V. small 2-stroke generator - am I going to regret...?

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jsl

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I'm thinking of buying the smallest petrol generator I can find - just for battery-charging. I know the forum prefers a decent-sized 4T, but I am after lowish cost (<£108) and lowish weight. But will I (or, more important, the neighbours) be driven mad by the noise? Will it be an angry snarl (c.f. chainsaw) or something less painful?
 
I bought one from b and q years ago dragged it out this summer to see how good for battery charging , noise ok not as bad as i thought , but the mess it made , totally unnacceptable , oily deposits etc coming from god knows where , gave up on it as an idea , note this had never been used , i see same model in several guises and badges up to circa £100 squids ,


Decided i will save up for a better " suitcased " 4 stroke model
 
Ah! Messy, eh? Spray from the exhaust, no doubt. Something else to consider. Thanks for the warning.
 
Sorry to be a downer but the small two stroke 750w generators are OK for running power tools and the likes out on a mooring or where there's no shore power but I'd not like to live with one for regular battery charging etc. Too loud, too smelly, too oily, too underpowered, too inefficient, to much hassle having to premix fuel/oil. The fuel cap on mine is carp and leaks when transporting it in the car so I have to drain the tank - not good if keeping it on the boat (might just be mine of course). For the cost of one (£107 from Machinemart - ouch!) you could get a flexible solar panel to help charge the battery - much more civilised.
 
Cheap and cheerful, Lidlaldi do them for sub £70 regularly and Ebay too.

Runs tools well when warmed up. I did have to buy an Early Learning Centre angle grinder as my big one is 1200w

Mine does dribble a little (as does the generator). I used to run it on the jetty with a mains extension on a piece of scrap carpet.

The 12v output is low, better to run mains to a 220v battery charger. I think I cooked the first one by running the 12v and 220v simultaneously- anyone else experienced that?
 
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Just for charging batteries? I have an ancient Honda ED300E four-stroke gen that gives out only 12 Volts. It can charge a battery in less than 30 minutes and is relatively/reasonably/subjectively quiet. The only two problems are (1) weight and (2) timing of the final jerk when pulling the starting cord. It came with my boat and was hardly used.

 
Just a comment.
Can you easily hand start your engine when the battery output is too low for the starter motor?
If so why bother with a generator ?

Failing this can you store a booster pack on the boat to start the engine ?
You can take it home and charge it up for the next use.
 
In my case, yes, the engine does have a hand-start (Old Volvo MD2) but most modern engines do not. I only ship the generator when on a long trip so as to top up the service batteries without starting the engine. If I had a photovoltaic panel I wouldn't bother (probably).
 
I bought a Clarks 1kw 2t jenny 10 years ago, brought it out to Greece, it saved our lives when we had a week long power cut, it ran a small heater plus the tv, it still runs, battery charging my car was excellent, with hindsight I would have bought 2/3 kw. I never regretted buying it, noisy ,smokey, but very reliable, things have moved on now though!
 
A modified sine wave generator could damage the charger, and any electronics connected to it. A 2T engine is also much noisier. I certainly wouldn't rely on the 12V output from a generator for charging, a good way to cook your batteries.

I've got a KIPOR IG1000 230V Petrol Generator on the boat, and an IG2600 at home; they are fantastic value:
IG1000: http://amzn.to/QQenXG
IG2600: http://amzn.to/QQeMtl
 
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I have a small cheap two stroke geny which I bought from B&Q fro £35 a few years ago. It lives in the boat in case I ever need it to charge the batteries. Once a year i start it to make sure it works when I will ever need it. It is heavy, inefficient, loud, smelly, messy, difficult to start (unless I spray easystart straight in the carb, which I do) and I will definately replace it at the first opportunity with a small four stroke modern geny. In my opinion you will be wasting your money buying a two stroke geny. Solar panels have been improved a lot in the last 3~4 years so have the four stroke inverter generators.
 
