Maintenance & Restoration

jimmyg · 02-28-2006, 09:37 AM

This is for you glass ownerswho bought these awhile back. I hav been saving for a Honda 2000, but Kipor i quite a bit cheaper. Soooooo what's the scoop?

Darwin Maring · 02-28-2006, 10:18 AM

Even though Kippor manufactures the McCulloch, please do not get the model numbers and color of the unit get mixed up with the branded Kippor units. They are different in color and model numbers.

My Yellow McCulloch, Digital, FG2000 Tc that is an inverter model, 2000KW Surge and 1.5HW operating, with the "Smart Throttle, is doing just fine.

I purchased it from Tool King www.toolking.com

I figure that at 1/2 the price if and when I wear out the McCullouch I'll just go and get another one and in the long run, that will be less expensive than purchasing the Honda to begin with.

Dan Simon · 02-28-2006, 01:49 PM

I too bought the McCulloch about a month ago for $499 at Toolking, the shipping was only $8.

It works great and based on my expected usage, I figure I can't go wrong.

Dan

Bigfoot Mike · 02-28-2006, 04:41 PM

Best price I could find for Kipor Generators is at: Boats.net

They offer double the warrenty, 2 years, free shipping lower 48 US, and no sales tax outside of Florida.

KGE1000Ti Generator
1000 Watt Model
Always FREE SHIPPING!
$499.00

KGE2000Ti Generator
2000 Watt Model
Always FREE SHIPPING!
$699.00

KGE3500Ti Generator
3000 Watt Model
Always FREE SHIPPING!
$1,094.00

Yves Pelchat · 03-01-2006, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Best price I could find for Kipor Generators is at: Boats.net

They offer double the warrenty, 2 years, free shipping lower 48 US, and no sales tax outside of Florida.

KGE1000Ti Generator
1000 Watt Model
Always FREE SHIPPING!
$499.00

KGE2000Ti Generator
2000 Watt Model
Always FREE SHIPPING!
$699.00

KGE3500Ti Generator
3000 Watt Model
Always FREE SHIPPING!
$1,094.00

I bought my Kipor KGE1000Ti on e-bay, last december, and paid U.S $340.00 + shipping for it. It's got about 50 hours, total time, right now. No problems whatsoever with it.

It's very quiet, is fuel efficient, and also is amazingly easy to start ( you need only pull the cord 6 - 8 inch, and you're in business!

).

For the price I paid for it, I'd say it's one of the best purchase, i've made so far.

I recommend it.

Yves.

Gina D. · 03-05-2006, 12:12 PM

I aslo got mine on eBay. (1k model)

It's over a year old, and I haven't started it in a couple months. I just went out to do so. No problems!

I am happy.

Randya · 03-22-2006, 10:04 PM

Anyone had any experience with a coleman powermate? I see the 1850 watt is only $428 at walmart! I wonder how quiet they are?

Benita · 03-22-2006, 10:31 PM

NOISY NOISY NOISY.

Everyone I've known who had a Coleman Powermate (2 people) traded theirs in for a Honda.

Randya · 03-23-2006, 08:02 AM

Quote:

NOISY NOISY NOISY.

Everyone I've known who had a Coleman Powermate (2 people) traded theirs in for a Honda.

Thanks Benita!

evan · 03-23-2006, 08:38 AM

Jim, keep saving and buy the Honda 2000, although the Kipor is a good value and decent genset. If you plan to only use the gen. a few times a year it makes sense to buy a cheaper unit. If you plan to put some hours on the thing like we do, buy the Honda. Having owned Coleman, Onan and Brand X, the Honda portable Generators are without a doubt the very best. Friend has a 1000 from the 80's still chugging along. They just know how to make small engines and well thoughtout, quality products. My two cents and good luck with your decision.

Lizbeth · 03-23-2006, 10:09 AM

I was unsucessfully window crank shopping yesterday and both local mom and pop RV supply stores have the Kippor gennies. They didn't have them a couple months ago, so somebody is pushing them to the stores.

Darwin Maring · 03-23-2006, 11:45 AM

Kipor makes the McCulloch Generator that is sold in the USA at www.toolking.com and you can get the 2000 Digital model for around $500. It is extremely quiet. Check the published db levels.

Randya · 03-26-2006, 05:59 PM

Does anyone have any idea of the noise level of between 56db and say 65db??? I am down to making my decision on this factor.

Randya · 03-26-2006, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Does anyone have any idea of the noise level of between 56db and say 65db??? I am down to making my decision on this factor.

I found what I was looking for! A dishwasher is around 55 db and a sewing machine is 60db. So not much diff. So based on this there are a ton of inexpensive generators in the 1kw to 2 kw at various prices to be had!!!

