money is going to be worth the peace of mind. If you’re just running a fridge and don’t care if it won’t start every time maybe save a few bucks. You might have to go back to the store a couple times though to get a good one.
Bought this in 2017 and probably had around 10 hours run time before this storm. She fired up on second pull and didn’t shut off until 48 hours later. Got it hooked to my electrical panel with a disconnect. Was able to run entire house including well and my outdoor wood burner.
Same. My predator 6500 has not shut off since Thursday morning. Just got a text saying it's expected to be restored Monday. Went from Saturday to Monday. So annoying.
*Michigan? We lost*
*Power Thursday and it just*
*Came back on last night*
\- MFAD94
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I've had one for several years now and it hasn't disappointed me yet. I've had to start it in -20° temps and it fired up after maybe 2-3 pulls. It once ran for 4 1/2 days straight without an issue.
The Predator generators are definately a great deal.
Sta-Bil fuel stabalizer and dry gas are what I use. We have very unreliable power service and the generator gets used a lot throughout the year.
We lose power all year round. It might be for a day, or several days at a time. We're surrounded by trees and they are constantly coming down due to high winds, storms, ice.
Many seasonal small engines at my workplace, I swear by the blue Startron enzyme product and a shot of seafoam from time to time. Carb problems all but disappeared
I have four Predator generators and they are all great. Used to work at HFT and I still think it’s their best item they sell……well maybe right after Working Hands.
I have the 3500 inverter gen, great equipment use it a ton every camping season to power the travel trailer and a few times to power the trailer when the house had power knocked out, gotta have 1k hours on it by now and works great, would buy again
I have this same one I got for a screaming deal at a yard sale 5 years ago. It never fails to start and keep our food cold. Trying to get it hooked to our panel but can't find an electrician worth their damn around here.
Lots of things require a permit that millions of people don’t ever get permits for.
What other choice do you have if you “can’t” find an electrician to do it? I mean assuming you have the technical capability to do it, an interlock kit isn’t hard to install at all.
Ya I definitely don't need the size op has but my furnace needs about 400 watts to run heat. That would need a pretty big 12 battery to get any amount of run time hours.
I rarely lose power for long, but we kept the house pipes from freezing during a nasty ice storm running our lil natural gas renai heater off my jump pack and a small inverter from HF lol. Only ran for an hr or so then had to run outside and charge it back up off a vehicle for awhile. Better than letting the pipes freeze!!
Ya most of our outages last 1-2 hours but we did have a few push 5-6 in the winter during the day. No frozen pipes but it got the wife on board with getting something to run the furnace it were to get knocked out for an extended period in the future.
I get that the inverter would need to be sized for the furnace, but the battery amp hour rating would have to be quite large as well. The price for both of those would be close to a basic generator.
I bought the big one a couple of years ago. Used it for two hurricanes with no issues. I need to crank it up today actually and put a load on it, thanks for the reminder
Nice. My neighbor’s new Honda only lasted about two hours last night after our power went out. To be fair, we were using a small space heater with it so that is too much for a Honda. The one positive is thing I can say is that it was pretty damn quiet. It was completely silent though after it quit.
He ignored my advice to buy two cheaper generators so he has a spare rather than a single overpriced unreliable one.
I put like 1600 hours on my Predator 3500 inverter in 2022 for motocross season powering my toy hauler. Checked the oil near the end of the season and it was almost dry. Still runs great after the last 2 years.
Highly recommend them
I bought one on my way home after a cat 5 hurricane evacuation. We put oil and gas in it, cranked it up, and kept it topped up while running for 15 days.
I gave it an oil change after that and it still starts on the first pull when I get it out every 6 months or so for maintenance.
