How Good Is The Harbor Freight Predator 2000w Super Quiet Inverter Generator? | In-Depth Review

hey everybody welcome to kevin's garage today we're going to be looking at this 2000 watt inverted generator from harper freight now please note i am not paid or sponsored by harbor freight for this review and i've used my own money to purchase both the generator and the tools used to review it also only about one percent of the people who watch my videos are subscribed so please consider hitting that thumbs up button and subscribing to my channel it allows me to bring you bigger and better videos in the future alright now let's get into this thing first thing we see when opening the box is the owner's manual followed by a basic tool kit and 12 volt plug with alligator clips removing one more piece of foam uncovers a generator in a big plastic bag all right now that it's all in box let's take a closer look at it this unit is 11.5 inches wide 19 and a half inches deep and 18 inches tall it's powered by an 80cc four-stroke engine and the inverter is a 60 hertz pure sine wave rated at 1600 watts running and 2000 watts starting the box advertises a 65 decibel noise level but doesn't give any other information on that rating industry standard is typically 21 feet away at fast idle this unit comes with a one gallon gas tank rated for 12 hours at a 25 load and weighs 47 pounds harbor freight offers a 90 day warranty with the purchase of this generator with the option to buy an extended warranty one cool feature in here is that the engine will not start or run when the oil level is low taking a look at the generator on top is the starting instructions the spark plug access cover carrying handle fuel gauge warning labels operating instructions and the vented fuel cap on the left side there is a pull start branding decals and more warning labels on the back there is the exhaust outlet and the cooling fan outlet on the right side there is more branding decals and important storage and use instructions on the front face there's the on off and choke multi-switch low oil light overload light output light low idle switch grounding terminal two 120 volt outlets with breaker button a 12 volt outlet with breaker button parallel ports and the air intake before starting the generator you need to remove the right cover and fill it up with the appropriate type and amount of [Music] oil [Music] so now that this is all unboxed and oiled up we're going to take it outside fuel it up and give it a start the owner's manual for this recommends a 30 hour break in time without running over 75 capacity then changing the oil before regular use with the break-in period done on this we can go out and do our testing please note the wattage meter has a few second delay in its measurements while on low idle i found that about 500 watts could be used without increasing the idle on fast idle i observed about 1200 watts to be drying without increasing rpm generator had no problem supporting just shy of 1600 watts while varying the amount of draw on the generator i measured the voltage output i found that when there are significant changes in draw the voltage can drop down to about 80 volts for a second or two but normalizes back to 119 volts quickly when pushed to its limits the voltage dropped for a second to about 80 but quickly rebounds wattage peaked at 20 30. i found that the overload light started blinking at about 1500 watts but could support 1600 watts without tripping the breaker the generator can support 2000 watts for about 17 seconds before tripping the breaker resetting the breaker is as easy as pushing the breaker button just be sure to decrease the load before doing so [Music] to start off the sound test i measured the ambient sound levels at 42 decibels first off is low idle no load 2 feet 77 decibels 5 feet 71 decibels 10 feet 67 decibels 20 feet 60 decibels 30 feet 56 decibels 50 feet 54 decibels 70 feet 51 decibels next is fast idle no load 2 feet 84 decibels 5 feet 78 decibels 10 feet 71 decibels 20 feet 66 decibels 30 feet 60 decibels 50 feet 55 decibels 70 feet 54 decibels finally a 1500 watt load on the generator near full rpm 2 feet 87 decibels 5 feet 82 decibels 10 feet 76 and a half decibels 20 feet 70 decibels 30 feet 66 decibels 50 feet 65 decibels 70 feet 65 decibels the last test is run time on a completely full tank and a 1 500 watt load applied [Music] i started off using my wattage controller set at 14 49 watts but 30 minutes into the test the controller broke i was able to plug in a heater that drew 1462 watts so i don't think the test was impacted by the change from outside my house and 15 feet away i measured 65 decibels ambient noise without the generator was 46 decibels 5 hours and 12 minutes later the generator finally ran out of gas now let's take a look at the specs we tested and see how they hold up against advertising first off is wattage i found this generator be right on the money it ran perfectly at just under 1600 watts and blew a breaker after a few seconds at 2050 watts next rating that we're testing is decibel i found this to be true at high idle and 20 feet away i read 66 decibels so this is very close to their advertising i was also impressed by the fairly consistent voltage of this generator at varying loads this is really important when you have anything that is sensitive plugged into this generator finally the runtime this thing with only one gallon of fuel ran for five hours and 15 minutes while drawing 1500 watts that's really impressive i think this generator is great for power outages construction sites or even going out in the boat rv or car camping now please note that while this generator is fairly quiet please be considerate of those around you as many people go in the outdoors to get away from the noises of everyday life overall i think this generator is of good value compared to some of the cheaper options it runs longer it's quieter and the output is as advertised regular price for this unit at harbor freight in the us is 499.99 but there are many coupons throughout the year that'll get you a decent amount off the retail price i have a link to this generator in the description below as well as a couple coupons down there for you so how good or bad do you think this generator is what other generators do you want me to review let me know in the comments and be sure to check out some of my other videos reviewing more expensive and cheaper generators thanks for watching this episode of kevin's garage please like subscribe and i'll see you later [Music] you

Channel: Kevin's Garage

Views: 74,905

Keywords: Harbor freight generator, harbor freight generator review, predator generator review, quiet generator review, 2000w generator, 2000w generator review, aipower generator, wen generator, generac generator review, generac, wen, a-i power, generator review, inverter generator, quiet generator, super quiet generator, silent generator, a-ipower 2000 watt generator, ipower generator 2000, predator 2000 inverter generator, Predator 2000w Quiet Inverter Generator

Id: fnY9W5sFcWE

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 20 2020