I bought this generator several months ago on a whim at Cost U Less in St. Croix where I live. I figure that if a Hurricane hit us it may be useful to have backup power. This proved to be one of the best purchases I ever made.
On Wednesday night into early Thursday we got hit with Hurricane Omar, a Category 3 storm. After the storm we had no power. My basement apartment that is occupied by a tenant was flooded. I fired up this little 2 stroke generator and plugged my wet vac into it. It worked great, it could handle the load the 3HP wet vac put on it (this is only a 2HP generator, we gained an entire horse :)). Within an hour and a half her apartment was cleaned up pretty good.
That night we still had no power. I was able to power up my 47" LCD TV, Satellite Box, DSL modem, and Linksys router off of it. I got about 6 hours with this load on 1 gallon of oil/fuel mixture....not bad. The next night we still had no power so my wife added her laptop to this load and got about 5 hours on a gallon of fuel.
Now it would not power my refrigerator or my water pumps from the Cistern which was a bit disappointing. The startup load of the fridge was just too great. Also, like all 2 stroke motor's, starting it can be a pain...when you let gas sit in it for a while the mixture gets a little oil heavy...adding a small amount of gas and "shaking" it seems to get it started again. You will have to yank the cord a few times which is challenging for my wife. It also is loud (as all 2 stroke motor's tend to be).
For the $130 I paid for this I got my money's worth. Just being able to get online and watch my Satellite TV after the storm made life post-Omar much easier. I am very glad I bought this product. It's not a solution to all your power problems but in a pinch such as the one I was in it has worked out great.
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Purchase first one, came damaged during shipping and doesn't work. I called Amazon and they shipped out second one and I have to pull it like 20 times just to start it up! When it FINALLY does work, it seems like it is going to stop again It just keeps stalling. Only works for like 15 minutes and then just stops again. In the end, I had to call the manufacturer who promised me that they will refund my purchase. As of this date, I have still not received my refund.
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As with buying anything made in china, you take a risk on whether or not it will be quality. Of course, someone has to take these risks to let others know what to expect.
What you get when you buy this is, a 800 watt continuous 2 stroke generator. Nothing else in this description can you take to heart, its almost all lies(china).
First of all, you can make this as quiet as a $2000 honda gen for about $40, if you want to put some time in by checking things, fixing a few things(not that they were broke, more of piece of mind) If you dont want to do any of that, stop here, dont buy this, go spend thousands on a little honda, and be done with it. If you have some skills, and patience, continue reading.
-You must first remember mix gas + oil with this, or it will die quickly.
-You must then remember to start a little rich(more oil than needed) to seat the mechanical parts in. Id run a tank of gas(rich) with no load thru it to get the engine and electric motor broke in.
-If you have trouble starting it...make sure the fuel line is turned on...really..thats probably %90 of people who complain, or they used old gas or didnt mix it properly.
-Then(since it is made in CHINA) I would do a quick once over on all fasteners, and wires, I would recommend adding some auto wire tubing to the wires under the gas tank, for added longevity against chaffing.
-This little buggar is LOUD, Specs (from CHINA) say 65 db, well let me tell you, that would have to be(heres the catch, 65 db from HOW FAR AWAY? who knows, its china) 100 feet(ok not THAT much) or so away for it to be reading those levels. I read 100-130 db right next to the unit, and 100-110 about 10 feet away, non exhaust side. Very loud, can cause hearing loss actually at close distances, luckily about %30 can be reduced by simply making an ingenuous muffler out of a spray paint can...im not going to explain how to do this, simply look at the picture...figure it out, its not that hard, take a can, poke some holes in it, stuff a steel tube half way through, stuff with fiber glass, shove it off the stock muffler exit. BAM, expect 70-80 db after that.
-Next step to taking this little turd to honda specs (50-60 db) is making a 4(yes 4...no front) sided box, and putting a few office building acoustic ceiling tiles in, or acoustic foam if you can find some. I assume you can understand how to make a box, with one side missing and no bottom yes? Its not that hard, glue the tiles on, make sure the box is much bigger (read ~6 inches on all SIDES, not top) to allow for air flow.
Put the spraycan muffler on, start er up, I add a small fan behind the unit, that will be in the box with it to help cool it, as a downside of anything that absorbs sound is it usually is very insulating.
So put the fan behind it, off to the side, cover er up, aim the exhaust away from you, walk 10 feet away, and PRESTO, 60 db ratings, or close to HONDA specs...
Can be done in one day, so is $1800 in savings worth one day of project work to you? If no, buy a honda. If yes, well get this made in china sucker, and put a little effort into your savings.
(will add pics soon)
-Brad
Honest reviews on All Power America APG3004 1000-Watt 2-Cycle Gas Powered Portable
I almost didn't buy this because of the negative comments about the noise it makes. Fortunately, I ignored them. Here's my experience.
I ran the engine in under no-load on a gallon of fuel. It made an inoffensive burbling noise. All during this time you could stand 6 feet away from it and carry on a conversation at normal speech volume. At 100 yards distant it was inaudible, unless the breeze was blowing directly from it to you.
If you're the kind that runs an i/c engine indoors then it would be louder because of the echo effect, but if you are that kind of person you would be better off worrying about your life expectancy in that situation.
If you run it under heavy load it would be noisier. Any i/c engine run flat out is noisy. It would also wear out a lot faster than if you run it under moderate load.
To those who complain about oil dripping from the exhaust: your mixture is too rich, has too much oil in it. This engine requires a 40:1 mixture. To 1 US gallon of 89 or higher octane gasoline add exactly 6.4 tablespoons of 2-stroke oil. To run the engine in you can use a slightly richer mix. I used 7 tablespoons oil to 1 gallon. The engine did not smoke, no oil dripped from the muffler, but afterwards there was a little black (carbon) deposit on the spark plug.
Use oil that is labeled for 2-stroke engines. Such is a synthetic oil that does not burn. Standard lubricating oil burns and will rapidly build up a heavy carbon deposit on your plug (foul the plug). If you must use lubricating oil use 30 weight oil that is labeled NON-detergent. The detergents in standard oils produce heavy fouling of the spark plug, and you will probably have to clean the plug every time you use the generator
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I have the Champion version of this generator. I bought mine at Cabelas for $100. It required starting fluid when I first bought it because I used it so infrequently and it would smoke after I started it. After 3 years of owning it I bought a travel trailer with a small 5000 btu AC. I have used it many times to run the AC and a few accessories. It does a good job. After actually running for a few hours and getting broken in, it now starts on the first or second pull, actually gets more quiet under load, and I can keep 700-800 watts consistently powered. I only gave 4 stars because it was hard to start before the break in was done. Fuel economy is not great, but it is a cheap genny that does exactlly what it is suppose to do!
