champion generator ??

[sherman51]

im going to get a portable generator in the near future. im looking at the champion 4000 electric start and the duromax 4400 electric start. if any of you guys has any knowledge of them please help me out.

right now im leaning towards the champion. they are both in my price range. but the champion sounds like the best one for my $$.

ofcourse i would be better of with a honda, but i just dont have the $$ for them.

sherman

[danthebuilder]

What is the usage? How often do you plan on using it? Don't accidently buy an RV generator if that's not what you want. The hookups are different.

[Ace HI]

they are cheap and if you don't use em much you might be OK the reason the other generators including RV generators are so much more is because they are built much better. In smaller generators it is hard to beat the inverter generators because they will produce power at a idle and increase power as the load requires it by reving the engine. The unit your looking at starts at 3600 rpm and must stay there to maintain 60 cycle power. Most of the high end units use 8 pole or more gensets which will produce power as low as 900 rpm though 1800 rpm is most common. The big difference is noise and fuel economy combined with long life.

[Priority1]

they are cheap and if you don't use em much you might be OK the reason the other generators including RV generators are so much more is because they are built much better. In smaller generators it is hard to beat the inverter generators because they will produce power at a idle and increase power as the load requires it by reving the engine. The unit your looking at starts at 3600 rpm and must stay there to maintain 60 cycle power. Most of the high end units use 8 pole or more gensets which will produce power as low as 900 rpm though 1800 rpm is most common. The big difference is noise and fuel economy combined with long life.

Steve, A warm welcome to the GLF site.

[sherman51]

thanks guys for all your good advice. and i realize there are alot better generators out there. but im on a very limited budjet. i just want to get the best i can for the money i can spend. i had an old coleman powermate that just puked on me,LOL. it was a 6250 watt and did a great job while it was running. i would check into getting it fixed, but that costs as much as getting a new one.

i just want to use it mostly to run lights and the tv and satellite and sump pump when the power goes out. and maby just to have portable power if i need power someplace. i dont plan on using it that much. and the champion has the regular plug for my rv to hook up. but you really dont need it. i have an adaptor so i can plug the rv into any regular plug in.

i have a 7000 watt generator in my rv that is broke down right now. but i plan on getting it fixed this spring. the estamate i got on fixing it was around 800.00. i already have a little 1850 watt i plan on using for the rv while deer hunting. its cheap on gas but you just have to fill the tank often. i only plan on using the furnase and lights. but i want something bigger for the sump pump when the power goes out.

sherman

[sslopok]

I have a champion 4000 max generator. Mine is not the electric start though. Bought it from Cabelas on sale for 299. It starts right up and is pretty quiet. Had it over a year but have never had to really use it. I start it up every now and again to let it warm up. I bought it to use if the power ever goes out for an extended period of time. Haven't had that happen since the purchase.

[sherman51]

i finelly made up my mind. from all the reviews i,ve read and the post by a couple of you guys, then i found the champion 4000 electric start on amazon for 437.00 with free shipping, so i just ordered one this morning. i,ll let you guys know later if i made a good choice.

sherman

[sherman51]

heres another update on the champion 4000 electric start. i had ordered one from amazon, but they put it on back order. so i looked on ebay and found one listed for 480.00 free shipping. so i emailed him and got one for 467.00 free shipping and he said he would ship right away. so i bought it, he shipped the same day, i got it 2 days later.

it was late fri when i got it. we were ready to take off on our deer hunting trip. so i just threw it in the back of the truck. we got to our hunting site about midnight. we hooked up to my little 1850 watt husky. it did a good job running the furnaces and lights. but it only has a 1.3 gal tank. it only ran for 4 hrs then run out of gas.

we came in for lunch and got the champion ready to go. hit the start button on it and it fired right up. then i shut it off went in the motorhome and hit the remote start, it came to life, it started right up. its gas tank is 4 gallon and is sopposed to run 12 hrs at half load. we ran it for 8 hrs and it took 2 gallons of gas to fill it up. then it ran 16 hrs and was still running when we decided to fill it up.

heres the brake down the 1850 watt used 1.3 gallon in 4 hrs the champion used 1 gallon every 4 hrs. so its a better value on gas than the little one. it will run all night on a tank of gas. so you dont have to go out in the middle of the night to refill it. it has an automatic choke so it starts up real good. right now i would reccomend this generator to anyone that doesnt like having to pull the rope. i know its not a honda but the price was right. and im real happy with this generator so far. only time will tell.

sherman