Why I Chose Honda Twins: Two 2000's were better than one 3000

Two of the most common questions from RV'ers looking to buy portable generators...

"Will one of the cheap ones be quiet enough for camping?"

"Will it power my air conditioner?"

Let's take a look...

Will it be cheap and quiet?

Let's face it.  When we go camping, it's to get away from noise, and nothing is more annoying than to have the equivilent to a Craftsman power mower running in the next campsite over. 

As you'll guess from the graphic, I'm not a huge fan of open frame generators. 

I don't care how you want to justify it, they're loud.  It doesn't matter if -you- don't hear it when you're inside the coach with the TV and surround sound going, it's what those around you have to hear... 

Contractor style generators (usually priced at $0.25/watt or less) are essentially lawn mower engines with generator coils, and the noise from that style of generator is going to be quite unwelcome in campgrounds or dispersed camping areas where your nearest neighbor is less than 1000 feet away. 

Sure, they're cheap.  And some of them have quality engines which will give you years of service, but save that for the jobsite or as a backup for home when the power lines go down in a storm... 

Some people go thru the trouble to build enclosures, barrier walls, extended tailpipes, etc. but that's just perfuming a pig in my opinion.  With the exception of the enclosures, you're just redirecting the noise.  Enclosures do in fact contain the noise better, but regardless of how well they're vented, they bake the gensets over time, resulting in even earlier failure than you might otherwise experience with an engine designed to be air-cooled.

For use in a public campground, expect to pay upward of $0.40/watt for a super-quiet inverter generator.  I'm partial to my Hondas, but Yamaha also has a line, and upstart Kipor has received fairly good marks for being quiet (their reputation for warranty service is another story, however...).

Spending upward of $1000 or so for a generator seems like a lot of money, but consider how much you spent on your RV...  Chances are you paid (or financed) $25,000 or more for the RV, and maybe another $35 for your tow vehicle.  Hitches run around $500 for a quality weigh distributing anti-sway hitch and around $1000 for a quality fifth wheel hitch.  Tires for your truck?  Easily $800 to $1000.  Fuel for a week long trip to Yellowstone or Fort Wilderness?  Let's not even go there!...

My recommendation... don't be cheap when it comes to your generator.  Spend a little more for known quality, and be sure it's quiet enough and isn't a distraction for others who are sharing the great outdoors with you.

 

Will it power my 15,000 BTU air conditioner?

My answer to that is that by no means are all air conditioners created equal...

We bought a Honda EU3000i at Camping World when we still lived in Texas. The store folks said it would do fine with a 13.5K unit, but couldn't guarantee that it would work with a 15K unit, so they said to bring it back within a couple days if it didn't work.

Early morning, I had no problem starting up the 15K A/C with the EU3000i.

Late afternoon with 90+ temps? No way.  It kicked into overload every time the compressor tried to start.  And that was at 600 ft above sea level. There was no telling what it would do at higher elevations, and I wasn't about to take a chance as we were moving to Arizona the following week.

So... back in the box it went, and we came home with two EU2000i's and the parallel operation kit.

Since then, we've had no problems whatsoever running the A/C.  They performed great at 8500ft when camping at Grand Canyon North Rim without the hi altitude jets.

The only way I've tripped the twins into overload so far was by running the A/C with the electric water heater, and that's because the generators were in econo mode. The biggest downside is the run-time between refueling.  They only run for about five hours before running out of gas. There are plenty of designs for gravity feed fuel systems, so if you want to run them for 12-14 hours continuously, check out the RV.Net forums. 

One thing to note is noise.  The EU3000 dB ratings are lower than the EU2000's when running at idle or under very low loads.  Likewise, under full load, the EU3000 is quieter, however comparing full-load ratings on a one to one basis is not the way I'd recommend looking at it, because a EU3000 will be at full load much earlier than twin EU2000's will:

One EU3000is: 3000W max.(25.0A) 2800W sustained (23.3A)

Dual EU2000i: 4000W max.(33.4A) 3200W sustained (26.6A)

With a 20A load, the EU3000i will be working at 80% and the twins will be at 60%.

With a 23A load, the EU3000 will be running full-out while the EU2000's will only be at 70%.

In both cases, the twin 2000's should be quieter.

 

Regardless of which route you go, here's my advice....

• Ask to test out your setup before driving off the store lot.
  
  Failing that, get an agreement from the store manager (as we did) to be able to return it if it doesn't work. Had we bought the EU3000i during the spring or winter, we'd have been stuck with a $2000 generator that we couldn't use when we needed it most.
  
  
• By local or from a reputable dealer.  If there's any doubt about the generator meeting your power needs, resist the urge to save a few bucks by buying online from the lowest seller.  Had we bought the EU3000i online, or worse, chosen the Kipor 3500 I was considering earlier in the year, swapping it for the twin EU2000i's wouldn't have been an option.  We would have had to pay for shipping the unit back, and lost precious time in the process.
  

 

	Pro's	Con's
EU2000i	Small profile, easy to carry Can be stored inside trailer basement More power when paralleled Can still recharge batteries and power most appliances on a single generator in the event one unit fails Option to only use one	Costs more for two plus parallel kit Pull start Small fuel tank means only 4-5 hour runtime before refueling Two engines to maintain
EU3000is	More cost effective Electric start Larger fuel tank means longer run times Single engine to maintain	Very heavy & bulky Has to ride in truck bed Single point of failure