Generator Purchase

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Hello to you all.
As our usual Winter house sits have been cancelled due to Covid & we have a tenant in our property in Winchester we are spending this Winter in the Motorhome. To help us along a bit we are going to purchase a generator.
We only need it to top up the leisure battery so we are able to charge the mobile phone & watch a bit of TV in the evenings.
Any help & advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Adrian & Karen
 
TheCoggins said:
Hello to you all.
As our usual Winter house sits have been cancelled due to Covid & we have a tenant in our property in Winchester we are spending this Winter in the Motorhome. To help us along a bit we are going to purchase a generator.
We only need it to top up the leisure battery so we are able to charge the mobile phone & watch a bit of TV in the evenings.
Any help & advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Adrian & Karen
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What I would suggest you do is make sure you have a decent battery charger as well. Reason being if you only have a small charger, the generator will run for a lot longer as the charger becomes the bottleneck.
I doubt if you would need/want to go beyond the entry-level power rating of an inverter-generator of around 800-1000W.
Lots of brand or options out there at all sorts of prices. FWIW, I have a Briggs& Stratton 1700W unit which I like but it is a bit larger and heavier then many.
 
From what I read Honda are best but a Kipor 1kw may well suit for 1 or even 2 winters ! I politely suggest you plan for 2. I would avoid the really low priced ones. You may need it every 3 or 2 days, you need reliability !
 
We have an SDMO Booster 1000. It’s French made with a Honda engine, and pretty quiet. We used it when we refurbished our house to provide mains lighting and also used it a couple of times in the motorhome to charge batteries.
It’s not too big and heavy and stores easily in the van.
Not sure if they are still available new, I think the closest you’ll get to the quality is the Honda EU10, but at around £900, it’s a bit pricey.
Shame you aren’t near us in Brittany, I’m selling it......
 
One thing I'll mention from our generator experience, we purchased a 1kva smart generator. For small loads it's wonderful, it was only a cheapy. When charging batteries the chargers load it up heavily. One victron 24v 12 amp and a 12v 15amp. Being a smart generator it ramps up the rpm to cope. The poor little generator is then revving it's nuts of with a resulting increase in noise. If you can lift and store it I think a bigger generator would not have to work so hard.
 
LPG generator ?
I believe Kipor and Honda can be converted to use LPG only.
This depends on
  • The extra cost
  • Whether they will start on LPG only
  • Do you have an external (BBQ) LPG outlet
The above can be done. at some cost which you may well recoup in terms of convenience (No Petrol)
BUT BIG BUT do you have a known reliable LPG source.
You have probably considered storage considerations !
Will the solution assist you generally ahead ?
Even is spring/autumn Leccy can be handy ! and no campsite fees !
 
Got to be a Honda, I have 3. EU20i & 30i that are used on a shoot I’m a member of and a EU10i that lives in the motorhome.
Not cheap but you get what you pay for Imho. My EU10i is only used in the winter to top batteries up if and when needed and I have both the generator and petrol can stored in zipped carrybags from bags & covers direct which virtually eliminates any smell.
Also treat the petrol with Briggs & Stratton fuel fit to prevent the petrol going off for want of a better word, always start regardless of how long they have been stood.
 
Think the most important thing I’ve learned with this motorhome leccy stuff is to have decent batteries with plenty of storage as the best genny in the world is no good unless you start there I have a Honda iu20 for stand by use and an Efoy 140 fuel cell and 2 140 solar panels and can honestly say the best upgrade I’ve done was my two lithium batteries. But if your buying a genny it has to be a Honda buy from Costco you get a great guarantee from them.
 
Yes, I agree that if you plan to keep/use a generator for several years (I tentatively suggest 5 plus) then the Honda is a "no brainer".
The OP may only be looking at 1 or 2 years. In this situation a cheaper option may be better.
I appreciate the argument that the Honda's re-sale values are very good but re-selling is not always easy !
I also subscribe to the philsophy that you get what you pay for..but even so !
The OP will no doubt consider the longevity and rellability issues.
 
A point I forgot to mention is converting a Honda generator to run on lpg will invalidate the 5 year warranty with Honda.
Some suppliers will still honour the 5 year warranty if you get them to fit the lpg kit, they will then do any repairs caused by running it on lpg.
 
Steveandjulie said:
I've had a Honda Genny for over 15 years and still working fine haven't used it for a few years though but doesn't matter how long it stands it will always start
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I have a Honda EX650 in my shed, I haven't used it for 5yrs apart from putting a bit of fuel in and running it and that always starts, I bought a Kipor IG700 a few years ago because it was the right price but I haven't used it yet
 
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