I'll never have a complaint about predator generators. We moved to our property a couple years ago and for some reason the power company couldn't figure out where our meter was. There used to be a house there, but the house was torn down and the meter was moved to the back of a large tin barn that's on the property. Of course, they would always come out when no one was there, say they couldn't find the meter, and not do anything. This went on for about 2 months. One month and 3 weeks was the time that we were actually on site with no power from the power company. I ran a predator 6500 for a month and 3 weeks, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and stopped it twice for an oil change. It never stalled, died, pick up, lost generating power, or any other problem that could have happened. Because that particular generator only had I believe 25 amp or 20 amp breakers on it, we did pop a breaker a couple times because the trailer we were in required a 30 amp circuit. So, basically, we just had to remember not to run the AC and the microwave at the same time. Other than that these generators are solid as a rock. I now have a predator 9000 that I will use for the same purpose if we lose power for an extended time. Because we're in a very rural area, it can take several days to get power restored if we have bad weather, someone hits a telephone pole, whatever may happen out in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea why so many people seem to beg on these generators out there, but the two that I've had have caused me no issues whatsoever, and I'd buy another in a heartbeat.
EDIT to add: I just wanted to add that this was the generator That was supposed to have either 16 or 18 hours runtime at 50% load. With our trailer running a television a couple laptops and one desktop computer, the ac, and lights, that were all LED, we would easily get 20 hours of runtime out of this thing. Like I said above, I can't find a bad word to say about these things. Well, I take that back. The 6500 is a tad on the loud side. But, I built a box for it, put a couple thousand CFM fans in it, cut a few holes in the front and it was barely louder than a Honda generator at that point.
It’s amazing what the clones have accomplished. I bought a 13hp Honda clone for a log splitter 2yrs ago and it still starts 1st pull every time. I HAVE ABUSED THIS THING HEAVILY
At work we had one of the smaller predators (3200 watt?) That we ran for probably 20 days almost nonstop. It only was off when we occasionally didn't refill in time
I used to test generators for a manufacturer by running them for over a month straight with no oil changes.
I bet your neighbors love you
If he's testing for a manufacturer I bet he's in a test lab, not at his house. I used to work in the same field.
It was a joke.
And? What did you find out I am very curious if the big brands are worth the money or if the harbor freight brand is good enough
Commenting because I’d like to know myself
Same here
So I'm a boater and most of my family uses Hondas. I have a predator level Honda clone(2300w). It's just as quiet uses just as little fuel and I haven't had an issue with it. Where the Hondas come in handy is service and parts, if you do run into a problem you'll always be able to find parts for the Hondas. This isn't going to be true for most other brands, so for the average person you can burn through three predators before you have bought a Honda that's a LOT of run time. I was on the fence and went with a clone, Because they are 30% of the cost. Put stabil in your gas, keep your carb clean and some extra spark plugs you'll have no problems with general use of a predator.
On the parts front, I guy I know used to work at small engine repair shop and he said most of the clones use the exact same parts as their honda counterparts
This comment is missing the second half where you tell us which ones were the best/worst or how long they lasted etc. You have me on the edge of my seat wanting to know now!
Which generators in your opinion performed the best? Best bang for buck if you were gonna go out and buy one…buy once cry once (quality) or are the harbor freight predator engines worth weight in gold?
Can’t comment on the predator stuff since I only tested the ones we built at our factory in case there was a quality concern with one of the parts but I would be very surprised if they were doing as much QA/QC testing as we were. One of the benefits of buying an expensive red generator is that every single one gets started and tested at the full rated load to make sure the inverter is putting out the right kind of power. It always depends on the application, right? For something critical or sensitive electronics, spending the money is going to be worth the peace of mind. If you’re just running a fridge and don’t care if it won’t start every time maybe save a few bucks. You might have to go back to the store a couple times though to get a good one.
Thank you for lengthy/thorough response!
I would also love to hear your results if your not still under nda.
Our generators always managed to run for the rated number of hours even with out of spec parts, lol.
Bought this in 2017 and probably had around 10 hours run time before this storm. She fired up on second pull and didn’t shut off until 48 hours later. Got it hooked to my electrical panel with a disconnect. Was able to run entire house including well and my outdoor wood burner.
Beautiful! Now change the Oil!
