Champion 2000 Watt Inverter Generator - 73531i

[KB1OCC]

Has anyone had any experience with this generator?  Champion, inverter 2000/1600 surge/running, eco mode, low decibels (53).

http://championpowerequipment.com/73531i.php

Sam's Club has them on sale for $499 here in NH.


I'm guessing it and/or its engine is made far offshore at this price.

73's
Brian

[WB2WIK]

This is from their website:

"Champion Power Equipment was founded in 2003. We are a US owned and operated company with our own manufacturing facilities in the Zhejiang province of China."

[KB1OCC]

At least they're honest!!!!

[WB2WIK]

As far as I know, they have a good reputation.

[N7MJJ]

I purhcased a pair of these and the parallel kit. Works great! If interested, please see my review on forums.woodalls.com. Using it for my travel trailer.

Here's the link.
http://forums.woodalls.com/Index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24022161/gotomsg/24419088.cfm#24419088

Here's the post I wrote.

I am new to this forum, but have been a pretty avid RVer since our first travel trailer back in 1993. Currently I own a 2011 Skyline Aljo 2640B with a 15K BTU AC, (not the standard 13.5). I live at 6500 feet in elevation and thought I would write up a quick review of my purchase of two (2) CPE 2000 watt inverter generators today. Since we want to do more dry "camping" at the lower elevation AZ lakes, I needed a light weight generator that in my mid 50's and later life, I can fairly easily lug around. Anyway... This forum helped me to decide as well as other research on the Champion products. I am not affiliated with CPE in anyway and am a retired COP, not that it matters, but my initial review and impressions are most favorable.

I have been penny wise and pound foolish too many times in my life and more often than not I get what I paid for. So I lamented over a couple of Honda EU2000i gensets and having a neighbor with one, have some hands-on with the Honda inverter generator. I initially tried out one Honeywell 2000i but it was hard to start, noisy, heavy at almost 65 pounds and no parallel kit. It went back to Costco and so my lamenting over spending a couple of grand for a pair of Honda's continued.

I then stumbled upon some info on the CPE product. Looked at a couple of youtube videos and read all I could for this newly released low cost (HALF the cost of a Honda) and finally figured oh... what the heck. I ordered the parallel kit from CPE on Wednesday after finding out where in AZ I could get my hands on a couple of these generators. Received the parallel kit yesterday (Friday) and today, (Saturday) headed to Sam's Club in Flagstaff, AZ and picked up two of them and brought them home after ensuring I could bring them back if they didn't work out for me.

After adding the requisite oil and fuel, the first one started after two pulls and the second started on the first pull. Go figure! A far cry from the Honeywell unit I returned earlier in the week!

I have a Kill A Watt which on house AC shows a value of 121 - 122 volts (other meters I own show 119-120 volts), and 59.9 Hz. Each generator, after warming up a bit in either Econ mode on or off, showed 122 VAC and 59.9 Hz. I then Plugged in a resistive load of 1850 watts (a high power hair dryer)in one and then the other. VAC dipped a bit but recovered well on each. Time for the real check... my AC unit and Microwave!

Paralleled the two with the proper kit, (by the way, AC in parallel just as a Honda and the signal cable is a cross over four pin cable, pin 1 to 3 and pin 2 to 4, clockwise from the tab at 12 o'clock. By the way, ergonomics of these untis is really very nice! They stack on top of each other and the parallel kit nestles between them. They are as easy to lug around as a Honda... but again.. HALF the price!

Started them up, one pull each, turned Econ mode off and checked out the microwave. Perfect. Then the 15K BTU AC. The gensets lugged but the AC came right on! I am in business. With the AC on I tried the Microwave. Voltage dropped to about 95 volts and came back to 105 but I did get hot water in a cup inside the microwave and the AC was still cooling away. Didn't notice any slowing of the AC fans, but the microwave sure was affected by the change in voltage.

With the AC running, I turned both units Econ mode to ON and the generators slowed a bit and of course quieter. Cycling of the AC compressor REALLY lugs the gensets engines, and the "AC Present" LEDs (lights) start blinking and no AC was present but the engines didn't die. I figured they would but that didn't happen, but no voltage. A restart fixes this. So... keep Econ mode off with an Air Conditioner running.

I let them run about an hour with AC cooling the trailer and saw voltage with just the AC and 12 volt trailer converter running as 122 volts and again rock solid at 59.9 Hz.

In parallel mode I found them very quiet even under a pretty full load. Inside the trailer, the air conditioner is louder than the generators and I had both stacked right by the trailer door.

So... being light weight, a bit over 50 lbs with a full gallon of gasoline, quiet, from my non scientific listening tests with the Honda, the CPE's are about at the same noise level one on one with the Honda. Half the price and now, only time will tell If these are solid little gensets.

