Here’s the story of our husky generator and its real life review. Sometimes you have the 
opportunity to shop, investigate, and find reviews before making a moderate sized purchase. In this case, it was dark, cold, and the stores were going to close soon.
Urgent winter power need.
It was early January and we had my sister’s family up to visit. Everyone looks forward to this visit with the cousins, snowmobiling, and winter fun. It was early afternoon when I went out to start the generator, a champion generator. It would start and then sputter out. Even when full of gas. That’s odd, I thought, because it ran well 10 hours ago.
Inspecting it closely, checking oil, etc, nothing. Then I found the problem. The low oil sensor wire had come loose from the sensor on the block of the motor. The wire broke in such a way that I couldn’t connect it back in any creative way at all. Arrgh! This was the backup generator.
Needless to say, the situation of entertaining guests, and having no power, did not make Jackie happy at all. (I seem to recall something about missing a football game in the mess) My mission was to take the snow machine and cargo sled to the nearest town to purchase a generator. I needed to return and have it installed before it got too late.( 70 miles round trip)
Quick Fix Generator
Home Depot was the stop where I purchased the replacement generator, a Husky 4000w unit. When I returned and set it up, everyone was happy to blow out the candles, and use the Internet again! This generator started easily, met our power needs throughout the winter months.
This unit has a Briggs and Stratton motor and an overhead cam which is getting to be commonplace in small motors. The construction of the unit seemed fair, but it started to rattle apart some with the many hours of use. First , the exhaust plate fell off which didn’t affect much since it is used in a fixed location.
The second item to rattle apart was more serious, the air cleaner. There was a light metal plate fastened to a plastic housing for the sponge based air cleaner. The light metal plate didn’t hold the weight well over all the vibrations and ripped off of the carburetor. This was the metal getting torn and not a loose bolt.
Performance
The performance of the husky 4000 was adequate for generators in its class. The construction and design details were not anything to write home about. Here’s Marshall’s summary:
- OK: cost was $420 at Home Depot
- Poor: construction details, with air cleaner falling off
- OK: Fuel efficiency runs about and hour and 10 or 15 minutes on a gallon of gas when the unit is under a heavy load.
Do you really want to test the low oil cutoff sensor?
Yes and no. Yes to know it will work if ever needed. No because failing the test can be disastrous. If I could figure out a way to safely test this it would be great. It would have avoided the premature end of this generator!! [yep, that's what happened this summer, ran out of oil and seized up the motor]
Since this unit failed in the summer, I had plenty of time to research and make a better purchase decision on the replacement. I questioned my assumptions and came up with something really outstanding and efficient. But thats the topic of the next generator review.
Do you know a safe way to test low oil shut-off sensors? Do you have experience with this generator? What are you looking for in your next generator purchase? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
Related posts:
Hi! We’ve read your website, and have learned lots. We are making the move to off-grid and are very interested in the genverter system. Due to financial restraints, solar will have to come later. Our question is: If we are planning on an 8kw system with a propane generator, which inverter(size) should we buy? We would want it to support solar panels in the future. We’re also interested in the AGM batteries because of the low maintenance. Can you please advise us as to what we should be looking for? Would the Honda generator with built-in inverter work in this situation? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Keith & Sheryl Norton
8kW system??? On what do you base this figure? I have been designing and installing inverter systems for about 15 years now. It has been my observation that most people including some professionals who should know better consistently over size inverter systems because they base their estimate or calculations on what was done for a generator system. The difference being a generator must be able to handle start surges without a buffer. Inverters on the other hand can normally handle double the rated capacity for a 5 second surge and some of the new switch mode designs using toroidal core transformers will handle 3X surges. Its more than 5 years ago I designed a system to power air conditioning systems on patrol boats. AS a normal factory test I had to devise a 10kW test load in order to overload a 3 kW inverter. Every unit we shipped ( total of 124 systems) had to pass this test and a test certificate signed off with a print out as required for the govenment contract. 4 years later we had not had any failures among the 124 systems.
My normal customer base is recreational boaters who buy a luxury cruiser with all the comforts and conveniences. If they use propane cooking they can normally live with a 3kW inverter. If they require air conditioning I double the inverter size to 6kW. But 8kW is getting very expensive. Needlessly so in my opinion. I remain in touch with early customers so if a problem crops up they are quick to comment or complain if the situation calls for it.
I forgot to update my email address. We moved to off-grid country.
Marshall I was beginning to think you had fallen off the mountain. What’s happening?
You can use a number of facts like that to take into consideration. Which might be an excellent point out deliver right up. I provide you with the ideas earlier mentioned as common motivation but clearly there are questions the same as the a single you start up in which the most important factor may be in the sincere uberrima fides. I actually don? t know if guidelines have came forth round issues that way, but I am constructive that your employment is clearly referred to as a good video game. Each young ones see the influence associated with only a second’s enjoyment, for that remainder of the lives.