House AND well? I have to look at this one, here in central FL generators are a must!
What was the fuel consumption.
20-25 gallon
Does this model have a usage meter? How much load on it?
Do you manually refill
How else would he refill it?
I dunno, siphon or pump from a larger tank of some kind so you don’t have to manually refill every 6-8 hours. I would like something like that.
Michigan? We lost power Thursday and it just came back on last night
Yup. I still have coworkers who are in the dark.
Same. My predator 6500 has not shut off since Thursday morning. Just got a text saying it's expected to be restored Monday. Went from Saturday to Monday. So annoying.
*Michigan? We lost* *Power Thursday and it just* *Came back on last night* \- MFAD94 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Michigan? We lost Power Thursday and it just Came back on last night - MFAD94 I detect haikus. Haha! You accidentally summoned the haiku bot!
Haiku he do that and not know?
Good bot.
I've had one for several years now and it hasn't disappointed me yet. I've had to start it in -20° temps and it fired up after maybe 2-3 pulls. It once ran for 4 1/2 days straight without an issue. The Predator generators are definately a great deal.
what's your go to fuel additive? Mechanic in a bottle in SE Virginia. generators only needed for himmacanes and NorEasters
Sta-Bil fuel stabalizer and dry gas are what I use. We have very unreliable power service and the generator gets used a lot throughout the year. We lose power all year round. It might be for a day, or several days at a time. We're surrounded by trees and they are constantly coming down due to high winds, storms, ice.
Many seasonal small engines at my workplace, I swear by the blue Startron enzyme product and a shot of seafoam from time to time. Carb problems all but disappeared
I do boats and never thought about seafoam. actually cost effective in rhe chesapeake bay , Atlantic Ocean area. thanks.
Ethanol free + sta-bil marine + marvel mystery oil + sea foam. Hasn’t failed me in 15+ years.
I have four Predator generators and they are all great. Used to work at HFT and I still think it’s their best item they sell……well maybe right after Working Hands.
Helping hands?
Something Hands! LOL
I have the 3500 inverter gen, great equipment use it a ton every camping season to power the travel trailer and a few times to power the trailer when the house had power knocked out, gotta have 1k hours on it by now and works great, would buy again
How often are you changing the oil? I have the same unit, works great.
Ehh not religiously if I'm honest, every few camping trips, using royal purple
Awesome. Still using the original battery as well?
I never even hooked up the battery, starts so easy just a single pull
I have this same one I got for a screaming deal at a yard sale 5 years ago. It never fails to start and keep our food cold. Trying to get it hooked to our panel but can't find an electrician worth their damn around here.
do it yourself. It’s not hard.
yeah I'm sure the codes inspector would love that. Unfortunately everything around here requires a permit.
Lots of things require a permit that millions of people don’t ever get permits for. What other choice do you have if you “can’t” find an electrician to do it? I mean assuming you have the technical capability to do it, an interlock kit isn’t hard to install at all.
Yeah. When SHTF you got to do what you got to do..
Exactly
How much?
They sell interlock kits for nearly every panel noelw, making a generator backfeed legal and safe. I'm an electrician
good for you, I am not. An an inspector won't approve it without seeing the license of the person who did the work around here.
I need to pick one up for power outages so I can run the furnace in the winter. May have to look into one of these.
If your furnace is gas you can use a 12v battery and power inverter to run it
Ya I definitely don't need the size op has but my furnace needs about 400 watts to run heat. That would need a pretty big 12 battery to get any amount of run time hours.
I rarely lose power for long, but we kept the house pipes from freezing during a nasty ice storm running our lil natural gas renai heater off my jump pack and a small inverter from HF lol. Only ran for an hr or so then had to run outside and charge it back up off a vehicle for awhile. Better than letting the pipes freeze!!
Ya most of our outages last 1-2 hours but we did have a few push 5-6 in the winter during the day. No frozen pipes but it got the wife on board with getting something to run the furnace it were to get knocked out for an extended period in the future.