Byron Kinnaman · 03-26-2006, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Does anyone have any idea of the noise level of between 56db and say 65db??? I am down to making my decision on this factor.

The human ear can detect a 3db difference. Therefore the difference could be enough to make the louder objectonable. It's not a linear scale either.

Going from 59db to 59db is double the sound energy.
Going from 59db to 62db is 4 times the sound energy.
Going from 59db to 65db is 8 time the sound energy.

I think the louder would be quite noticable.

Loren G. Hedahl · 03-26-2006, 11:20 PM

The problem is there is no definite standard of sound level measurement, that I'm aware of. Also each person's ears respond to noise levels differently, depending in large part to the differences to hearing levels at higher or lower frequencies.

Most people find the higher frequencies more obnoxious. Onan and some other companies produce a line of generators that are quieter. These units have more complex generators of the four pole design, vs the simpler two pole type used on the less pricy ones. Doubling the poles allows the engine part to run as half the speed. This requires a larger engine, but the sound is less obnoxious, due to less high frequency noise.

Honda has earned a reputation for qualty, fuel economy and low noise. I have a 3500 watt used on a cooler trailer that has a subdued pleasing sound. A friend of mine uses a small Yamaha, I think about 1000 watts on his fishing boat to run his downriggers. It is down in the engine compartment and exhausts underwater. It's very quiet.

Kipor? Don't know, but see them for sale everywhere. Heard they were a Honda knock-off.

Byron Kinnaman · 03-26-2006, 11:51 PM

I'm sorry but there are a number of "formal" standards for sound pressure measurement. I don't feel like looking them at, but I know that OHSA has one they use. ANSI I'm sure has a sound pressure standard. I know Boing does. In one of my lifes we built the intercabin communication system for the first 747s. Boing had very strict sound pressure requirements. There's several "weighted" scales. I believe at this time most everybody that has settled on one, I think it's a "C" weighted curve, but I could be wrong. Which ever on it is it's weighted to match the average human ears frequency response curve. And there's definitions for decibels. (dbs the units for sound pressure measurement.)

One of the key specifications is the distance from the sound source. Sound energy decreases by the square of the distance.

If like can give you some more engineerese on sound pressure measurement, including the math. then again maybe not.

Benita · 03-27-2006, 12:06 AM

Kipor is a Chinese manufacturer. Their products are among the top sellers and have a strong quality reputation in Europe. They OEM the Philips generators sold by Philips Electronics and other subsidiaries over there. They OEM McCullough generators in this country. Their specs are very similar to Honda specs. So, the knock off claim is probably valid.

Tom Trostel · 03-27-2006, 05:49 AM

Let me illustrate a sound comparison. If a person was blindfolded and standing at any distance away from a Honda EU2000i and a McCulloch FG2000Tc and you ran each for them to listen; they could not tell which was which. Or that one was less noisy than the other. I know this because I've tried. My son owns a Honda and I own a McCulloch.

I'm not saying that these generators are silent. But, they are about as quiet as you can get a small gasoline motor to run in a portable, suitcase-size case. Tom Trostel

Gina D. · 03-27-2006, 08:06 AM

The math for the standards is all the same, no matter the scale, but as Byron noted, it depends on which agency is manipulating #s for that agency to actually come up with "thier" #s for thier purposes. They usually set thier standards in a highly controlled environment as well. (You have to.. or they wouldn't be "standard".)

For laymen tho, Toms example is the most appropriate.. use your ears in a real world situation if possible.

I have the 1k version of the Kippor. Standing right next to it, normal conversation is unstrained and... normal. I can have it running just inches from my trailer, be inside and still hear the TV and carry on a normal coversation. It's just a dull "whirr". I have been in airconditioned eggs that had a higher ambient noise level.

Outside, once you step 20 feet away, the noise is competing with your nieghbors boom box and the kids playing down the loop.

Step outside your site and walk to your nieghbors.. it can hardly be heard at all.

At nite, when things are quieter, acoustics take effect and it *seems* quite a bit noisier, but in reality, it isn't. It just doesn't have any competition, so it stands out more.

It also depends on WHERE you are.. I rarely use my gen set in one of my favorite dry campgrounds. The terrain is such that it is mostly flat, but very treed. The generator can be heard 100s of yards away. In another of my favorites, it is a hilly terrain between each site, and you literally cannot hear the thing from site to site. *The earth is it's own sound baffle*

Set the thing up next to your trailer in a truck stop, and the big rigs will be laughing at you. "Did someone hear a squeak?"

I have no guilt using it there

Quote:

Going from 59db to 59db is double the sound energy.

Awh Man... Yer calculator is broketed...