Chinese generators!

[No Regrets]

Having owned a couple of very lovely Honda eu20.i gennys over recent years, but only having occasional needs for such a machine, I went against my creed and bought a Hyundai 2Kv suitcase unit to provide me with power, reckoning that with a little care it would be OK for a couple of years or three!

It's now 9 months old, and so I decided to give it a good check for the new season, so started it up after much pulling, and ran her for a while to warm the oil up.

Imagine how dismayed I was to find a fuel leak!!

Upon opening the case up, no mean feat, I discovered that all the fuel hoses were cracking, and one had cracked to the point of leaking!

So, two hours, and £15 later, all is well, and the oil changed, and it still works fine.


I'm lucky to be a trained technician, imagine how dangerous this would be if you left it running near your prized vessel, and the worst happened?!

Ebay, here I come....

 

[Brayman]

That's one of the reasons I gave up with an outboard petrol boat, cracked fuel lines within the first 6 months of use.

 

[Cliveshep]

I think you were unlucky, I have one Powercraft 3kw, one Machine Mart 700w, both of those 4-stroke, and one Woolworths (chinese 2-stroke) 900w that cost me £39 in Harlech 3 years ago, and runs like a little moped, i.e farts a blue smoke trail so best positioned where it can exhaust downwind into someone else's boat.

To be honest, the 2-stroke £39 one has proved to be the best, I've had 3 of the Machine Mart ones, one I had from new, kept stopping, had exchanged under warranty, that one kept stopping, and I just gave up on it and gave it away to an engineer. He reports it still keeps stopping and he's spent hours on it. One I burnt out, and the last is still going - so far!

But the little smoker starts 2nd or 3rd pull, is currently running on 3-year old 50:1 fuel (there's one for the pundits), is pretty quiet and handles overloads very well. We bought it in an emergency (the stopping Machine Mart one threatening to spoil our holiday) expecting to chuck it over the side later on but it defies us and keeps on going. No problems with petrol pipes so far on any of them!

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

I keep being tempted by one of these things, theorising that evenings with 240V at times would be enhanced (new Dr Who series...) and if its on the foredeck it won't be too intrusive, I guess only the pricey Hondas are reaosnably quiet and could go on the bahting platform.

 

[neale]

I keep being tempted by one of these things, theorising that evenings with 240V at times would be enhanced (new Dr Who series...) and if its on the foredeck it won't be too intrusive, I guess only the pricey Hondas are reaosnably quiet and could go on the bahting platform.

You'll get lots of opinions on this but here's mine FWIW. I have one of the inverter, 4 stroke, Kipor jobbies. I find its noise levels about the same as the 1kw Honda. Either of them on the bathing platform in a quiet location is going to be too loud after a while. If there are other boats around they can defiantly be quite annoying. The Honda one is defiantly superior in terms of quality, but you can buy 3 Kipors for the price of 1 Honda, at least you could when I bought mine.

If it's just for Dr Who, I would suggest a 12v telly is the way forward!

 

[Kukri]

Hyundai are Korean, not Chinese.

 

[oldgit]

"I'm lucky to be a trained technician"

I"m a real bodge artist....
Needed some bits for me WhoFlungDung Mk11 Aldi 1.5 candlewipe special.
Quick search of the interweb and £13,99 quids later inc P&P a new coil andmagic electrikey bit was on its way.
Carefully selected a few hammers and bingo soon a nice haze of 5.1 mix of something oily left spare in a tin and years old petrol surrounded the evil little yellow noise machine.

 

[No Regrets]

The difference is, the Honda will last decades, or you can own one for a few years, and get most of your money back!

I had a couple of EU20i models, and sold them at the end of each season for what I paid!

The Hyundai is powerful, and will hold over 2KW which would make the Honda cut out, but it's noisy, harder to start and weighs a bit more.

I concede the price was astonishing though, at over £100 less than a Kipor.

I would not buy a Kipor, the wiring is prehistoric, and potentially dangerous. Quality varies wildly...

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

You'll get lots of opinions on this but here's mine FWIW. I have one of the inverter, 4 stroke, Kipor jobbies. I find its noise levels about the same as the 1kw Honda. Either of them on the bathing platform in a quiet location is going to be too loud after a while. If there are other boats around they can defiantly be quite annoying. The Honda one is defiantly superior in terms of quality, but you can buy 3 Kipors for the price of 1 Honda, at least you could when I bought mine.

