honda 2000i

[tempforce]

i've had my honda eu2000i for over ten years. i've only found a few items it didn't like powering. like my craftsman 20 gallon air compressor.
it will power a small pancake compresser found at wall-mart (china-mart).. i would however power my roof air-conditioning unit on my 32' holiday rambler trailer. it was the optional larger unit. i don't remember the btu of the unit, it would keep you cool during a summer day in arid-zona... it would not power the microwave with the a/c on, the overload would trip. at times i wish i would of gotten the next larger generator, until i need to pack it.. it didn't bother a.m. radio or t.v. reception. i could use my desktop computer with it with no i'll effects.
for those looking to buy one now, inflation will get you, as i paid $850. for mine.

[glort]

The thing with the Honda's is you can get a cable and pair up another unit for a higher single output.

Saw an extreme example of this on YT where some git had 6 of them coupled up together.  I asked why he did this and the answer was they were lighter to move.
Really? If you need that much power for your RV, an intelligent person would use a single unit and build it in/on somewhere or at least cut then down to a sensible number of larger units. Clearly this twit had more Dollars than Sense.

I imagine having 4 of the things humming away would not be that quiet even as quiet as they are and refueling them would be a chore as well.

my father who lives in the country has a 2000 honda and loves it. While also being about 10 yo, it hasn't done a lot of work, mainly he uses in times of frequent but short blackouts where he is but it has paid for itself in  saving frozen and refrigerated food and allowing him to carry on with his business in times of power outage.

One day I'll get him a proper Diesel Gen and set it up with an ATS so it powers the whole place and he won't even know the mains power is out.  :0)

[SteveU.]

Coupling up two of these is not a bad approce. They are specifically built/programed to do this.
One youtube contributor even says with two Honda 2000i's he gets less fuel use than previously using his larger Honda-inverter unit.
My wife's Honda 2000i versus my larger Yamaha 2800I is verification of this.
Using all of these extremely low per hour fuel sippers though I've found best to use a paint cone filter on unit tanks filling. Small particle black crud I believe from the station dispensing hose and vlave seals has made it through the units in tanks nylon screens and jets clogged on my units carburetors.
PITA to bowl drop; back flush with carb cleaner to clear when all's you wanted was to pull-rope power, and walk-a-way.
Regards
Steve Unruh

[Derb]

Hi Fellas. I just acquired one of these new EU20i generators as a straight swap for my Lister generator set. It is light, quiet, economical and starts 1st pop every time with a light pull. It is also easy to cart around in the caravan unlike the Lister. There are any number of Chinese copies of these around for under $900-00 NZD as opposed to $2400-00 NZD for the Honda but I wouldn't expect them to be around for long. I also checked out a Hyundai unit but it was "really heavy" given the output and a similar price to the Honda anyway. The only other unit I would consider would be the new Yamaha invertor generators - very nice.

[cujet]

An old thread, but it's worth bumping. I have an EU2000is that I use occasionally. It has no way to drain the fuel or empty the carb. So I use VP Fuels C9 (a race fuel that lasts forever) in it. I've had the thing for about a decade now, and it always starts with that fuel. No need to do anything to preserve it, the fuel is that good!!! I can get the fuel locally for about $8 per gal. About double the cost of Ethanol Free unleaded.

My buddy has the same EU2000 and uses pump fuel, he's on his second carb, and has cleaned it out multiple times. Keep in mind, the passages in the carb are absolutely tiny, bad fuel will ruin it in short order. I love this little generator, but it's an emergency standby unit for me, and therefore absolutely must work when needed. In the end, it's an expensive unit, and it's worth the little bit of money to use good fuel.

