Which generator,hyundai ,kipor or ? (1 Viewer)

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Right I've decided that we need a smallish generator mainly for supplying mains power to our 24volt 4 stage sterling battery charger when needed whilst off grid,( and to help keep the area around us clear of sheeple) :winky:, any way interested to hear of anyones experience with Kipor's, Hyundai, etc, can't stretch to or justify the price of the Honda equivolents but opinions on other makes welcome, at the moment I'm looking at either the Hyundai HY1000si or maybe the HY2000SI ...........Mark
 

Rayb182

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We couldn't afford Honda so we went for Kipor, however, even though we have had two of them, both gave up the ghost, (John Jaws bought the old one and mended it) we have now got a Hyundai HY1000si, if it goes wrong we just take it back where we bought it from, seems OK and charges the batteries when off grid.
 

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Right I've decided that we need a smallish generator mainly for supplying mains power to our 24volt 4 stage sterling battery charger when needed whilst off grid,( and to help keep the area around us clear of sheeple) :winky:, any way interested to hear of anyones experience with Kipor's, Hyundai, etc, can't stretch to or justify the price of the Honda equivolents but opinions on other makes welcome, at the moment I'm looking at either the Hyundai HY1000si or maybe the HY2000SI ...........Mark

I would think one of the first questions i would be asking... if it was me.....Who has what, and how long (in hours) have they run them for, over how many years....and have they had any faults.....

I have a 1kw Honda silent genny excellent.....I have run it for around 30 hours over 1.5 years, so it has not had a lot of running....very quite....fuel efficient.....so well pleased... no problems.

I also have a 2kw Kipor genny very good not as fuel efficeint as the Honda but it is twice wattage and just a little louder....done about 30 to 40 hours well pleased,...had one problem the petrol tap/stop knob did break....but I must say the fault was all mine ...pressing it to hard .....repaired the tap myself...ok now....

We do use the Honda 1kw more due to the weight in the motorhome...a lovely little machine...
I must say this,at Potimao in the Algarve Portugal....90% + of the gennies being run and there was many ......was the honda 1kw,

I do think all the modern sine wave suit case gennies are good it is just what price do you want to pay.....some just a little louder than others but nowt to worry about.....as more and more motrohomes are now carrying small 1kw gennies.

Sorry for going on!!

Mel

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I have the machine mart 1Kw one for almost 2 years now. Also a fulltimer and am very happy with it. It does go through some Oil but it is 4 stroke and inverter so happy to connect it to my computer/laptop etc.

I am the same as you and use it mainly to run the battery charger.
 

Snowbird

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Have just bought the Kipor 1000 for the same job. Charging batteries through the on board charger. The solar panels used to cope with ease but since buying the new TV and downloading onto the memory stick we watch much more TV now. So will take the genny just in case. Have not had to try it in anger yet so cant give any idea of reliability am afraid. Bought it from ebay from someone that used it once and went back to caravanning. £220 with an outside rain cover. Dont think I will be using that as am going to fit the genny into the MH garage as a permanent fixture. Must say though its not as noisy as I was lead to believe.
 
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Thanks for the replies so far,Gromett I did also consider the Clarke ones, the one you have seems to have good reviews but the larger one doesn't seem to be much good, I'm going to call Sterling in the morning to see what power I need for the charger as I can't find any info on it or in the instructions, would be nice to get away with one of the smaller models on the other hand it might also be usefull to have a slightly more powerfull unit and be able to use it for other things and power tools etc,

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Sundowners

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we had a 2.6 kva Kipor---it served us well, until I hurt my bak putting it in the truck:Sad::Sad:
Decided to get a smaller one, (we never used the full power of the bigger one) ------went overboard and got a Honda 1Kva----it suits our demands a treat-----it runs our Ctek 25 amp charger a treat-and TV on 240 if we choose------is very good on fuel---quite light and is small enough to live hidden behind the drivers seat in the truck (in a good quality bag)
It is a big decision to make, but, for us we consider the Honda a good investment:thumb:
Nigel & Pamala
 