If it's just for Dr Who, I would suggest a 12v telly is the way forward!

Logically yes, but then there's the laptop and suddenly someone will want to charge things and anjd and, the genny seems a logical solution in so many ways.

 

[Cliveshep]

Logically yes, but then there's the laptop and suddenly someone will want to charge things and anjd and, the genny seems a logical solution in so many ways.

I agree with you. When cruising:

Our gennie charges the phones, all 4 of them!

It runs the laptop.

It runs a 2-slice toaster for breakfast toast

It runs a sandwich toaster for mid morning snacks

It runs a food mixer for whatever we want to mix or whip etc

It runs the electric rice cooker

It runs the tv/dvd combi, and if it's hot in the cabin the fan as well, plus charging someone's phone, all at once!

It will produce enough oomph to run a 30amp charger or bigger (I don't have a bigger charger) when I start the boat up after lying idle for 6 months and find I really should have taken the battery home to charge it over winter.

It runs my jigsaw, mini angle grinder, electric drill, electric plane, electric sander, belt sander etc.

It runs a submersible pump for deck-washing.

It only cost me £39 new.

What's not to appreciate?

 

[No Regrets]

Chinese Generator: £299

Gallon of Esso's finest unleaded: £4.95

Sight of 1981 Broom 30 burning due to split fuel line spraying petrol all over said generators internals and bursting into flames: PRICELESS!


Can you see my point Gentlemen?

Have you any idea how upset I would be to see my gorgeous Broom on fire? Possibly with both of our beloved Dogs in the aft cabin, choking to death on the GRP fumes?


I think these things should be used with great care, and professionally checked on a regular basis.

I would urge anybody who owns one, to check the fuel lines to see if any cracking is evident. Mine was months old, certainly under a year!!

C'mon Guys?!!

 

[Cliveshep]

Absolutely spot on.

Nothing wrong with checking the fuel line, it's only got one from tank to carb anyway and as it is exposed is easy to see (on my chinky one anyway). The Machine Mart one is a bit harder as one has to strip off casings.

Mine lives in the aft cabin when on mooring, and on the aft deck when the boat is in use so any spillage is straight over the side and not into the boat. Trust me, when I forget to turn off the petrol and run it till it stops itself the subsequent stink in the aft cabin of evaporating fuel from the carb soon reminds me and then I have to dry-pump the bilges for fear of gases although we do have gas-sniffers. Spare petrol lives in the gas locker.

 

[No Regrets]

I keep mine on the flybridge, along with spare fuel!

Sadly, there is no spare room in my rear gas locker, it has two enormous bottles installed to keep the Mrs. warm, and able to make coffee/snacks on demand!

Seriously though, it's a big worry, having something on board which could spray fuel all over itself and combust in a terminal way, all at under a year old!

Christ, it was leaking before it's first birthday!!

Whats the rest of it like??

Honda Eu20i now obtained, Chinese one on Ebay.

 

[Captain Coochie]

I have a cheapy one aswell and it has got a few people out of trouble when they have had battery problems . I only bought it to give my battery a boast if i was away for a long weekend ( outboard didnt charge on seaspray )
If i have it running while on Cuchilo i leave it on the bank rather than on the boat for no other reason than it would probably vibrate off and into the water
To be honest the only time i use it is if i,m working on the boat and need to use my power tools . Its at home now so will do a check on the fuel lines and other bits as its about 5-6 years old now ..... maybe more

 

[neale]

Logically yes, but then there's the laptop and suddenly someone will want to charge things and anjd and, the genny seems a logical solution in so many ways.

For a laptop and charging a few low powered items, how about getting a 'few hundred watt' pure sine wave inverter?

 

[apollo]

I have one of these, very cheap but so noisy it wakes the dead!

Only use now it when I am moored in the middle of nowhere (or in Harleyford hardstanding where there is no power)

 

[oldgit]

" it wakes the dead!" .....wot even the denizens of BCC !

 

[Brayman]

Nobody goes near Manxman when his generator is going! Awake, alive or dead.

 

[No Regrets]

Oh I dunno, Boatone still snores away in his coffin!

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

Oh I dunno, Boatone still snores away in his coffin!

Tbh I thought the noise was either a cheap Chinese genny or the dog has had Fray Bentos for tea