Here is a list of commonly available "race fuels" that do not contain oxygenates and

VP C9 fuel
Sunoco Optima fuel
Sunoco 260 GTX (note other forms of Sunoco 260 contain ethanol or oxygenates and are not appropriate for storage fuels)

[mobile_bob]

since moving back to central kansas some 10 years ago, i get a lot of calls for "can you fix this or that"

one of those "this/that" are carb problems relating to the alcohol in our pump fuel
the aluminum carbs get corroded up very easily.

what i have done, and what i recommend to everyone that will listen around here is this

go ahead and use the alcohol pump fuel, but remember to run it out after each use

if you are going to leave it sit for more than a few weeks, run it dry and then add back a little bottle gas
the stuff they sell for about 5-6bucks a quart that has no alcohol in it, and then start it up and run it until it dies.

this cleans all the alcohol out of the tiny passages, and you get no corrosion

i have a push mower that i have done this to for 15 years and it still starts and runs as new

as for bottled gas i just use the 50:1 mix gas that i use in my weed eater, the added lube doesn't hurt anything
and probably leaves a bit of lube on the cylinder?

around here, if you leave the pump gas in a small engine over the winter, you get to buy a new carb the next spring
i am convinced they have either more alcohol content or more water in the mix at the pump, it is really nasty stuff and ruins carbs

another note,

older carbs with rubber(or viton?) needle/seat valve tips running the available pump gas around here will soften and stick shut, and they  will not release
by just tapping on the carb, you either removed the bowl and manually pull the needle of the seat or you shoot some air pressure into the fuel line to unseat it.

i have an older husky zero turn with a b/s that i remove the fuel line to the carb and let it run out of gas so that the seat remains open, or i have to shoot it with an air nozzle to unseat it and get it to running again.  it is too much trouble to remove the float bowl.

this alky fuel is the pits.

bob g

[Tom Reed]

When I bring fuel back to the ranch, the diesel gets treated w/Pri-D and the gas with Pri-D. I've had almost zero carb problems on over 20 small gas engines. For engines stored between seasons, I'll top off the tank to prevent condensation in the tank. For longer term storage I'll drain the tank and run dry. This stuff really works! I've got 20+ year old weed whackers and chain saws that have never had the carb touched.

[Henry W]

In 2015 I needed a small inverter generator. I looked at all of them and I wound up with a Yamaha EF1000iS.

What sold me on it is that you can shut off the gas and run it until it stalls. Than you take of the side cover and turn the drain valve on the carburetor bowl to drain the rest of the fuel.

Another thing that I liked is that the cam is gear driven.

And, this model is made in Japan. Well at least back then they were.

The thing has hundreds of hours on it. This 1000 watt inverter generator has been the handiest thing.

One thing I did buy for it was a Magnetic Oil Dipstick. It had metal particles on the magnet on the first couple oil changes, than very little amount of fine dust after that.

The thing is only 28 pounds. With only .6 gallons they say  it will run up 12 hours on 1/4 load. I only could get 11 hours.

It's too bad that they discontinued it. It is one handy generator.

I could not understand why Honda did not make their  1000 watt & 2000 watt inverter generators with the ability to run it out of gas. I'm not sure if they had a valve on the carburetor bowl to drain the fuel.

It stands that Honda and Yamaha have good small generators. You can't go wrong with either of them.

[Henry W]

An old thread, but it's worth bumping. I have an EU2000is that I use occasionally. It has no way to drain the fuel or empty the carb. So I use VP Fuels C9 (a race fuel that lasts forever) in it. I've had the thing for about a decade now, and it always starts with that fuel. No need to do anything to preserve it, the fuel is that good!!! I can get the fuel locally for about $8 per gal. About double the cost of Ethanol Free unleaded.

My buddy has the same EU2000 and uses pump fuel, he's on his second carb, and has cleaned it out multiple times. Keep in mind, the passages in the carb are absolutely tiny, bad fuel will ruin it in short order. I love this little generator, but it's an emergency standby unit for me, and therefore absolutely must work when needed. In the end, it's an expensive unit, and it's worth the little bit of money to use good fuel.