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Thanks for the replies so far,Gromett I did also consider the Clarke ones, the one you have seems to have good reviews but the larger one doesn't seem to be much good, I'm going to call Sterling in the morning to see what power I need for the charger as I can't find any info on it or in the instructions, would be nice to get away with one of the smaller models on the other hand it might also be usefull to have a slightly more powerfull unit and be able to use it for other things and power tools etc,

I am currently on a 25Amp charger but will be upgrading in the near future to Link Removed... The advert says it needs a 750 Watt genny so this should be good enough. (This sounds about right to me)

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Thanks again for replies, sundowners pretty sure my budget won't stretch to the Honda and still not sure if 1 kva (around 800 watt) would be enough, try explaining to the mrs that after spending near on £900 it won't run a hairdryer or iron,:RollEyes:, thanks for the link Peter I had already looked on your website , one thing though if I bought from yourselves and anything went wrong whilst under warranty would I have to return it to you or could I use one of the two local agents for warranty work.
 
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nice one grommet, you won't go far wrong with one of those, I have one of the older ones the 24v version of these Link Removed, mind you I did pick it up as an unopened factory return for around £80 on the bay via sterling, I have fitted them for many years mainly in emergency vehicles both Ambulance and Fire service emergency control vehicles that we built, never had one go wrong yet.
 

Landy lover

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One thought you may want to add to the mix is that the lower the wattage the higher the revs on the genny to achieve the output = more noise. Therefore logically the more fuel used. Look at it the other way the higher the output the lower the revs to the acheive the output therefore less noise and less fuel used.

Bearing in mind the reliability and ease of obtaining spares it may be worth considering a second hand Honda 2.0 Eu unit

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Jaws

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Kipor for me .. And to clarify and be fair re Rays post.. The Kipor I had from him was just the ignition module and given the fairly large OOPS ! moment the genny had succumbed too it could well have been a physical thing that caused the module to fail ( Ray found a replacement for me in the end !! I seem to remember it was under £20 )

The genny in question has been out on loan to a mate building a house and it has been powering his mobile home for the past several months while they wait for mains to arrive !!

Having said all that.................

Number one son has a 1 kW Clarke one that has never failed, and I have also had a couple of Hondas that have been good..

Sooooooo.. For me, being a tight wad and not having suffered a real failure on any make, I would just shop around and buy whatever was available at the best price

It is worth remembering that one of the ( very ) few advantages of EU membership is the trade laws we now live with..

Whilst someone ( such as Currys as an example ) will tell you so and so washing machine has a one year warranty they know full well all white goods under the fair trading laws has a minimum of two years whether they like it or not !!

Same goes for genny's
A seller may well tell you it has a one year warranty but if it fails within two years ( and in some cases even longer ) you WILL have a case in any court.. and manufacturers know this even if they would never admit it..
So, put simply, buy what you want with reasonable confidence.. No one maker deliberately sets out to sell a duff bit of kit.. Whilst I have no doubt there is an element of luck involved, truth is proly closer to 'they are pretty much all the same'

About the only genny that genuinely stands out in the reliability arena is the Honda, but of course one must offset the initial cost agin the amount of time you are expecting to run a genny..

Again there are exceptions of course, but most of us use them for maybe 10 to 20 hours PER YEAR !!
At that rate even a pile of poo will proly last plenty long enough :thumb: ::bigsmile:
 

Sundowners

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I am currently on a 25Amp charger but will be upgrading in the near future to Link Removed... The advert says it needs a 750 Watt genny so this should be good enough. (This sounds about right to me)

Hi Karl
Are you sure that a 750w will run a 50amp charger ??-------when we bought our 25amp one I checked out the input required---and, as far as I can remember our small Honda would not run a 40amp charger----it's the initial stage when it is pulling the most power-----after that it will cope a treat:thumb:
It would be worth checking before you lay out the dosh on an expensive charger --(or you may have to get a bigger genny:Doh:)
We do have a little 'spare' power with ours::bigsmile:
Nigel & Pamala

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Just did a little bit of maths on the back of a fag packet.

at 14.5V max charge voltage the current is nowhere near max.
I have picked 13V as the max v max I setting.