Ok. This is all very useful. Noisy, messy, could well be a waste of money, might wreck the batteries or the charger. (Presumably that's the 230v charger I use when connected to shore-power.) Also no lighter than (say) a Kipor 1000w 4T. Hmm. Looks as if I need to shell out £350 or thereabouts.

By the way: not a chance of hand-starting. And solar panels are all very well but they don't replace a significant discharge in half an hour, do they?
 
nigelmercier said:
A modified sine wave generator could damage the charger, and any electronics connected to it. A 2T engine is also much noisier. I certainly wouldn't rely on the 12V output from a generator for charging, a good way to cook your batteries.

I've got a KIPOR IG1000 230V Petrol Generator on the boat, and an IG2600 at home; they are fantastic value:
IG1000: http://amzn.to/QQenXG
IG2600: http://amzn.to/QQeMtl
Click to expand...

Isn't a coil spinning in a field coil going to produce perfect sine wave? (those 2T little gennies aren't inverter kit)
So fine for electric kit that hates square wave/modified square wave.
The 12v output struggles to reach 6/8A IIRC, pretty harmless for batteries for the 5/6 hours per tank assuming you can stand that long.

Noisy little b***er when it's working hard I agree..
 
NickRobinson said:
Cheap and cheerful, Lidlaldi do them for sub £70 regularly and Ebay too.

Runs tools well when warmed up. I did have to buy an Early Learning Centre angle grinder as my big one is 1200w

Mine does dribble a little (as does the generator). I used to run it on the jetty with a mains extension on a piece of scrap carpet.

The 12v output is low, better to run mains to a 220v battery charger. I think I cooked the first one by running the 12v and 220v simultaneously- anyone else experienced that?
Click to expand...
Lidlaldi? don't you mean Aldidl?
 
+1 for the kipor. Have a 1kw and bit noisier than Honda but so much cheaper. I also bought a 30a smart charger so I could put more charge in in a shorter time. Wished I had gone slightly bigger with the generator so I could have used the immersion heater at the same time. Doesn't have the overload protection that is on Honda's when I bought mine several years ago.
 
nigelmercier said:
A modified sine wave generator could damage the charger, and any electronics connected to it. A 2T engine is also much noisier. I certainly wouldn't rely on the 12V output from a generator for charging, a good way to cook your batteries.

I've got a KIPOR IG1000 230V Petrol Generator on the boat, and an IG2600 at home; they are fantastic value:
IG1000: http://amzn.to/QQenXG
IG2600: http://amzn.to/QQeMtl
Click to expand...

+1 for the Kipor 1G1000.

I also have one, and used it for a couple of times while in the Scillies to charge batteries/cool down fridge - when the TV ran down the batteries a little too much for the solar panel to reprieve it!!

TV? I'd run out of books to read!
 
I've had a kippor and a super quiet Honda but in the end I sold it and spent half the money on some good solar panels. No need at all for a genny and an inverter copes with almost all the mains requirements.
 
jsl said:
I'm thinking of buying the smallest petrol generator I can find - just for battery-charging. I know the forum prefers a decent-sized 4T, but I am after lowish cost (<£108) and lowish weight. But will I (or, more important, the neighbours) be driven mad by the noise? Will it be an angry snarl (c.f. chainsaw) or something less painful?
Click to expand...


just missed out you have . unless your luck, aldi were doing some 800 watts last week forr waitfor itt



£29.99

they arnt that noisy bought 2, 4 years ago for occasional use but they were 49£

edit just like the B&Q ones cept blue
 
My 650 watt one was a £60 one off e bay 10 years ago.
Its been largely used to power up our house during winter power cuts.
It runs the low energy lights,the central heating pump,internet access and TV ,a freezer and low energy fridge.
Longest continual run about 100 hours no problem.
Its a bit oily and smoky and can be quirky starting .
Its also light and has been carried by dingy to the boat and used aboard for power tools.
 
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