Here is a list of commonly available "race fuels" that do not contain oxygenates and

VP C9 fuel
Sunoco Optima fuel
Sunoco 260 GTX (note other forms of Sunoco 260 contain ethanol or oxygenates and are not appropriate for storage fuels)

cujet, what is VP  C9 fuel?

I can get ethanol free 89 octane gas. But I believe it still has a short shelf life.

[cujet]

cujet, what is VP  C9 fuel?

I can get ethanol free 89 octane gas. But I believe it still has a short shelf life.

VP C9 is a product from a race fuel company. It's a race+storage fuel. 96 octane. It never goes bad, ever. The reason is the pure composition. It's pretty obvious when using it, that things run wonderfully on it.

VP fuels (the company) is, without a doubt, the premier fuel company for race gas. They are not new, and make some truly epic race fuel products. One "classic" product they have produced nearly forever is called C16. It's a leaded race fuel with 118 octane R+M/2, you've probably smelled it at the race track! Glorious. They also make the EXACT aviation fuel that was used in World War II, 115/145!!!! (and an even better variant with 160 octane!!!)

Here is their master fuel table, it's not easy to make an unleaded, high octane, NON OXYGENATED fuel.

https://vpracingfuels.com/master-fuel-tables/

[Henry W]

VP Fuels sure makes lots of different blends. Thanks for the info.
I found out I can buy C9 about five miles away. I ask how much and it's $80.35 for 5 gallons.    Wow!!!

[mobile_bob]

thats still cheaper than bottled gas at the autoparts store!
i think  that stuff works out to about 125bucks per 5 gallons if bought in quart cans, and maybe 100bucks if bought in gallon cans.
so maybe even that stuff would cost 80 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket, that is if you could find it.

i guess quality costs
and you get what you pay for.

i know the crap they sell here at the pump is just good enough to run, but not good enough to sit around for 6 months and especially not in 2 stroke carbs.

bg

[Henry W]

The NAPA stores in my area sell it. I know today's pump gas is crap but, I never knew high quality fuel would be so much.

I wonder if 100LL AV gas is ok to run in modern small engines that were manufactured before catalysts were required.

I guess if I wanted to store som fuel for a long length of time C9 would be the one to buy.

[mikenash]

Hi Fellas. I just acquired one of these new EU20i generators as a straight swap for my Lister generator set. It is light, quiet, economical and starts 1st pop every time with a light pull. It is also easy to cart around in the caravan unlike the Lister. There are any number of Chinese copies of these around for under $900-00 NZD as opposed to $2400-00 NZD for the Honda but I wouldn't expect them to be around for long. I also checked out a Hyundai unit but it was "really heavy" given the output and a similar price to the Honda anyway. The only other unit I would consider would be the new Yamaha invertor generators - very nice.

Derb, if you don't need clean sine-wave power (as in if you just want to run power tools or whatever) imho the Hondas are a waste of money

In my line of work we have seven or eight Chinese generators around the 2kVA mark.  They work hard.  they last for years and years and years.  They are tough & reliable; and if you do needs parts for them they are unbelievably cheap ($25 for a carb, $15 for an AVR)

And - the kicker - parts for these often come in "Genuine Honda" boxes with the Honda stuff  scratched out with a black felt pen

We have done hundreds & hundreds of hours here in the Manwatu with Chinese Honda copies.  Sure, if you want to, by all means buy a genuine one.  But, apart from the stickers, don't expect it to be much different

Also fwiw, I recently sold my personal Honda 2.2 for $900 and bought a 2nd-hand Chinese one for $100.  Starts, runs, works just the same

Cheers, Mike

[mike90045]

I go to my local airfield and fill up my 5 gallon cans from the aviation gas pump, 100LL works fine in the chainsaws and weed whackers.  They start on the 2nd or 3rd pull after being idle for months ( and yes, I run them dry before storage)  Run it in the 4 cycle gear too, absolutely fine.