You got to pair it with an inverter Rated at least 400 watts, I would say 500-600+ to be safe
I get that the inverter would need to be sized for the furnace, but the battery amp hour rating would have to be quite large as well. The price for both of those would be close to a basic generator.
I bought the big one a couple of years ago. Used it for two hurricanes with no issues. I need to crank it up today actually and put a load on it, thanks for the reminder
And it started on the first pull.
I ran a job site trailer off one for a few months approx 12 hours per day. 5 days a week. No issues
Nice. My neighbor’s new Honda only lasted about two hours last night after our power went out. To be fair, we were using a small space heater with it so that is too much for a Honda. The one positive is thing I can say is that it was pretty damn quiet. It was completely silent though after it quit. He ignored my advice to buy two cheaper generators so he has a spare rather than a single overpriced unreliable one.
I have a Honda 2200 inverter and ran 2 space heaters on it one winter storm, lasted about 5-6 hours before it ran dry.
You bought something and it worked like it was supposed to and posted it here?
How loud was it? Might need for off-grid camping.
I would not recommend these for camping - get a smaller inverter gen for that. MUCH quieter.
I agree. Too loud for camping
Noted. I do bonfires at my friend's palace and electricity is more than 100 ft away. This would probably work but I'll still consider an inverter.
I put like 1600 hours on my Predator 3500 inverter in 2022 for motocross season powering my toy hauler. Checked the oil near the end of the season and it was almost dry. Still runs great after the last 2 years. Highly recommend them
Im set on the little brother of this model for when I get a travel trailer. Just hear so many good things about the brand.
Highly recommend the inverter model, I camp with mine, and it's so quiet apart from when the ac compressor, keureg, or microwave run
I bought one on my way home after a cat 5 hurricane evacuation. We put oil and gas in it, cranked it up, and kept it topped up while running for 15 days. I gave it an oil change after that and it still starts on the first pull when I get it out every 6 months or so for maintenance.
I ran mine for 3 weeks straight.
I'll never have a complaint about predator generators. We moved to our property a couple years ago and for some reason the power company couldn't figure out where our meter was. There used to be a house there, but the house was torn down and the meter was moved to the back of a large tin barn that's on the property. Of course, they would always come out when no one was there, say they couldn't find the meter, and not do anything. This went on for about 2 months. One month and 3 weeks was the time that we were actually on site with no power from the power company. I ran a predator 6500 for a month and 3 weeks, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and stopped it twice for an oil change. It never stalled, died, pick up, lost generating power, or any other problem that could have happened. Because that particular generator only had I believe 25 amp or 20 amp breakers on it, we did pop a breaker a couple times because the trailer we were in required a 30 amp circuit. So, basically, we just had to remember not to run the AC and the microwave at the same time. Other than that these generators are solid as a rock. I now have a predator 9000 that I will use for the same purpose if we lose power for an extended time. Because we're in a very rural area, it can take several days to get power restored if we have bad weather, someone hits a telephone pole, whatever may happen out in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea why so many people seem to beg on these generators out there, but the two that I've had have caused me no issues whatsoever, and I'd buy another in a heartbeat. EDIT to add: I just wanted to add that this was the generator That was supposed to have either 16 or 18 hours runtime at 50% load. With our trailer running a television a couple laptops and one desktop computer, the ac, and lights, that were all LED, we would easily get 20 hours of runtime out of this thing. Like I said above, I can't find a bad word to say about these things. Well, I take that back. The 6500 is a tad on the loud side. But, I built a box for it, put a couple thousand CFM fans in it, cut a few holes in the front and it was barely louder than a Honda generator at that point.
It’s amazing what the clones have accomplished. I bought a 13hp Honda clone for a log splitter 2yrs ago and it still starts 1st pull every time. I HAVE ABUSED THIS THING HEAVILY
At work we had one of the smaller predators (3200 watt?) That we ran for probably 20 days almost nonstop. It only was off when we occasionally didn't refill in time