Wow, haven’t updated this in forever… Mainly wanted to post two things:
#1. We got flooded badly this year. I knew it was a possibility, we are in a floodplain.
We were unable to get out for 8 days. No major damage, I got all the vehicles moved and the basement items raised up. I was thankful for the above-ground water tanks which as you can see remained clean and above the water level.
#2. Although we never lost power, I fully expected to, and was relatively unprepared for it. My little 800 watt 2-stroke generator doesn’t have the guts to start up any of our 3 chest freezers or the fridge. And, my wife can’t pull start it reliably; they are a bit finicky and I’m not sure there’s a compression release.
So, I decided to resolve the situation last week. After a lot of research, I settled on the Harbor Freight Predator 3500 inverter generator.
https://www.harborfreight.com/3500-watt-super-quiet-inverter-generator-63584.html
It is based on their excellent Honda-clone 212cc 6.5 hp Predator engine, which looks thoroughly gasifier friendly. It pull starts very easily, and has electric start. Major wife points for that. The inverter puts out a very clean sine wave and starts the freezers effortlessly even on ECO mode. Extremely quiet, in fact one video I saw tested it as quieter than the Honda 2000i. Very nice tone to my ear, lower pitch and not a “screamer” at all. We can’t hear it running in the house.
It won’t do 220v so the stove and water heater will go offline. We have a propane grill and campstove for cooking, and of course the woodstove. Water heating on wood is still on the list somewhere.
I’ve been re-reading some good small engine threads here on DOW, which I will share.