13v x 50A = 650 watts. MyLink Removed is capable of 1000 watts peak 900 watts rated. The charger states 750 watt genny required.

I think there is enough overhead there... If not I will still have my 25 watt charger which I won't be removing (just switching off)

I have just watched my charger go through a cycle and it soft starts. It puts a couple of amps in and slowly works up to it's maximum over a minute or so...
 
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thanks for all your replies and especially that link from joner8888 that is a pretty good price,

Karl just been on the blower to Sterling and they told me that I needed a minimum of 600 watt to power the charger I have, by the way did you realise that the one you are getting doesn't have a power pack mode, interestingly they also said that the sterling chargers can cope with most generators ie not necessary to have an inverter type or AVR as the chargers themselves are automatically regulated,
Have to say I am tempted by the Hyundai 2000si it seems it is also more economic than the smaller version.
 
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thanks for all your replies and especially that link from joner8888 that is a pretty good price,

Karl just been on the blower to Sterling and they told me that I needed a minimum of 600 watt to power the charger I have, [HI]by the way did you realise that the one you are getting doesn't have a power pack mode[/HI], interestingly they also said that the sterling chargers can cope with most generators ie not necessary to have an inverter type or AVR as the chargers themselves are automatically regulated,
Have to say I am tempted by the Hyundai 2000si it seems it is also more economic than the smaller version.

The advert says it does and I can't see any variations of this model on the sterling website... They only do one PCU1250...

I don't see how a charger can't operate as a psu either. All my 12v gear goes through a regulator anyway so no issue.

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Heyupluv

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Have just bought the Kipor 1000 for the same job. Charging batteries through the on board charger. The solar panels used to cope with ease but since buying the new TV and downloading onto the memory stick we watch much more TV now. So will take the genny just in case. Have not had to try it in anger yet so cant give any idea of reliability am afraid. Bought it from ebay from someone that used it once and went back to caravanning. £220 with an outside rain cover. Dont think I will be using that as am going to fit the genny into the MH garage as a permanent fixture. Must say though its not as noisy as I was lead to believe.

Snowbiord the kipor noise is a myth from the Honda men:winky::winky::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 

Terry

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Hi FT have you had a look at diesel generator :winky:check the prices out on ebay :thumb:£740 for 5 kv leccy start -weight will not be a problem in your van :thumb:
terry
 

aba

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1 thing i have noticed with suitcase gennys is how they start.

with the kipor 2600 i have it takes a good few pulls before it will start changed the plug and its still not much better.

i also have a open frame 6kva petrol honda clone ant it is a complete bugger to start especially if it hasn't run for a while.

when i worked at the scrapyard we had several generators that all took loads to start them with the exception of 1 it could be stood for upto 12 months without being used and could be guaranteed to start second pull if not on the first. of course it was a genuine honda and although only rated at 1.6kw it used to boil the 2kw kettle without too much complaint.

you pays your money and takes your choices although with your motor id be looking at a diesel generator and building it in to one of the side lockers like they do with RV's

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Thanks again for the replies, Terry and aba I have considered the idea but believe it or not there is no room behind the flaps down the sides, that's where fuel tank, air filters and air tanks, two 24v battery banks etc are, the back lockers either side are where the heater is located on one side the other holds a grey waste tank, there is room at the back behind the axle though, although I was hoping to mount a spare wheel under there at some point. I really only need a genny for very occasional use to recharge batteries etc as most places we tend to stay have hookup I could also use a 2000watt suitcase model for other jobs if needed
 
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The advert says it does and I can't see any variations of this model on the sterling website... They only do one PCU1250...

I don't see how a charger can't operate as a psu either. All my 12v gear goes through a regulator anyway so no issue.

It's a strange one, I asked the fellow at sterling this morning as I noticed that the model that I have and one which we have used for years actually had "power pack mode" in the spec, as they have now discontinued these I asked if the newer models also had the power pack mode as it was not mentioned in the spec on their website and he said that they were just purely battery chargers. I don't really know what difference this makes maybe the model I have you can use without it being linked up to a battery either way I don't suppose it will make much difference to us.
 

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