Maybe, just maybe, I got more than my money's worth.

John J

[AC7JW]

Greetings;
It sounds like John had good luck running a heavy load with a pair of these generators. My question now: Has any one used a Champion 2000 inverter to run a portable HF setup, and how did it handle the dynamic load? I would like to try one of these generators to power an HF rig (using my Samlex SEC1223 power supply) and an SB-200 amp running about 400 W on CW. This is a pretty dynamic load, and from the You-tube video, I can see that I would probably not want to run the generator in economy mode, as it could not possibly adjust fast enough to compensate for CW speeds, even if relatively low.
I've ran my SEC1223 off a of cheap 2 stroke generator, and it has worked great. That's an additional upside of a well designed switching power supply- it can compensate for a very poor input AC waveform. It's probably not great for longevity of the power supply, but after about 20 hours total running on that generator, I had no issues.

I've read many reports from guys using the Honda Inverter generators to run their amps in portable ops, with no major issues. It would be great if this Champion model could do the same.

Thanks,
Jason  AC7JW

[W8JX]

I think he is going to need more generator than that. Running CW with a SB-200 plus exciter/power supply will honk generator too much in cyclic CW load here. Need a bigger unit here for stable operation. (I would suggest 3kw) SSB might work okay as it is a bit "softer" on demand. While peak load may be within capacity of unit, the cyclic swing to near max load in CW will tax it.

[AC7JW]

Well, I did it- I purchased the Champion 1600/2000 Inverter Generator for $499 at Sam's Club, and have some initial test results.
I placed the generator fairly close to my shack window (kept the window closed to prevent exhaust from coming in) so that I could listen to it while experimenting to assess the load from an audible standpoint. I connected the output of the generator to a surge protected plug strip using a heavy duty extension cord with 12 gauge wire. I then plugged the following devices, which I will need for my field operation, into the plug strip:

Samlex 1223 power supply (which powers my K2)
SB-200 amplifier
Small external fan for amp (500 ma Draw) 
Small external fan for K2 (500 ma Draw)
Lenovo Notebook power supply (70 W)

All of these items were turned off initially. I started the generator (in normal mode- not economy mode) and let it warm up for about 1 minute, and then turned on each of the items in turn. There were no issues- the generator responded with a minor lug from the in-rush demands by the power supply and amp when they were turned on, but this is typical even with home power.
I connected a digital volt meter to the power strip, and measured the power at 124.4 VAC, with no fluctuation.

Next, I tuned up the K2 (with the amp in bypass) on 15M, and ran it up to 90 W key-down. The generator responded as expected, with a minor audible increase in loading, but no problems noted. I then reduced power on the K2, and tuned up the SB-200, starting with a low drive value to give about 150 W out.
NOTE: I made sure that all antennas/dummy load used for this testing were very well matched using a heavy duty AT-1200 manual tuner and a MFJ-207 antenna bridge prior to tuning the amp or K2. This will also be done in the field- I don't want to introduce any unnecessary inefficiencies.
I then tuned the amp up to 400 W (measured on my old HM-102 watt meter), and noted that the generator responded as expected, with audible loading. The voltage observed on my DMM dropped to 122.8 VAC- not bad considering the load. I then proceeded to make a CW QSO running at 25 WPM. I got a very good report with no noticed tone issues or other signal problems. The generator could definitely be heard responding to the dynamic load being placed on it, but that's to be expected. It never kicked off, or behaved in way that caused concern.
To increase the load, I connected a small 500 W heater to the plug strip, and ran it at the same time. The generator continued to run along with no issue, even well running CW at 400 W. I did this to make sure that I had some "head room" with available current from the generator.

I then switched to SSB, re-tuned everything, and had a couple of SSB QSOs. I received good audio reports with no complaints of signal problems. The audible loading of the generator was much lighter when running phone vs. CW, as expected. I continued testing on 20 and 40 meters, with similar results.
I should point out that I had no noise issues from the generator (hash, hum etc.) on any of the bands tested, which was a great relief.

Thus far, I'm very pleased. This generator is well built, and is very quiet. I don't have a Honda, so I can't do a side-by-side comparison, but I can say that the noise level is acceptable and I'm very satisfied.

So the real test will begin on May 7th, when I take the generator out and run for 18 hours during 7QP. I will give an updated report following that event. In the meantime, If I get the chance, I will try to rig up a cable to connect my O-scope to the output so that I can assess the AC waveform when a heavy load is applied, and see if it distorts or varies from 60 Hz. At this point, I think it's safe to assume that it's OK, based on my on-air results.

Jason  AC7JW