Originally Posted by
fg-machine
I have a 20kw 2/71 Detroit powered genset it's loud , but far enough away from the house that it's not a big deal .
It's also fairly easy on fuel , with a medium size load it will use about 5 gallons every 8 hours .
The problem is its 50 years old and while I trust the engine well enough it's getting hard to trust the generator end and all its associated 50 year old parts .
So I started looking for a smaller inverter generator . Almost all of the "off brand " units like the wen, champion, predator etc etc etc all come out of the same factory . I don't know how much difference you can expect as to quality between brands .
I ended up just going to harbor freight and buying a predator, I ran the break in , changed the oil .
Set up a load bank and ran one tank of fuel at half load then a tank at 90% load .
I did this to be somewhat certain it wouldn't instantly fail when I needed it .
Didn't get fancy with the load bank , just started plugging stuff in like space heaters , lights , heat gun till my clip on ammeter showed the load I was looking for .
I'd like to give a reliability report but I haven't needed it since I bought it and the only run time it gets is 10 minutes or so of exercise when ever I remember to do it .