Cheap Inverter Generator - Generac GP2200i Review - Alternative to Honda EU2200i

a perfect generator would be one that was quiet fuel-efficient and could do the job we need and it'd be even better if it was versatile and simple to operate now in most cases that's gonna be a Honda but the problem is Honda generators are terrific but they're very expensive but in this video I'm going to show you a generator that's almost a third of the price of a Honda but works just as well and in fact it's even got some features that the honda doesn't I was so interested in this generator when I saw the reviews and heard the feedback that I wanted to try one for myself this video is not sponsored and I bought this with my own money so I could bring this video to you and you might be looking at this and not recognize the Generac brand now Generac makes a lot of generators and they've been making them for a very long time in fact my own first generator that I ever owned was made by Generac now this generator might look a little bit small to you but by the end of this video I'm also gonna show you how this small unit can actually power your home and I mean things like your heat hair condition and even things like a refrigerator it's a lot more capable than you think this is a Generac GP 2200 i generator in the eye means inverter now many people know that an inverter is going to give you clean power that's safe for computers tvs and all kinds of electronics but the other benefit of an inverter is you can run for longer periods of time without refueling and it's able to do that because inverter generators can throttle down to meet the demand and all that means is that this is a smart type of generator that's only gonna use the exact amount of fuel needed now this is the first time I took this generator out of the box and I'm gonna handle it the same way you would if you bought it yourself and right here we're looking at the things that came in the box now this may not seem like a big deal some oil a funnel and we've got some tools and some cables but if you buy that Honda generator you do not get oil you don't get these cords and you have to pay for them all separately so when you look at that expensive generator it's even more expensive before you can even get started what I like here with this Generac is all this stuff was right in the box which means as soon as you get it open you can get ready to start using it so now we just have to simply take the oil filler neck off and we can fill this up with oil now on a Honda you kind of have to play around with it but with this Generac they give you this funnel so you just goes right in and it's simple to fill up another thing that's so handy is this bottle is a little bit smaller than normal and that's because the bottle is exactly the amount of oil you need for this engine so all you've got to do is basically dump that oil and use in the funnel and now your level is exactly where you need it to be and at this point with the fuel in it we're ready to get to use this machine now we're going to see how it is to start this generator up and see what it performs like to start up the Generac we only need to do three simple things we start by turning a little switch on the gas cap to the on position then we're going to change the switch in the front of the unit to go to the choke position and then lastly we just make sure that this economy switch here on the bottom is set to off because economy means that generator is gonna run in a slow mode and we want to start it at maximum speed a simple pole and you can see those lights blinking and the Machine starts right up now I like to leave it in the choke position for about a minute or so and then I'm going to slowly rotate position and at this point we're ready to use the generator for electricity now before I connect anything to the power a common question I get asked is how loud is the generator and in this case I'm going to use an app on my iPhone that's gonna measure the decibels now the generator is running at maximum speed so this is the loudest it's going to get and you can see that we're getting about 66 decibels now remember that regular conversation is about 60 so this is a very quiet generator and this is great if you've got neighbors close that you just don't want to make a lot of noise now what generators only as good as what you can connect or run from it and that's where the generator is a real winner because they put all sorts of ports in the front of this thing and you should also note that all these ports have a protective rubber cover now this seems simple but none of the Honda's that I own reviews ever included this so now let's take a closer look at what you can actually plug in and we're gonna start with the normal 120 volt outlet that you can run regular things in your house with this is a great option you can get an extension cord that gives you a few outlets that kind of get broken out now you can run this all the way in your house or into an RV or a campground and you can run multiple things off of it that use house power but now we get into where the gener acts got some extra options and that's where we use our 12 volt cables now this is a regular cigarette lighter which is really awesome because lots of us have things that fit that plug but if you use these included cables you can do things like charge in a battery so if you've got a boat an RV or a car or camper this thing can keep the battery properly charged or charge it back up if the thing has gone dead and an export is one that's very unique and this is a USB port so you can do things like charging your phone or a computer and it really is handy especially if you're on a boat or you're camping now none of the Honda's have this and this just adds to the versatility of this machine and our last port involves how you can increase the power of this generator so if you bought more than one of these these parallel option ports allow you to connect two of them together now you do need an extra accessory to do this but this will increase the total output of the generator and our final option for connections makes this the most versatile generator and at the beginning in this video I told you you could run things like your heating system your refrigerator and other appliances and you really can you're going to start by using a heavy duty extension cord and you plug it into one of the outlets but the special part happens inside your house and here's what's unusual this is a special transfer switch designed for a generator that's this size they're easy to install and most electricians or even some homeowners can put these in and under 30 minutes and what this does is it allows that small generator to now run four hardwired circuits so in my house off of this one generator I can run my refrigerator my heating system along with some lights and a couple of outlets and that's just enough to get me by for smaller power outages where I only need a limited amount of stuff using this transfer switch is so easy you just plug the extension cord directly into that port like you see and then each of those switches just needs to be moved to the off position and then you flip them up to Gen and all that means is when it's on the line position the power to your circuit is running through your regular circuit breaker but when you flip it to Gen the power from your generator is gonna now run that circuit so like I said each of these is an important thing in my house and it really helps out when there's an outage now the switch you see in here is about 15 years old and they actually have an updated version of this exact switch and it's got some improvements in it as well but the functionality is the same my final thoughts on this generator are if you're looking for a versatile generator the can power your house and run a lot of other fun stuff this is the one to buy it's an absolute bargain you can almost buy three of these for the price of that one honda and in my testing it seems to be an excellent unit so i really hope this video gave you some ideas about getting a backup generator but also in ways that you can use it that you might have never thought possible so if you like this video please give me a thumbs up subscribe to my channel for more videos coming up

Channel: Silver Cymbal

Views: 2,224,842

Keywords: honda generator, generator, honda, honda eu2200i generator, portable generator, honda eu2200i, inverter generator, honda portable generator, honda eu2200i generator review, camping generator, portable generator reviews, honda eu2000, honda eu200i inverter generator, rv generator, eu2200, eu2000, honda generator 2000, honda generator 2200, generac generator, generac gp2200i review, gp2200i, gp2200i review, generac gp2200i, silver cymbal

Id: EXuP6tQACa8

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 08 2019